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Valve ban advertising-based business models on Steam, no forced adverts like in mobile games
(www.gamingonlinux.com)
Good.
this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2025
254 points (99.2% liked)
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This is great.
This is only happening because it's a pain in the ass for them to monetize it right now.
It does not mean they won't in the future.
Hopefully this type of thing continues as SteamOS gets released and maintained. 💜💪
It's not just a pain in the ass, it's not possible. That's why they're banning it.
Fuck ads based business, they are cancer. Deny the parasite engagement.
Still waiting on a good sports games not ruined by ea
sports vidya game gamers are the most cucked market segment within the gaming market...
my condolences.
You mean like Mutant Football League 1 and 2??
https://store.steampowered.com/app/529520/Mutant_Football_League/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1657320/Mutant_Football_League_2/
If you want a local multiplayer arcade basketball game check out Dunk Lords
https://store.steampowered.com/app/612640/Dunk_Lords/
If you want a shockingly good local multiplayer arcade volleyball game check out Super Volley Blast (seriously how is this game so good, it is just volleyball??)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/822040/Super_Volley_Blast
it looks like the same indie devs have an arcade tennis local multiplayer game too called Super Tennis Blast but I haven't personally tried it yet like I have the rest of these games
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1050510/Super_Tennis_Blast/?curator_clanid=34945402
If you are willing to stretch your definition of "sport" here a bit check out the local multiplayer handball brawler Hyper Brawl
https://store.steampowered.com/app/591760/HyperBrawl_Tournament/
Lastly, check out the airhockey meets top down action team based hero game Omega Strikers. This game isn't pay-to-win and it really deserves a lot of love! Don't pass it over just because it looks like it could be another live-service casino disguised as a game.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1869590/Omega_Strikers
edit silly me I forget to recommend the absolutely phenomenal Lethal League Blaze
https://store.steampowered.com/app/553310/Lethal_League_Blaze
fuck you EA
edit 2 - does Rock Of Ages count as a sports game? It certainly has lots of balls, a clear goal for those balls to go in and a set of sensible and logical rules to how those balls get there which leads to mythical stories about heroes, sounds like a sportball game to me so what if the sportball is made of living sheep
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1101360/Rock_of_Ages_3_Make__Break
This is just Blood Bowl, but in real time.
I am immediately sold on this.
I can confidently tell you your impulse isn't brash here, Mutant Football League is exactly what you think it is, has splitscreen and is fucking awesome.
I honestly don't even give a shit about 'murican football, it doesn't even matter (though make no mistake, this game has good arcade football gameplay, it isn't "just a joke game"), Mutant Football League is a journey on a road paved with footballs but it is about the experience along the way not what type of sportsball the road was paved with that you walked your pilgrimage on.
valve would basically have to become an 'advertising company' and require these types of games to use the 'valve ad network', in addition to the storefront for in-game sales, in order for valve to profit from them.
i don't think valve is necessarily 'against' the business model, as it has proven to be rather profitable for the big hits and big players.. and valve is in the business of making lots of money. rather, it's that valve doesn't want to become that advertising company. at least, not at the present time.
Didn't the 2k sports games have ads of real stuff included for "immersion"? Never played one, so I wouldn't know, but I heard about them.
Sold to consumers as “immersion” but likely makes money on the back end from advertising.
I also imagine it creates a game preservation issue if there was some sort of disagreement or failure to extend contract. I believe that’s what happened with music licenses so I’m imagining it may be similar with in game advertising?
Full disclosure this is mostly speculation, I’m not entirely sure how all of it truly works.
Some of those big budget games actually have that stuff dynamic. Like they can remotely wipe/update the in-game billboards and stuff.
Yup. I don't play the sports games anymore but I have friends that have mentioned ads for things that are time of year based at least. Shoulda had them fuck with their consoles date to see if that was locally controlled or not lol
If you read the article, it's targeting things like "ads you must watch to progress" and "rewards for watching ads". So literally targeting the very worst of the mobile game ad industry.
i don't know about sportsball games, but i sure do want to have a monster energy drink whenever i play death stranding
Thanks for the contribution.
They should make an exception for cyberpunk games, for added immersion
Fuck that! Do the work and design fake companies and products. Thats half the fun walking around a store in any video game. Seeing the funny names and references they come up with.
I don’t want to see fucking ads for anything that’s a real product being pushed in my face in ANY MANNER in video games!
Buy Sprunk!
Technically every game is a cyberpunk game because we live in a cyberpunk dystopia.
Cyberpunk games would be fine, these rules are about forcing players to watch an ad to experience parts of the game, like when a mobile game makes you watch an ad before you can continue playing after beating a level or when you can watch an ad to get more coins/gems or whatever. Having ads in the game itself isn't being banned.