If you, like most people on Earth, are a frequent mobile gamer, you’ll be all too aware of the bane of in-game ads. Because the freemium model proves by far the most successful way to release games on telephones, you pay by sitting through agonizing ads with fake countdown timers, “X” buttons that don’t close anything, and faux interactivity designed to trick you into tapping through to the store. Valve has now made it abundantly clear that anything like this on its PC store means an instant ban.

As spotted by GamingOnLinux, Valve’s encyclopedic Steamworks Documentation has been updated to make it much more clear that it refuses to sell any game that relies on in-game advertising for its business model. That means no games can require players to watch ads to be able to play, nor hide any elements of a game behind a commercial. And it goes further, banning the use of viewing ads to gain in-game advantages, rewards, or time.

“Developers should not utilize paid advertising as a business model in their game,” say Valve’s instructions, “such as requiring players to watch or otherwise engage with advertising in order to play, or gating gameplay behind advertising. If your game’s business model relies on advertising on other platforms, you will need to remove those elements before shipping on Steam.” The company suggests switching to an up-front payment, or keeping the game “free” but keeping upgrades as paid DLC. The rules then say,

Developers should not use advertising as a way to provide value to players, such as giving players a reward for watching or engaging with advertising in their game.

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