Valve makes clear companies can still advertise in games. Those awkward billboards and real-world brand cosmetics are still fine to include, although Steam does stipulate that these must not be “disruptive” and that they be “appropriate within the context of the game.”

Valve further enforced its ban on promotional advertising in games on Steam, expanding on previously established rules on the platform.

Valve made waves when it updated its Steamworks Documentation now to include a dedicated "Advertising on Steam" page, illuminating its anti-advertising-on-Steam stance— GamingOnLinux proceeded to report on this as a new policy.

Valve has implemented new rules around advertising, explicitly prohibiting games that force players to watch in-game

Valve has seemingly introduced new rules that ban games that require users to watch paid ads (or rely on other such ad-based revenue models) from Steam. However, some sources report that these rules may have already existed, and that Valve has merely created a dedicated page on Steamworks to clarify this policy.

Valve have updated the developer guidelines for releasing a game on Steam, making it clear that the scourge of mobile gaming advertising-based business models are not going to work on Steam.

Valve bans advertising-based business models on Steam, prohibiting forced ads and promoting non-intrusive in-game advertising.

Valve has introduced new guidelines to their Steamworks documentation, very clearly outlining a no-tolerance stance on in-game advertising.

Valve has reiterated its stance against exploitative in-game advertising, threatening to ban any game that uses these mechanics.The Latest Tech News, Delivered to Your Inbox

Steam has officially banned games that force players to watch ads, or grant in-game rewards for watching ads, in a historic move for the platform.