Unlike a lot of digital storefronts and online retailers, Valve has never hosted advertisements or sponsored content on Steam - everything you see listed is directly available to buy within the client.
Valve’s Erik Johnson explained to Gamespot recently that although the company has looked into the possibility of hosting ads, it doesn’t make sense for them.
”We don’t see a case for that ever getting user value,” Johnson said when asked if a non-gaming product like Doritos would ever be advertised on Steam. ”So we wouldn’t do it. I don’t think that those ever work, either. To take it a step further, I don’t think anybody buys Doritos as a result of that.”
“It would be a bad business decision, let alone just dumb,” he added, pointing out that ads like that actually end up costing quite a lot of money, and are seen negatively by many customers.
”Ads don’t serve any value to costumers,” Valve’s Robin Walker summed up, bluntly. Don’t expect to be bombarded with Mountain Dew promotions any time soon, thank heavens.
