It's an understandable tactic for game developers to put whatever awards or review scores their games earned onto their Steam key art, in order to entice people to buy. Of course, wouldn't you want to play a game that says it got a 10/10 review score, or a Game Of The Year award?
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But soon, gone will be the days when you'd see those award logos and review scores on key game art on Valve's digital storefront. As reported by PC Gamer, Steam is outright banning these designs for very simple reasons. They mention how several of these logos and review scores basically overpower the actual game logo itself, "to the point of indecipherability."
Aside from that, Valve also says that Steam games with scores and awards on key art can basically alienate users that don't speak English. Valve recommends that this text be localized according at least to the same set of languages the game supports, as part of the new ruling.And this is true, considering how most of these awards and scores are written in English. North America isn't the only market for video games, you know.
So starting on September 1st, Steam games' "store graphical assets" (as Valve calls them) will no longer have review scores, award names, and discount marketing copy. Aside from that, any text or image that promotes a different product (i.e. a sequel) is also banned, alongside "miscellaneous text" on key art. For developers or publishers trying to promote seasonal content updates and the like, they will need to use a separate layer over the existing key art to promote it.
The entire new ruling is explained in detail on a post on Steam Community if you want to check it out. It is not clear what happens to the games that violate the new rules after September 1st. Perhaps they will be taken down either temporarily or permanently (depending on the severity of the offense), as Steam games can always be pulled from the store for a myriad of reasons.
For now, it makes sense for developers and publishers to prepare for the imminent change. Update your game key art, people. You don't want to run into major trouble with Lord GabeN.
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What This Change Means For Steam Games
Look, we get it. If you're a game developer or publisher selling a game on Steam, you have to market it. But game awards and review scores on banner images can, on multiple occasions, turn people off the way ads do online. They just want to see just how good your game looks, so don't bombard them with all that jazz.
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Plus, it's not the end of the world. The best free marketing tool for Steam games is technically the simplest: user reviews. As soon as players see your game's User Review score (i.e. Overwhelmingly Positive, Positive, Mixed, etc), they're going to know whether your game is worth playing. Of course, this only applies to games who's already been played by a considerable number of people, but we digress.
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