Steam Greenlight to require $100 listing fee

Last week, Valve had launched its new vetting system to decide the indie games that will make it into the popular digital distribution platform, Steam. The new system, called Steam Greenlight, depended on fans to vote for the good and interesting games to make it into Steam. Valve has now announced that future game submissions to Steam Greenlight will require a $100 (Rs 5,600 approximately) posting fee.

The $100 posting fee will be donated to the Child’s Play charity as, according to Valve, “We have no interest in making money from this, but we do need to cut down the noise in the system”. Those who already have their games on Greenlight will not have to retroactively pay the posting fee for those games, but will need to pay it for any future submissions they make to Greenlight. This is one of the two changes Valve is making to the service. The second one is mostly a change in the way games are displayed on the Greenlight page. According to Valve, “The next time you visit Steam Greenlight you’ll be shown a smaller, manageable list of games that you haven’t rated. This view is a mix of popular games and new games to Greenlight”.

Steam Greenlight will have a listing fee

Announced earlier this summer, Steam Greenlight allows developers and publishers to post information and media about their game in an effort to convince the Community that the game should be released on Steam. Greenlight piggybacks on Steam Workshop’s flexible system that organises content and lets customers rate and leave feedback.

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“We’ve been working on this feature for the last few months with the input from a group of indie partners, and the response has been extremely positive,” said Valve’s Anna Sweet when the service was launched. “With the additional help of beta testers, we are able to launch with a solid line-up of titles for the community to start viewing and rating. And, as we’ve done with all Steam features, we intend to continually grow and modify Greenlight as more and more developers and community members have a chance to get involved”.

Apart from serving as a clearing house for game submissions, Greenlight also provides an incredible level of added exposure for new games and an opportunity to connect directly with potential customers and fans.

The problem smaller developers had with Steam was that when they were attempting to get their game on Steam, they’d either get a “yes” or “no” for an answer. No explanation was given otherwise. Greenlight looks to help the developers who submit videos, demos, screenshots etc. and let the community decide if the game is worth being on Steam.

Valve is encouraging developers to update and post new builds and screenshots and demos of their games as often as possible, and actively engage with the community. Greenlight could standardise the Minecraft-styled open development.

For more information, please visit the Greenlight website.