Steam's Discovery update 2.0 will change its policy in regards to what images are allowed on a game's store page. Valve have stated that they do not want developers showcasing concept art or pre-rendered stills anymore, but instead want screenshots that represent in-game footage.
It seems that recent controversies, such as the investigation by the Advertising Standards Authority into the No Man's Sky Steam store page, may have played a big part in Valve's decision to change its policies. No Man's Sky's Steam page featured its E3 pre-rendered trailer as its default video and also used screens taken from that trailer as examples of gameplay. These images are now claimed to not be representative of the finished game, hence the impending investigation into Hello Games.
"Regardless of the content in your game, please make sure that images uploaded to the 'screenshot' section of your store page are actually screenshots of your game," Valve said in its update notes. "We haven't been super crisp on guidelines for screenshots in the past, so we'd like to take this opportunity to clarify some rules in this space. When the 'screenshot' section of a store page is used for images other than screenshots that depict the game, it can make it harder for customers to understand what the product is that they are looking at," Valve stated. "Additionally, we're going to start showing game screenshots in more places as described above, and these images need to be able to represent the game."
"We ask that any images you upload to the 'screenshot' section of your store page should be screenshots that show your game. This means avoiding using concept art, pre-rendered cinematic stills, or images that contain awards, marketing copy, or written product descriptions. Please show customers what your game is actually like to play."
It seems like Valve want to be very clear about what the store pages can show and they also acknowledged that they themselves have been guilty of this in the past. They cited Dota 2 as an example of showing screenshots that could be misleading, as some of the pictures on the store page are artwork of the game, but stated that they would be updating this.
Valve has been criticised in the past for taking a very hands-off approach when it comes to policing what appears on Steam, so maybe this is a move in the right direction.
Valve's Discovery Update 2.0 should be live in a couple weeks. Do you think this is a positive move?