Valve Is Making Game Devs Use Actual Screenshots On Steam

Game marketing is about to become a little more honest: Valve announced that developers will no longer be able to include pre-rendered photos, concept art, or marketing images under the "screenshots" section of a title's Steam page. This content will still be available on a title's listing--Valve doesn't plan to stop companies from bragging about their accomplishments--but it will no longer be used to stand in for actual content from the game.

Valve's change in policy comes ahead of a planned change to Steam's discovery process. The company said this update is designed to show off "games in interesting new ways to customers prominently on the home page," which could sometimes include sharing in-game screenshots after people log in. Requiring developers to share legitimate screenshots (and to mark any screenshots as NSFW if they contain adult content) is the first step in that plan.

Here's how Valve explained the reasoning behind this change in its note to developers:

We haven't been super crisp on guidelines for screenshots in the past, so we'd like to take this opportunity to clarify some rules in this space. When the "screenshot" section of a store page is used for images other than screenshots that depict the game, it can make it harder for customers to understand what the product is that they're actually looking at. Additionally, we're going to start showing game screenshots in more places as described above, and these images need to be able to represent the game.

The company noted that even its own listings don't yet follow these guidelines. For Dota 2, the "screenshots" are really just concept art, and Valve called that out as an example of what developers shouldn't do with their own titles. (It also said that it's working to make Dota 2's listing comply with the rules.) Valve isn't calling out game developers so much as it's letting them know that the industry as a whole needs to be more open with its potential customers.

This is a well-known problem for game marketing. It can be hard to know exactly what to expect from a given title when the trailer doesn't show gameplay, the media doesn't have the opportunity to review it before its debut, and the "screenshots" on Steam aren't even from the game itself. Valve can't fix the first two issues, but it can at least make sure that Steam doesn't continue to be a part of the problem by addressing the last one.

The company originally informed developers about Discovery Update 2.0 in September. Then, on November 1, it reminded them about the update and said that it was "asking developers to take action" even though the update is "still a couple weeks away from going live." Valve did not say whether any developers who haven't updated their listings before the new discovery tools debut will have a grace period or how they'll be penalized for their inaction.

Nathaniel Mott
Freelance News & Features Writer

Nathaniel Mott is a freelance news and features writer for Tom's Hardware US, covering breaking news, security, and the silliest aspects of the tech industry.

  • WildCard999
    Good, the whole point of a screen shot is to show actual gameplay, not some pre-rendered pic/video to make the game seem better then it actually is (Example: No Man's Sky).
    Reply
  • clonazepam
    Dragon's Dogma is another good example. Obviously doctored screenshots, and also not even from the player's perspective.

    Clean it up for the sake of the children. For many, the gaming industry is their first real introduction into the world of business. Don't let them grow up already jaded to shady business practices.

    I'm only half serious, but yeah, good move by Valve.
    Reply
  • ledhead11
    Awesome! Truth in advertising, what a concept!
    Reply
  • none12345
    About time they crack down on this.
    Reply
  • badaxe2
    It makes sense, since we're at a stage when pre-rendered anything should be a thing of the past. Well, at least except for RTS cinematics perhaps.
    Reply
  • anonymousdude
    Makes sense to me especially after the whole No Mans Sky fiasco.
    Reply
  • chicofehr
    It would be great if players could upload their own images too steam like on the nexus mod website. Also there are many abandoned games on Steam and I wonder how they will enforce this if the developer doesn't respond. Will they change the pictures themselves?
    Reply
  • Kimonajane
    Good
    Reply
  • ADHDgaming
    chicofehr they will likely just take it off the store
    Reply
  • amateramasu
    18823402 said:
    It would be great if players could upload their own images too steam like on the nexus mod website. Also there are many abandoned games on Steam and I wonder how they will enforce this if the developer doesn't respond. Will they change the pictures themselves?

    They'll probably just remove the images, I think they're doing this pre-emptively before changing the whole ui of the store page
    Reply