Please drink verification can
this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2026
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Didn't Steam explicitly ban in-game ads? At least a large portion of PC gamers won't have to deal with this BS.
Did they? Just searched the web and, voila you are right: https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/pc-gaming/valve-clarifies-ban-on-in-game-advertising-on-steam Now they do not link to the page they cite (bad habit, I hate that), so let me quickly find the source... aaand there it is: https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/marketing/advertising
Not Supported
- 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. If your game's business model relies on advertising on other platforms, you will need to remove those elements before shipping on Steam. Some options you could consider include switching to a single purchase "paid app," or making your game free to play with optional upgrades sold via Microtransactions or Downloadable Content (DLC).
- Developers should not use advertising as a way to provide value to players, such as giving players a reward for watching or engaging with advertising in their game.
- Developers should not charge other developers for access to Steam features. These include sale pages, bundles, store pages, franchise pages, etc.
That doesn't discuss pause screen ads, unfortunately.
Developers should not utilize paid advertising as a business model in their game.
If they accept money to show those pause screen ads, that's part of their business model and it wouldn't be allowed.
I'm no lawyer, so I'm sure some corporate goon (on either side) will find loopholes to do whatever they want, but the idea is to ban mobile-style F2P games where you show ads alongside gameplay or "watch ads to refill your play meter" as your only revenue stream. Some other kinds of in-game advertising are still allowed. Unfortunately.
Requiring a 30-second pause every half hour (or whatever the timer is) is "gating gameplay behind advertising".
Yes. Pause screens seem not to fall under these categories. Valve will probably update this page to clarify on this, either to allow or to ban. So its worth keeping an eye on this page for changes.
Unfortunately "should" and "must" have different legal meanings
At least they are saying steam will not help or support that feature in any way. That reads like, if it makes your game unavailable offline, sale is prohibited.
Or shall.
Valve can kick out games that do not play along their rules. They should follow the rules, or they risk to get kicked out. So whats your point?
A little harder to enforce ('no, judge, it says SHOULD, grant our civil suit please') and a little easier to grant exceptions for than saying "must" (ah sorry customers, bigco had a bunch of money, and the rules don't say MUST). It's a well known wording choice in software, see every RFC ever.
It signals to me that Valve wanted an out for their rules when they wrote them because it's an odd choice for such a well known word choice otherwise.
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Understood.
Blacklist Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo. Only purchase indie games that run on Linux.
Or divert all video game budget to a completely different pastime.
Yarr, matey
Divert to open source games.
Some youngsters sometimes get confused so:
This is what enshittification steps look like.
Hey, oldsters get confused too. #notallyouth
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Gross. Maybe Steam will start listing "In Game Advertising" along with the AI warning on the store pages.
Look at the bright side: other companies that want to do this will be discouraged by having to pay Microsoft a royalty until the patent expires in 20 years
What the fuck is happening? Why are corpos speedrunning to make everything noticeably worse?
Before it felt like tiptoes forward, but now they're taking massive, fucking goosesteps to colonize new frontiers of terrible practices.
There's more distracting news than ever before and they think they can get away with it and probably also have fomo.
been really getting into emulation, and pirating games.
honestly. i could live the rest of my life without touching a modern console or AAA game, and id be all the happier for it. but if i can rip a decent fitgirl repack. sure. why not.
im not paying for something they say we dont own after the purchase.
They realized they got it all wrong. They were giving you a game and hardware to play it. But all they wanted was your money.!!!
So now just give them money. That's the solution. Give them money. What's that? What about your shit? Did you give them money yet?
Ban advertising entirely.
I'm sure the pirate versions will still be ad-free☠️
You say that, but all those ads are served up-front.
Nah they’re served down-back
You know what?
I think I actually WILL buy that Atari 2600+ after all…
N64 for me. But yes.
PS1 for me!
I got a Gamecast
Watch this ad before saving the game.
Between this bullshit and Sony, and Nintendo speedrunning user alienation, guess I'm not buying another console. Bummer really... I hope ram comes down in price after the AI bubble bursts.
“Nintendo speedrunning user alienation”
Maybe I’m out of the loop but how so? They’ve seemed fine to me, easily the best of the big three of late.
You're not wrong, they are in a way the best of the three, but they also sue a lot of their users. What I have in mind is all of those YouTube streamers that they sued just for people playing video games on YouTube. It's free advertisement, and it's so stupid. Why would you ever do that? And yet, I think they're still doing it.
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Buy xbox, it's best console, they are good guys because they invested in Kojima after they lay off thousands of people.
Well, another parameter to take into account when buying games, along with Denuvo and other shits... Its hard to keep up 🤣
Time To Pirate
Microsoft should be split up, at the very least. I'd also like to see the leadership stripped of their wealth and the company handed over to the workers.
Throw in google, meta, and oracle and I'd agree
Is the U.S. patent office literally a rubber stamp now? This is so ridiculously obvious.
Always was if you had a patent lawyer to argue how it's 2% different than an existing patent.
Linux gaming works swimmingly now...
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