Steam bans can now be handed down from game developers themselves, it has emerged. Previously bans could only come from Valve itself, but now those making the games can ask those running Steam to kick someone out, with Valve enforcing those wishes.

As posted over on the Steam Community: "In order to ensure the best possible online multiplayer experience, Valve allows developers to implement their own systems that detect and permanently ban any disruptive players, such as those using cheats."

Devs inform Valve, Valve bans the account, the banned party is to direct their complaints straight to the developer rather than Valve, as "the game developer is solely responsible for the decision to apply a game ban. Valve only enforces the game ban as instructed by the game developer."

It would feel a bit like passing the buck were it not for the fact that Steam has thousands of games on it - that's way too many for one company to police by itself. Hopefully this won't lead to a ton of rash or incorrect bans, and hopefully it will mean games with dysfunctional, cheat-ridden multiplayer modes will be more likely to see a cleansing.