Valve implements dedicated page for advertising guidelines

Valve has published a dedicated page advising developers on what type of advertising is and isn't allowed on Steam.

As noted by GamingonLinux and SteamDB, this policy has been in place for five years and was previously listed on its Pricing page. Valve has now moved its advertising guidelines to its own page on Steamworks, providing examples of which types of advertising are and are not allowed in games.

"Steam does not contain any paid advertising, nor are models supported in games distributed on Steam," it writes.

"There are varying interpretations of what constitutes 'advertising' in a game, so the examples are meant to help guide developers as to what is and isn't supported on Steam."

One example is product placement, which is allowed on the platform "provided such portrayals are not disruptive and are appropriate within the context of the game."

Another is cross promotions, which Valve says are "encouraged and many customers find value in them." The firm clarifies that "under no circumstances is it okay to charge other developers to participate in a bundle or to sell access to a sale page or other page on Steam."

However, Valve emphasises that developers "should not utilise paid advertising as a business model" such as "requiring players to watch or otherwise engage with advertising in order to play, or gating gameplay behind advertising."

If a developer's business model relies on these aspects, they must be removed before a game is allowed to ship on Steam. Valve also says players should not be rewarded for watching or engaging with in-game advertisements.

Last week, Valve implemented a feature on Steam that warns players when games released in early access have not recently been updated.