Valve has taken further steps to ban exploitative game mechanics

By Patrick Hearn Published February 10, 2025

Valve has banned forced in-game advertisements for any game listed on the Steam platform. This means that any game that locks gameplay behind commercials, awards items for clicking a link, or utilizes any of the tricks that mobile games are so fond of will receive an instant ban.

One thing to keep in mind is this was already a rule, but it was buried on Steam’s Pricing page within the Steamworks Documentation. Valve has since updated the database and added a page detailing advertising to make the rule much more visible, essentially giving developers an ultimatum: remove exploitative elements like this or be taken off Steam.

“Developers should not utilize paid advertising as a business model in their game, such as requiring players to watch or otherwise engage with advertising in order to play, or gating gameplay behind advertising,” one section reads. It goes on to say that developers should not award items or playtime for watching ads, either. Valve further suggests swapping to a one-time payment model, or offering paid DLC packs as a way to generate revenue.

If you don’t play many mobile games, then you might not have encountered this particular mechanic before. Free-to-play games are especially guilty of this, only allowing players a certain number of attempts before they have to stop and let their energy recharge. Other ads block the entire screen while they count down to zero, only to push a different ad when the timer hits zero.

If this sounds annoying, that’s because it is — and the games often charge a $5 one-time payment to get rid of ads for good.

This isn’t a common problem on Steam, but other platforms like the Nintendo Switch are overloaded with quick mobile game ports. By emphasizing this rule, Valve is getting ahead of something that could become a major problem.