Valve will charge devs $100 to publish games through Steam Direct

Valve has decided how much developers will need to pay to get their game onto the Steam marketplace when its current Greenlight system is replaced by Steam Direct.

Writing on the Steam Community blog, the company revealed it'll be asking developers to fork over a $100 recoupable publishing fee per game -- which is the same as the current Greenlight submission fee. 

There are a number of reasons as to why Valve landed on that figure, but at the forefront of its mind was ensuring the barrier for entry remained as low as possible.  

"There were rational and convincing arguments made for both ends of the $100 to $5000 spectrum we mentioned," reads the blog post.

"Our internal thinking beforehand had us hovering around the $500 mark, but the community conversation really challenged us to justify why the fee wasn't as low as possible, and to think about what we could do to make a low fee work.

"So in the end, we've decided we're going to aim for the lowest barrier to developers as possible, with a $100 recoupable publishing fee per game, while at the same time work on features designed to help the Store algorithm become better at helping you sift through games."

Valve decided to replace Steam Greenlight back in February after deciding it was time to offer developers a more "direct path" to market. 

As the name suggests, that's exactly what Steam Direct provides, with the new system taking the form of a sign-up process that lets developers publish their game on Steam for a one time fee. 

"We will ask new developers to complete a set of digital paperwork, personal or company verification, and tax documents similar to the process of applying for a bank account," explained Valve back in February. 

"Once set up, developers will pay a recoupable application fee for each new title they wish to distribute, which is intended to decrease the noise in the submission pipeline."

There's still no word on how developers will recoup that fee, though some have speculated that Valve may forgo its revenue share for the first $100 worth of sales. 

Valve has promised to reveal when Steam Direct will be rolling out in its next blog post. But in the meantime, you can find out everything you need to know about the new initiative by clicking right here.

Update: A Valve representative told Ars Technica that "we plan to return the $100 fee after a game hits $1,000 in sales," further clarifying how the company expects devs to recoup the expense.