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Steam's streamlined indie marketplace goes live June 13th
Steam Greenlight launched in 2012 with the dream that players would naturally vote for the games they most wanted. But that idealism fell to the reality of voter approval and it became far more of a popularity contest. In February, Steam finally announced the experiment would end and Greenlight be replaced by the new Direct release format, which lets developers post any game for sale that passes simple criteria. Originally planned for spring, the platform finally has a date for the official transition: June 13th.
Valve promises a low fee for direct-to-Steam game publishing
When Valve unveiled its plans to simplify game publishing through Steam Direct, it struggled to settle on a fee. Did it want to go low and make publishing more accessible, or go high to prevent abusers from putting out a never-ending stream of garbage? After a long deliberation, it's going with the former price. Valve has revealed that it will charge indies a $100 recoupable fee -- the lowest it was willing to consider. The company made the choice after looking at community discussions and realizing that it was hard to justify anything more than the minimum cost. Instead of using the price as a quality filter, it's betting that thorough oversight will be enough.
Valve only wants to sell you good games
As Steam continues to grow its expansive catalog, Valve is still figuring out how to separate the quality titles and undiscovered indie hits from the legions of mediocre games that are only designed to make a quick buck. The platform is already replacing its community-focused Greenlight program with the new Steam Direct service to help Valve clean up the sea of what it calls "fake games," but it still doesn't solve the problem of surfacing the really good stuff. To combat that problem, Valve is proposing a new system of "Steam Explorers" who will play their way through queues of undiscovered games and flag their favorites to give them a bump in the rankings.
Fig's new fund helps indie games get to Steam
Crowdfunding and investment site Fig is offering successful indie developers a little extra cash to finish games and get them on Steam. With the $500,000 Fig Finishing Fund, developers that hit their funding goals and attract at least 1,000 backers will get at least $20,000 from the investor-based fund. They'll be able to use that cash to finish their games, add more languages and get them up on Valve's brand new Steam Direct program coming this spring.
