Steam Stalemate Could Valve End Up Suing Themselves

Looks like Valve’s caught in its own web of rules regarding the Steam store page for their latest game, Deadlock.

For weeks, Deadlock has had gamers buzzing with a growing popularity surge, drawing tens of thousands of concurrent players. Despite this, Valve remained tight-lipped until finally making the official announcement last week. As noted by PC Gamer, a recent tweet exposed Valve for breaking its own rules by not submitting the required five screenshots on Deadlock’s Steam store page.

Curious about the drama and excitement surrounding Deadlock? Don’t miss our articles on the rampant cheating even before its release and our in-depth analysis of the Deadlock prototype featuring Half-Life 2 enemies.

Valve’s Oops Moment: Transparency Issues on Deadlock’s Steam Page

It’s a laughable situation, even though the Twitter user who pointed this out might not find it funny. There’s more than a bit of irony here.

Valve’s guidelines clearly state that screenshots need to be displayed on the store page and any other pages where the game is featured, including Steam’s homepage. According to Steamworks documentation, “You must provide at least 5 screenshots of your product.” It’s vital to note that these rules technically apply to Steamworks partners.

Does Valve, the Creator of Deadlock and Owner of Steam, Qualify as a Steamworks Partner?

That’s an interesting debate. Valve has broken its own rules before, like when it added a reward sticker on a The Orange Box image, only to remove it later to comply with the guidelines.

This precedent shows that Valve, being the owner of Steam, is technically a Steamworks partner and should follow the same rules. The amusing part is that we rely on Valve to enforce its own rules on itself.

Honestly, I was starting to suspect that the game’s reveal and the influx of new players might not have been entirely accidental on Valve’s part, but seeing how some things seem rushed, I’m almost convinced it was!