How the Removal of In-Game Ads in Steam Games Benefits Players Under the Better Ads Standards

Last Tuesday, Valve, the owner of the PC gaming platform Steam, announced that forced in-game advertising will no longer be allowed in games. Forced in-game advertising includes gating gameplay or items behind mandatory ad breaks, and has mostly been adopted by the mobile gaming industry. Unfortunately, some of those ad experiences violate the Better Ads Standards, which discourage advertising practices that are considered annoying or disruptive to players.

While ads that appear at the end of a content segment, gameplay, or after a high score screen do not fall beneath the standards, prestitial, interstitial, and postitial ads are considered disruptive to players at the beginning of or during gameplay or content segments, especially to those who are about to get into the action and are surprised to see an ad appear. According to the Coalition for Better Ads which created the standards, the following ad experiences in games are considered disruptive to players:

• Pop-up ads are a type of prestitial or interstitial ad that pops up and blocks content. This most commonly happens after content has begun or finished loading and is a commonly cited annoyance to players. They can either take up part or even the entire screen.
• Prestitial ads can appear before game content has finished loading, and forces players to wait a certain number of seconds to dismiss the ad or until it closes on its own. They dissuade players from waiting for the countdown to finish and continue into the game content. Additionally, prestitial ads can also include one or more ads that have a combined total of thirty or more seconds and do not allow the player to skip them within the first five seconds, which are deemed intrusive to players.
• Interstitial ads can appear in the middle of a content segment or gameplay, interrupting the experience. They can come in many varieties and durations and all of these are considered extremely annoying to players.
• Large sticky ads can stick to either the bottom or top of the screen, regardless of the game’s graphical user interface. They often take up a third of the screen’s real estate and have an impeding effect by obstructing a portion of the screen.
• Flashing animated ads flash by rapidly changing backgrounds, text, or colors and are very aggravating to players, severely distracting them from the gameplay. For some, it can cause headaches and seizures to those with epilepsy and has even been outlawed in some jurisdictions.
• Postitial ads often appear at the end of a content segment, gameplay, or after a high score screen, forcing players to wait a number of seconds before they can dismiss the ad or wait for it to close. They frustrate players by breaking the flow of content in a manner that is distracting. If a player is trying to navigate from one stage or content segment to another and is delayed by an ad, they may abandon the game entirely.

Non-disruptive ad experiences such as background billboards and branded cosmetics do not fall beneath the Better Ads Standards.

Through this new policy, Valve will take the chance to tackle the challenges posed by in-game advertising which could threaten the video game industry as a whole. One bad experience can prompt a player to install an adblocker and every publisher will end up paying for this. This will be a big step forward for Steam; publishers will be required to comply with these new standards and failing to do so constitutes a policy violation that could affect content monetization. This means game publishers must comply with the Better Ads Standards for games they release on Steam, and publishers must not place ads that do not conform to these policies. Valve will alert developers through Steamworks if they have violating ads in their games.

There will be a number of benefits to publishers and players for games that have the standards implemented, and publishers who already adhere to them will benefit from an improved ecosystem. Publishers who remove negative experiences to adhere to the standards will offer their players better game experiences, increasing player engagement and improving brand perception.

Valve is working hard to facilitate a healthy gaming ecosystem for the future. By valuing players and publishers, they help ensure the sustainability of the industry.