Valve has reiterated its rules against in-game advertising, making it clear that games on Steam cannot force players to watch ads to access gameplay.
While cross-promotion and product placement are allowed, developers cannot use ads as a way to reward players or as a core part of the game’s business model.
Games that rely on advertising on other platforms must remove those elements before launching on Steam. Valve suggests alternatives such as a one-time purchase model or offering optional microtransactions and DLC.
Additionally, developers are prohibited from charging others for access to Steam features like sale pages, bundles, or storefronts.
Valve recently also introduced a new feature that informs users how long it has been since an early access game last received an update.
