Steam store descriptions won't be able to include links from "early" September

Valve is making some changes to written store page descriptions on Steam.

Starting in “early” September, the Steam team (the dream team’s lesser known cousin) will be “enforcing new rules for what can and cannot be included in your written store page descriptions”.

These changes are coming into force due to a recent “trend”, as Valve describes it, that has seen a number of developers using their store page descriptions as a platform to “present information or links” to other places.

It specifically said that developers had been using descriptions as a way of advertising other store pages on Steam, in some cases with as many as eight other games mentioned within the text before it got to the game the page is actually about. Valve said this can be distracting.

These changes to the current Steam rules will affect four specific areas:

The “About The Game” sectionthe “Short Description” sectionAny “Special Announcement” sectionsThe “Awards” section

There will still be a section with dedicated link fields on store pages, for the likes of Discord, Facebook, X, Twitch, YouTube and a developer’s own website. Valve said developers can also highlight other games they make by creating bundles of related games, setting up a franchise page or by setting up a developer/publisher page with all the games made by the same entity.