In pre-internet times, we were deciding whether we wanted a game or not from cover photos. At least that’s how the system worked until game magazines and reviews came into our lives. For this reason, even today, I still find myself carefully examining the cover photos of games on Steam. But in recent years, I’ve started to observe an interesting change in these covers.

In cover design, emphasis began to be placed on awards and points rather than design. This situation will have disturbed Steam as well, as the platform announced that it would impose restrictions on such covers.

With Valve’s new arrangement, there will be no awards, review notes or discount phrases on the cover photos. Underlining that review scores may not be consistent, platform managers say that rewards can also mislead players. As I complained above, the developer also stated that so many details killed the cover design.

Under the rules that will be effective from September 1, such cover designs will be completely banned. There should also be no writing on the covers representing another game or product. If the producers release a new update or patch, they will be able to replace the cover photo with a new one using the “artwork overrides” option.