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It would be an understatement to say that Valve's announcement of plans to replace Steam Greenlight with a fee-based game submission system sparked some passionate responses from game developers.
February 10, 2017
6 Min Read
It would be an understatement to say that Valve's announcement of plans to replace Steam Greenlight with a fee-based game submission system sparked some passionate responses from game developers.
Steam Greenlight, launched five years ago, offered developers a way to access the vast Steam audience for a $100 submission fee. The new Steam Direct service, meant to further open the platform, will require developers to pay a new to-be-determined fee every time they want to put a game on Steam, with no Greenlight community voting required. If the game sells, they recoup that fee; if not, they don't.
Gamasutra ran a poll to gauge reaction to this announcement:
What do you think about Steam's new fee-based replacement for Steam Greenlight? Seen here: https://t.co/ob13ynogcU
— Gamasutra (@gamasutra) February 10, 2017
We also gathered a range of Twitter reactions, which range from "about time" and cautious optimism to outrage and disgust.
I really like what Valve is proposing here, and think it's long overdue. https://t.co/zUrbEHM6uD
— Dean Dodrill (@NoogyTweet) February 10, 2017
Steam Greenlight is dead, long live Steam Pay-light. I've always disliked monetary barriers as "quality assurance". https://t.co/P2NdUprht5
— Rami Ismail (@tha_rami) February 10, 2017
I insist money & quality aren't related. Some poor devs make amazing games, and some rich studios only release horrible copy-paste jobs.
— Rami Ismail (@tha_rami) February 10, 2017
I have a few titles I've been working on, and Steam Direct seems scary as you can get the "Wall of trash" problem where nothing gets noticed
— Daniel Steger (@StegerGames) February 10, 2017
At the same time my experience with XBLIG says $5k per title is too much. Hopeful devs will bankrupt themselves w/ no profit.
— Daniel Steger (@StegerGames) February 10, 2017
Steam Direct instead of Greenlight: the deposit to release a game is a simulation of physical inventory cost. https://t.co/V0h6JPptr7
— Shahid Kamal Ahmad (@shahidkamal) February 10, 2017
With Steam being opened up to Google Play levels, going to be even harder for indies to get noticed if they have no marketing commitment
— Ben Cousins (@BenjaminCousins) February 10, 2017
doing less editorial work while demanding a larger fee is the worst of all bad looks
— tiny train worldist (@vogon) February 10, 2017
I don't know if fees are going to be the way from preventing "multiple launches of questionable quality" pic.twitter.com/77tnHaveAj
— Kaitlin Tremblay (@kait_zilla) February 10, 2017
uhhh a $5000 fee per game would basically shut out students / small devs / experimental people from Steam forever? also pretty bad for VR? https://t.co/E6gJekNaQO
— Robert Yang (@radiatoryang) February 10, 2017
implied "compromise" ($1000 deposit?) is still a big ask for vulnerable devs this would be for? (big devs / AAA already get on Steam easily)
— Robert Yang (@radiatoryang) February 10, 2017
I am not against a recoupable charge over rent. Rent is fucking awful and will lose us great swathes of videogames for no good reason.
— RobF (@retroremakes) February 10, 2017
Greenlight is 4 yearsish past its sell by date and a lot of what's happened as a result has not been great either. I am not sad it's going.
— RobF (@retroremakes) February 10, 2017
If the dickends of videogames get their way and the charge is even vaguely excessive it will roll back 5 years of progress *like that*
— RobF (@retroremakes) February 10, 2017
A per-title fee, even if recoupable, feels a little...not great.
— J. Kyle Pittman (@PirateHearts) February 10, 2017
It gets into that gross territory of, "If you can't afford X, you shouldn't even be making games," which I loathe.
— J. Kyle Pittman (@PirateHearts) February 10, 2017
The new system looks quite similar to what Apple already implemented for AppStore but without a quality control process.
— Steam Spy (@Steam_Spy) February 10, 2017
Relying on the relatively high fee to decrease noise will probably work until someone realizes how to gamble the system
— Steam Spy (@Steam_Spy) February 10, 2017
BTW, a high Steam Direct fee might cause a resurgence of game publishers that is already kind of happening anyway.
— Steam Spy (@Steam_Spy) February 10, 2017
@larsiusprime proposal: allow either fee -or- linking to a 'reputable' steam acct w/ limit on # games per year until equivalent revenue hit
— MOOMANiBE (@MOOMANiBE) February 10, 2017
Exhaustive list of people actually harmed by "crappy games being on steam":
— Ben (Sir TapTap) (@SirTapTap) February 10, 2017
(this space left intentionally blank)
Not sure what I think about this. Steam is absolutely in need of an improvement - but this might keep small indies away, not stop the crap. https://t.co/ANqJbixFau
— Anna Jenelius 🎮 (@TheAnaka) February 10, 2017
For better or worse, we could see an upsurge in shifty fellows offering to front your fee on dubious terms. Occupational hazard I guess. https://t.co/FtRt1SXvXe
— Lars Doucet (@larsiusprime) February 10, 2017
Not-entirely-negative feelings that i cba to go into on the new valve thing, but one big worry i do have is
— ᵒʸˢᵗᵉʳFAKE (@oysterFAKE) February 10, 2017
that if the fee is on the higher range, then we're going to see the more unscrupulous "publishers" providing v. predatory financing options
— ᵒʸˢᵗᵉʳFAKE (@oysterFAKE) February 10, 2017
Who cares? For Indies, Steam has been a dead marketplace for years. Dead things don't usually come back to life. We have @itchio now.
— Mike T 🌈🐱 (@viTekiM) February 10, 2017
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