2017 marks the year in which we simultaneously welcome Lorde’s Green Light and bid adieu to Valve’s Steam Greenlight program, two very different things with similar names. Steam Greenlight first came out in 2012 as a democratic gateway that determined which games made the final cut to Steam based on player votes. However, Valve felt there were problems with the system. While Greenlight was great for popularising games like Stardew Valley and 7 Days to Die, and over 63 million of us have played games submitted to Greenlight, lots of great titles were getting lost in the noise and fake positive reviews were being posted.
Valve made the announcement that it was shutting down Steam Greenlight today, but this was a plan long time coming. In February, the company said that Steam Direct would be Greenlight’s successor, and bring with it a bunch of changes:
- As of now, players can no longer vote for games
- Steam isn’t accepting Greenlight submissions any more
- Steam Direct will officially launch on June 13
- Developers need to pay a redeemable $100* fee to get their game on Steam Direct
- New developers must wait 30 days before releasing their first game
*Valve has previously stated this figure could oscillate between $100-$5,000 USD.
