Steam has up to date its developer tips to make clear that mobile-style in-game advertisements aren’t allowed on the platform. In accordance with the brand new guidelines, any promoting that blocks or interferes with gameplay is banned. Valve acknowledged, “Builders shouldn’t use paid promoting as a enterprise mannequin of their recreation, akin to requiring gamers to observe or in any other case interact with promoting in an effort to play.” Which means fashions like “watch this advert to proceed taking part in,” in addition to advertisements tied to rewards akin to power-ups or in-game foreign money, aren’t permitted.
The up to date coverage stands in distinction to many free-to-play cellular video games that pressure gamers to observe advertisements to progress. This is likely one of the key the reason why PC gaming stays the popular selection for a lot of, providing a smoother, interruption-free expertise. Builders can nonetheless use product placements and cross-promotions, so long as they don’t interrupt gameplay.
This story was first reported by GamingOnLinux, the place they’ve detailed how Valve up to date the Steamworks developer documentation—particularly the promoting web page that outlines what sorts of promoting or promotion are allowed on Steam.
