Steam Curators Must Now Disclose Paid Promotions

Steam operator Valve Software has updated the terms and conditions for Steam curators, their most recently added feature to the service. The updated T&C demands that curators disclose paid-for recommendations.

This past September, Valve launched a major update for the Steam Store in an effort to improve discoverability in its huge database of games. As part of the update, “curators” were added, allowing users to curate lists of recommended titles and follow other lists curated by their favorite websites and gaming personalities.

In the updated T&C released today, Valve asks that curators disclose whether they’ve received any form of compensation for games they put on their list. In other words, if they were paid to promote a game, it has to be disclosed publicly.

"If you've accepted money or other compensation for making a product review or for posting a recommendation, you must disclose this fact in your recommendation," reads the updated terms.

The so-called Discovery Update for Steam added support for multiple new currencies and functionality to enable quicker game installs.