Selling Time: Time-Centric Language in Video Game Marketing on Steam

This study examines how game developers communicate time-related information in their Steam storefront marketing, motivated by player concerns about time management and the absence of standardized play-length disclosure on the platform. Drawing on a sample of 1,000 popular Steam titles collected in December 2023, the authors identified 315 games whose marketing references temporal aspects, yielding 739 relevant instances. Analysis concentrated on "About the Game" descriptions, with time-unit terms such as "hour" and "year" and game-specific terms such as "season" dominating, while explicit duration descriptors like "short" and "long" were rare. Most games mention temporal language only once, suggesting that play-length communication remains an emerging rather than established practice.

Thematic analysis yielded six categories: Value Proposition, Temporal Highlights, Active Support, Structured Sessions, Anticipated Play, and Legacy Engagement. Explicit statements of play length proved uncommon, with structured session framing appearing mainly in sports titles and downloadable content. Vague or open-ended temporal language was more prevalent, particularly among live-service games, which often emphasize ongoing engagement over bounded playtime. The authors interpret this pattern as a potential source of player uncertainty about time investment, while acknowledging that vagueness may also reflect deliberate strategies that preserve flexibility and perceived value.

The authors' central argument is that developer marketing foregrounds isolated temporal details rather than comprehensive information about time commitment, a gap they frame as a matter of transparency and player expectation. Steam's sole temporal tag, "short," applied to 2,260 titles, provides limited guidance compared with the routine runtime disclosure found in film and streaming. The study's qualitative approach complements existing quantitative research on the platform. Its limitations include English-only data, subjective coding, and findings that describe the presence of language rather than its causal effects on player behavior, and the authors recommend future interviews with studios and broader research across retail platforms.