Valve has updated its rules for text descriptions on Steam game pages. The changes should help players “make educated purchasing decisions.”
As Valve explained in a blog post, Steam won’t allow developers to add the following elements in written descriptions on their game pages:
- Links to other websites, including social media pages (except for specific fields within the store page editor);
- Embedded images or animations that mimic Steam’s UI (e.g. wishlist buttons, prices, etc.);
- Images, links, or widgets linking to other games on Steam, meaning developers cannot use their game pages to advertise other products on the store.
The new rules will apply to the four sections: About the Game, Short Description, Special Announcement, and Awards.
Starting in September 2024, Valve will automatically hide all the links presented on game pages. Until then, devs will have a time to remove URLs from the text areas mentioned above and adapt their pages to the new policy.
The company explained that the main reason for this decision was the recent update to game demos on Steam. Last month, Valve allowed developers to create separate pages for demos with reviews and links to full games. This led to more and more pages adding “lists of 2, 3, or even 8 other games” before the actual description. “We don’t think that’s great for customers trying to learn about a game on Steam and so we wanted to update the rules to prohibit games from using the written description area for linking to other games on Steam,” Valve said.
Another trend observed by the company was that some studios started buying secondary appIDs for prologues and releasing them as standalone free products to promote the upcoming release of their full premium games. Steam found this behavior confusing to players, saying that “the changes already made to demos should make it unnecessary for developers to purchase a separate appID to use for prologues, and can instead use the demo appID that is already associated with their game.”
Valve also addressed visibility concerns raised by the studios. The company noted that links are not the only way to help players find other games as devs can create bundles, a franchise page, or set up a developer/publisher page.