Valve bans developers from using Steam pages to promote other ways to buy games
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Updated August 18th, 2020
Published August 18th, 2020
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Valve has taken a new step towards keeping their dominance on the PC games market: banning developers from disclosing other storefronts their games are available on.
Revealed through an update on the Steamworks documentation, a new clause specifically states that developers can not use the Steam platform to announce, discuss or reveal new versions of their games that are available on different storefronts or platforms.
If a store page for a timed exclusive game on the Epic Games Store is live on Steam, developers cannot state that the game is currently only available on the Epic Games Store until the timed exclusivity period ends.
“In the game you ship via Steam, and in communications on Steam, you may only promote the Steam version and its availability via Steam, and not other distribution outlets. This applies both to full versions of your game and to content patches that change the existing version,” reads the new version of the Steamworks documentation.
