2d ago

Valve bans all Steam games that force players to watch advertisements

www.eurogamer.net Steam games that force players to watch advertisements are banned, Valve emphasises

Valve has emphasised its rules around advertising, explicitly prohibiting games that force players to watch in-game ads.

Late edit:

per https://sopuli.xyz/comment/14584874 & https://bsky.app/profile/steamdb.info/post/3lhsxkmaj7c2c this is not a new policy.

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2d ago

Valve bans all Steam games that force players to watch advertisements

www.eurogamer.net /valve-bans-all-steam-games-that-force-players-to-watch-advertisements

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48 comments

Valve will let players (including kids) gamble on skins because it boosts player count. According to them.
Big publishers will still give you rewards for signing up somewhere, entering something, going to an arbitrary website and watching their stream, etc.
But for the small devs: you're not allowed to even give a player a reward for watching an ad. The choice doesn't even matter. It just can't be done.
It's a private corporation so Valve can do whatever they want though.
- Would much rather pay a small developer directly than be force-fed ads, even if the excuse is that the ads pay the bills. I don't think this is a particularly unique sentiment and there are plenty of less scummy ways to generate funding than by running advertisements.
  
  Arguably, the whole mobile app store ecosystem became a shithole because we weren't willing to pay a buck or two for a an app. It led to an environment where alternative forms of monetization are so common that a lot of devs don't even bother making a premium, ad-free version.
  
  I wouldn't entirely agree, it's shit because Google and Apple enable the practice by providing app Advertising frameworks and fighting back against people working against those systems (i.e. mobile ad blocking and app firewalls, either through store policy or public discouragement).
  Developers are incentivised because advertising both:
  Gives reoccurring revenue, beyond what a purchase would give.
  It makes people more likely to pick them up since people easily pick things up that are cheap or even free.
  Advertising basically takes away the need to sell stuff and allows poaching revenue from people even if they don't want to support the app. I've known many Devs who will try to eek out more revenue by click fraud (auto clicking their own ads).
  So I'm not really a fan of implying this is our fault or "devs gotta eat too". This practice is very much corporate greed.

48 comments