The mainstream fall out in the wake of the release of No Man's Sky was pretty heavy. There were many, many people who felt legitimately lied to by not only developer interviews - where they claimed multiplayer was possible - but by screenshots and videos too. To try and stop that happening in the future, Valve has implemented a new clause to its terms of use for developers: all screenshots must accurately 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," Valve said in its post to developers (via Polygon)
"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."
Not only does this mean that developers who show images that over-represent what a game will look like will get in trouble, but that we won't see game images plastered with quotes and award logos, nor images of what the game might look like one day.
In essence, we should get a better idea of what games actually look like when we play, which is the whole purpose of screenshots any way.
Valve highlighted that there are places in Steam Store pages where logos, awards and other types of images can be shown, but it wants the main carousel to be reserved for legitimate images shot from within the game.
I wonder if this will lead to more experts at in-game photography getting work? Being able to snap a fancy screenshot is much more important if the marketing department can't freshen up images in post.
