Gamers looking to buy games on PC usually have several choices. They can buy directly from the developer or publisher themselves, buy the physical copy of the game from a retail store, or choose an digital distribution platform like Steam, Origin, Epic Games Store, Uplay, and so on. However, Valve doesn’t want developers to promote other platforms.According to changes made to the Steam community hub, which is where developers can communicate with players and keep them updated about patches, bug fixes, new features, and so on, it appears that Valve is making it so that developers are prohibited from using community hub to promote the availability of their games on other distribution platforms.
According to the FAQ, “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.”
This means that if a game is available on Steam as well as on other storefront like Origin or Uplay, developers will not be allowed to mention it. These changes actually come at an interesting time where Epic and Apple are in a legal battle in which the former claims that Apple is abusing their dominance.
Given that Valve’s Steam platform is one of the more popular choices for purchasing games digitally, we’re sure that there will be some who might not be too pleased with these changes.
Filed in . Read more about Steam (Valve) and Valve. Source: rockpapershotgun