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Steam is becoming Walmart. And that’s okay.
Rant/Thoughs on the new Steam Direct system presented by Valve as the Greenlight replacement.
3 Min Read
Valve announced that Steam Greenlight is closing its doors. Steam Greenlight was presented more than four years ago as a solution to let anyone release their game on Steam. The popularity of game development was rising and the democratization of gamedev easy-to-learn tools made almost anyone with the right attitude a game developer. Valve saw the situation and decided to open the doors of Steam in order to allow this new generation of game developers to show their games to the masses.
The idea was good, but Greenlight became corrupted soon enough. It became clear that Greenlight was just a process and a matter of time, and not really an indicator of the game’s quality. Ripoffs, asset flips, buggy and in general low quality games were being Greenlit by the community. This ended up with Steam being overcrowded with games and the visibility of the good games became even lower.
For years, users and gamedevs have been requesting a solution to the situation and asking Valve to make Steam great again. And now we have it, or at least what Valve thinks is the solution. Reactions busted instantly and they can be classified in these four:
Professional gamedevs who are just happy to see the opportunity of their games having more visibility and don’t worry to pay an additional fee since they’re already spending a lot of money on the game development, salaries, licenses…
Hobbyist gamedevs who think the fee is outrageous and Steam should be open for everyone.
2nd world population from countries where the fee could represent several months or years of the minimum wage. I hope Valve will come with a solution for this anyway.
Steam users and gamers who are just happy to see the amount of crap reduced.
But we need to remember one thing: Steam is not a open platform. Is a private market and Valve is allowed to change the rules of it anytime and we should accept that. Not every product is displayed on Walmart and not every game needs to be displayed on Steam.
Hobbyist gamedevs still have a lot of options.
Publishers are going to be an option always. Most of them have direct access with Valve, or they can pay the fee for you. Sure, they’re going to take a cut on your benefits but they also should do more work than paying the fee(marketing, pr, legal…).
Crowfound the fee (or aditional development cost). Crowfounding sites are having a bad reputation lately and it’s been increasingly difficult to achieve the goals but it’s still a possible option if your game looks really good and you make the campaign on a really advanced stage of developing.
Steam is not an art gallery. Steam is a commercial store. And that’s okay.
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