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Valve tweaks Steam page trailer guidelines

Valve tweaks Steam page trailer guidelines

Valve has changed the guidelines for how developers and publishers can feature trailers on Steam store pages.

In a post to the Steamworks blog, the PC games giant said that moving forward companies would only be able to post two video trailers before screenshots at the top media carousel. This is to stop developers and publishers from having a whole load of videos at the top of their page stopping consumers from looking at simple screenshots.

"You are welcome to upload as many trailers for your game as you wish, but it is important to select the order of your trailers to prioritize the ones you think will be most useful to potential new customers. You can specify the order of your trailers in the 'Edit Store Page' section of Steamworks, on the 'Trailers' tab," Valve wrote.

"The two that appear first to any given player depends on any language or country settings you have set per video. If you don't have any language or country restrictions set on your trailers, then it will simply be the top two that are listed. Any remaining trailers will be included at the end of that row, following the screenshots you have uploaded to Steam."

The company continued: "Ideally you'll want to give players a good look at the gameplay of your game in as short a time as possible. We recommend that your first trailer be one that features primarily gameplay, clearly demonstrating what the player will be doing in the game and how they will be interacting with the world you've built. Save your company logos or narrative storylines for further into your trailer once you've gotten the interest of a player."


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PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.