Affiliate Disclosure
Steam Deck Machine uses affiliate links to fund independent reporting. Here's exactly how they work and how they don't.
Last updated
Independent publishing costs money. Hosting, hardware, time — none of it is free. To keep the lights on without selling editorial influence, Steam Deck Machine participates in a small number of affiliate programmes. This page tells you everything about that arrangement so you can read the rest of the site with eyes open.
What an affiliate link is
An affiliate link is a regular hyperlink with an identifier appended that tells the retailer the click came from us. If you click through and buy the linked product (and sometimes other products in the same session), the retailer pays us a small percentage of the sale.
You don't pay anything extra. The commission comes out of the retailer's margin, not your wallet.
Programmes we participate in
- Amazon Associates — As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
- Humble Partner — game and bundle links to Humble Store.
- Selected accessory makers — direct partnerships with a handful of Steam Deck accessory brands.
Steam itself does not run a public affiliate programme for ordinary
store listings, so links to store.steampowered.com are
not monetised. We use them because they're the canonical
source.
What it does not change
- It doesn't change which products we cover. The editorial calendar is set on news value, not commission rate.
- It doesn't change verdicts. A bad accessory gets called out whether or not the link earns a commission.
- It doesn't change rankings in "best of" lists. We pick the best for the use case, then check whether the link can be monetised — never the other way around.
How links are labelled
Articles that contain affiliate links carry a short notice near the top of the page. Inline, we don't add a marker to every individual link — assume any link to Amazon, Humble, or an accessory maker's store may be affiliated unless we say otherwise.
FTC disclosure
For readers in the United States: this site is operated in compliance with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's Guides Concerning Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising. Material connections between Steam Deck Machine and the retailers above are disclosed on this page and in the articles where those links appear.
Sponsored content vs. affiliates
Sponsored content is separate. When a brand pays us to write or feature a piece, that piece is labelled Sponsored at the top and excluded from the regular editorial categories. Affiliate links inside non-sponsored articles do not make those articles sponsored.
Questions
If a specific article's commercial relationships aren't clear, or you'd like the full list of programmes and rates, get in touch and we'll walk you through it.