On July 9th Valve announced Steam Greenlight, a new platform which asks the community to help select some of the next games to be released on Steam.
Steam Greenlight has been developed from the Steam Workshop and will enable developers to post information, screenshots and videos for their game in order to seek support from the community to be selected for distribution on Steam. Much like the Steam Workshop developers will also get feedback from potential customers as the community rate and comment on their projects.
In Valve’s press release Anna Sweet is quoted as saying:
Making the call to publish or not publish a title isn’t fun. Many times opinions vary and our internal jury is hung on a decision. But with the introduction of the Steam Workshop we realised an opportunity to enlist the community’s help as we review certain titles and, hopefully, increase the volume and quality of creative submissions.
It’s an exciting move for Valve and one which will not only provide more games for customers but also a new level of exposure to developers, especially indie ones. It’s an interesting concept and one which, in some ways, is similar to the popular Kickstarter website which has seen many new ideas coming forward thanks to new levels of exposure. Whilst developers can still upload and sell games directly from their website, therefore avoiding the fees from Valve, Steam’s continued dominance and growth will no doubt see many indie developers adding their games to Greenlight in the hope of distribution.
Over at PCGamesN the guys have spoken to some indie developers to get feedback on their views of the new service from Steam. It’s well worth a read to gauge their reaction on how the new service might help them in the future with the distribution and exposure of their games.
Steam Greenlight will be launching on August 30th.
For more information on Steam Greenlight check out the website here.
You can view the original press release from Valve here.
Alexander “AJ” Bridgwood
Gaming and Tech Network 