Update: 10/02/25, 11:29 UTC - Turns out this was actually already a rule that Valve had (thanks SteamDB). It was listed on their Pricing page but this change has made it a lot more visible with its own dedicated section. Still, good to have a reminder this awful practice isn't allowed on Steam.
Original article below:
Valve have updated the developer guidelines for releasing a game on Steam, making it clear that the scourge of mobile gaming advertising-based business models are not going to work on Steam.
There's a new advertising page in the public Steamworks documentation that goes over what is and isn't allowed. What's allowed is as you might expect like games can have real-world product placement, cross-promotions with other games are fine and paid advertising outside of Steam is also fine.
What they've done here is completely ban paid advertising getting in your way inside the games. As their rules state now:
Not Supported
- Developers should not utilize paid advertising as a business model in their game, such as requiring players to watch or otherwise engage with advertising in order to play, or gating gameplay behind advertising. If your game's business model relies on advertising on other platforms, you will need to remove those elements before shipping on Steam. Some options you could consider include switching to a single purchase "paid app," or making your game free to play with optional upgrades sold via Microtransactions or Downloadable Content (DLC).
- Developers should not use advertising as a way to provide value to players, such as giving players a reward for watching or engaging with advertising in their game.
- Developers should not charge other developers for access to Steam features. These include sale pages, bundles, store pages, franchise pages, etc.
The onboarding page has also been updated to add "Applications with advertising-based business models" to the list, which also includes their previous ban on "blockchain technology that issue or allow exchange of cryptocurrencies or NFTs" that came in 2021.
What this doesn't do is stop developers throwing up a big advert for another of their games, that's fine, this is specifically about the business model you often see on mobile platforms. Imagine when you go into a game, want to unlock a feature or do anything, but it tells you to watch an advert first before you can proceed. That's what Valve are putting a stop to here.
I've never personally experienced a game that did that on Steam, although I'm sure some developers have tried it. But it's a huge and annoying thing in mobile games. Glad to see it just won't ever be a thing on Steam.
Valve have done a lot of really consumer-positive changes over the last few years like making sure developers note kernel-level anti-cheat, a recent change of noting Early Access games that aren't being updated, a proper Season Pass system that includes more complete info and refunds for missing DLC content and more.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Kimyrielle 21 hours ago
Kimyrielle 20 hours ago
If Valve banned kernel-level anti-cheat, some of the most popular and most-lucrative games on Steam would go to the Epic Store, terrible business move that will never happen.
EA tried leaving Steam and crawled back
Ubisoft tried leaving Steam and crawled back
Leaving Steam is terrible for business if not even some of the largest publishers can pull it off. There are only a handful of high profile games that can do that and most of these have never been on Steam anyway (Fortnite, Valorant etc). The move would hit all the smaller games that would simply die without Steam and thus make it impossible for developers to use kernel level anti-cheat unless they are 100% certain that their game will become a mega-hit even without Steam, turning using it into a gamble.
I am not sure why Valve would need to be afraid of the EPIC store. It's a laughable failure that keeps existing only because EPIC constantly shoveling money into the financial abyss that it is.
Last edited by Kimyrielle on 9 Feb 2025 at 5:43 pm UTC
Kimyrielle 20 hours ago
For all I care, they can grandfather existing games, which would remedy your concern. Making it next to impossible for developers to use kernel level anti cheat in future projects will do the trick just fine.
chickenb00 20 hours ago
So goes Steam, so goes PC gaming trends. My cynical side says Tim Sweeney would play the contrarian and permit mobile game-style in-game ads on EGS, but I don't think he would really support that .
This is a superb move from Valve.
Others, like Time Sweeney, keep operating with little to no standards. Took about three years to implement a simple checkout cart. They cannot compete on standards so they fallback to exclusivity and offering free games here and there.
StalePopcorn 19 hours ago
If Valve banned kernel-level anti-cheat, some of the most popular and most-lucrative games on Steam would go to the Epic Store, terrible business move that will never happen.
And that's why it should be the role of governements to ban them. Let's be real, all that's happening online might be called the Computer Realm and labaled as the new Far West to elected official to make them understand that some stuff need regulations. But well, counter espionage kind of like their kernel level program so i guess it ain't hapening soon.
Good for them! We can speculate on their motives, but in the end they're doing a good thing and I'm not going to argue with that.
I wouldn't expect any complex motives. For maintaining the market dominance and long term business of Steam, it is bests to reduce use annoyances as much as they can. This would definitely qualify as a user annoyance.
pleasereadthemanual 13 hours ago
Game streaming still seems like the future. It's the ultimate anti-cheat.
With mobile games AdGuard adblock is a must-be, since they usually won't let you to get rid off them by a payment.
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