Steam Cracks Down on In-Game Ads, Banning Games That Rely on Gimmicky ‘Watch to Continue’ Nagging

Valve Bans Advertising-Based Business Models on Steam: No Forced Ads Like in Mobile Games

In a move to further solidify its stance on the PC gaming platform, Valve has introduced a new advertising page in its Steamworks developer documentation. This page outlines the types of advertising and promotions that will be allowed on Steam, while explicitly banning in-game ads as a revenue model.

According to the page, product placement is still allowed, as long as the portrayals are not disruptive and are appropriate within the context of the game. For example, a racing game with real-life sponsors on the cars would be acceptable. This reopening of my dream reboot of Pepsiman would still be possible, thank God. Cross-promotions are also allowed, but Valve states that "under no circumstances is it okay to charge developers to participate in a bundle or sell access to a store page or other page on Steam."

On the other hand, paid advertising campaigns outside of Steam that lead to a store page are fair game. However, any form of in-game advertising that gates access to or interferes with gameplay has been banned. "Developers should not use paid advertising as a business model in their game, such as requiring players to watch or otherwise engage with advertising in order to play," Valve writes. This effectively means a blanket ban on any design that requires watching an ad to play the game or ties ads to rewards like power-ups or in-game currency.

It’s likely that this ban is a preventative measure to address the prevalence of in-game ads on other platforms, particularly mobile games. Valve is notorious for being light-handed when it comes to moderating Steam, but it has explicitly banned NFT and crypto-derived games, and requires games relying on generative AI to disclose its use. The company clearly has a clear vision for what PC gaming should look like on its influential platform.