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A joint letter from game studios: Interactive trailers on Steam store pages

Dear Valve team,

We, the undersigned game studios, ask Steam to support interactive trailers: short,playable experiences players can try directly on a game's store page, without downloading or installing anything.

Video trailers show what a game looks like. Interactive trailers would let players try a small part of it, whether that's a core mechanic, a puzzle, a combat encounter or a choice that affects the game. This could help players find games they'll enjoy and give developers another way to show what makes their games worth playing.

We see two main benefits:

1. Letting players try upcoming games without sharing unreleased game content.

For some studios, releasing a downloadable demo, beta, or early-access build risks exposing assets, levels, game data, and other unreleased material. With AI-assisted development becoming more common, there are also concerns about how easily that material could be reused.

An interactive trailer created separately from the game would offer another option. Studios could share a small part of the experience without distributing the actual game build or revealing more than they want to. It wouldn't stop someone from copying an idea, but it would give developers more control over what they share.

2. Helping players decide whether a game is right for them.

For released games, interactive trailers would give players a quick way to try a game before buying it. They could get a feel for the gameplay without committing to a purchase or downloading a larger demo.

Interactive trailers wouldn't need to replace video trailers or downloadable demos. They would simply give developers another option for presenting their games.

Creating these experiences is also becoming easier with modern development tools, including PlayablesAI, which initiated this letter. Steam should support interactive trailers made with any tool, as long as they meet Valve's requirements. Studios should be free to create them themselves or work with whichever tools and partners they prefer.

Our proposal

We ask Valve to consider adding an optional interactive-trailer format to Steam store pages, with clear requirements for technical compatibility, security, performance and content.

Players should be able to choose when to start the experience, and it should be clear that they're playing a short preview rather than the full game.

We would also be happy to participate in a small pilot with interested studios to see how players respond, whether interactive trailers help with purchase decisions and what would be needed to support them on Steam.

By signing this letter, we're showing our interest in using interactive trailers for our games and asking Valve to consider supporting them in the future.

We believe interactive trailers could give players a better way to discover games and help studios show what makes their games special. We'd be happy to discuss the idea further with your team.

Sincerely,

The undersigned game studios

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PlayablesAI is a self-serve tool developed by Finnish company Playables dot AI Oy. Create interactive ads and playable experiences without coding. Choose how you work: build manually, use AI for technical assembly, or let it handle graphics too.

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