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.
Unfortunately “should” and “must” have different legal meanings
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.
I think in this context “should” and “must” are interchangeable, because its under “Not Supported” listed.
Or shall.
Money talks.
Some youngsters sometimes get confused so:
This is what enshittification steps look like.capitalism had to reinvent a new word for consumerist advertising, so it came up with this.
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.
Divert to open source games.
Gross. Maybe Steam will start listing “In Game Advertising” along with the AI warning on the store pages.
Steam already banned it
I’m sure the pirate versions will still be ad-free☠️
Watch this ad before saving the game.
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
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.
Time To Pirate
Linux gaming works swimmingly now…
Well, another parameter to take into account when buying games, along with Denuvo and other shits… Its hard to keep up 🤣
Not really. I’ve never been interested in any games that have these things anyways
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.
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“You need to pause the game for 90 seconds to continue playing”.
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Or cut whenever want, like those automated ads in podcasts.
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
This was what proton+Wine games were always going to end up with: pay thrice to play model.
lol Not even close to how those work. At all. In any way.
I am talking about marketers, re Wardogs, [linux] anticheat, etc., not what proton & Wine are.
