Be it online, in-game, or somewhere inbetween, ads are a hot topic in the games community, particularly how much they are not wanted. One place you won't be seeing them any time in the future, though, is Steam. In fact, Valve's Erik Johnson believes that while it would boost revenue, implementing ads in the Steam PC storefront would be detrimental to the whole platform.
"We don't see a case for that ever getting user value," Johnson said in a GameSpot interview. "I don't think that those ever work, either." Johnson went on to say that "it would be a bad business decision, let alone just dumb" to introduce ads to the storefront, believing it would ruin their customers' experience. This customer-oriented approach seems in-line with other recent company moves, such as Valve's promise to refund any games purchased on Steam.
According to Johnson, the company would rather "focus on long-term relationships." Valve's Robin Walker agreed, and re-iterated that one of the company's primary goals is to help users searching for games amidst all of the releases in their massive library.
Indeed, Valve did prove their commitment to long-term relationships when they announced their partnership with GameStop and other retailers who plan to sell their hardware, which goes on sale in November.
