Valve Won’t Allow Intrusive Ads in Steam Games

Ads.

We see them everywhere we go online, especially when we are just trying to relax while watching something on social media and they are even more annoying when they are about a product you don’t care about.

I swear if I get another ad about a mobile game I’m gonna lose my mind.

Anyway, what if I told you that we almost had advertisements in triple-A games just like we do in mobile games?

Well… it almost happened.

You see, EA (Electronic Arts) has been interested in adding advertisements to their games since 2024.

Imagine paying 60–70 dollars for a game that you are excited about only for it to show you an advertisement so you can continue playing it every hour or so.

That would be a nightmare, wouldn’t it?

Well, thankfully that’s not happening anymore, or at least it won’t happen on Steam.

I say this because this past weekend Valve released a statement where they banned all games with intrusive ads from their videogame distributor Steam.

What the statement forbids is the same ad business model that we see in the mobile game space.

In other words, you can’t:

• Put gameplay elements behind ads
• Requiring players to watch or engage with ads to keep playing
• Rewarding players with in-game rewards for interacting with an ad

Steam did say that if your game has those elements you must remove those elements before shipping your game to their platform.

However, this doesn’t mean that developers cannot run other kinds of promotions they just cannot be disruptive to the gaming experience of the customer.

Product placements with real brands are allowed for as long as they make sense in the context of the game. Of course, this requires you to have the respective license to do so.

Cross-promotions with other brands inside and outside of Steam and advertisements for the devs to drive traffic to their Steam pages are also allowed.

But honestly, I’m fine with these options since when done correctly they can benefit all parties involved.

Final Thoughts

Needless to say, this is a win for the consumer in the PC gaming space.

We really do not need more advertisements to be shoved in our faces when we are playing a game.

That might be tolerated in a mobile game, but those aren’t games that cost 40, 50, 60, or 70 damn dollars so adding ads to a triple-A title would have been a slap to the face to the consumer.

I used to be against the idea of getting a PC for gaming because of the cost and how confusing it can be to build one, but after enjoying my Steam games for more than a year and seeing how Valve treats its customers, I couldn’t be happier of being a PC gamer.

Also, you can read the Steam statement here.

Anyway, that’s all for today.