When it comes to the digital distribution of video games on PC, Steam is the way to go. Launched in 2003 with Half-Life 2, the storefront has become synonymous with PC gaming, practically now an inseparable piece of software. Part of the credit goes to the brilliant user experience and the frequent sales.
Naturally, Valve ensures that buyers have a seamless buying experience on the platform and upholds its terms to maintain that. As such, Valve is once again changing the way developers market their games to the users.
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As per the new rule, starting September 1st, the graphical assets developers use for the store listing should only contain the game artwork, game’s name, and official subtitle. Publishers cannot put review scores, award names and such on the official store art. According to the blog post, Valve says this has become very frequent to the point where the title’s official name is unreadable.
Valve says:
It’s our goal to make it as clear and straightforward as possible for customers to find games to buy and play on Steam. Recently, we’ve noticed more text, award logos, and even review scores being included by game developers in their graphical asset images. This made us realize our guidelines haven’t been as clear as they should be. As a result of not having clearly-defined rules, we’ve seen additions to graphical assets that are creating a confusing and sometimes even inaccurate experience for customers.
For example, some game logos themselves have become so small that it’s hard for players to tell what the name of the game is. In other cases, graphical asset images are so cluttered with award logos and ratings that it is distracting and hard to read. Some capsules include review scores that are no longer accurate. We also see that in most cases this additional text on assets is presented in English language only, isolating much of the Steam audience that doesn’t speak English.
Valve also clarifies that there is a section on the product page where publishers can put the accolades. Another thing to note is that the company isn’t banning text on assets. It can still contain subtitles on it and asks developers to promote any new update or content in the game.
So for games which relied on marketing their title to a scrolling user in search of games through the awards and scores, it is unfortunate news. However, at the same time, it is good to see Valve cracking down on this problem, as I and many others have noticed this issue. Games from publishers such as Bandai Namco especially have this problem.
This isn’t the first time Valve took such a drastic decision for developers, as back in 2018, Valve said it’d allow everything on Steam, after trying to curate the storefront strictly.
