STEAM GREENLIGHT IS DEAD: VALVE INTRODUCES STEAM DIRECT

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We'll probably see other communities outside of steam become more popular for fundraising, so that the game can later move over to steam. So it cuts out the middle man for bigger development studios and gives the middle man away to the indie community for smaller developers. Plus we'll probably see less early access travesties on steam since now developers have to invest money into the platform before making promises, getting paid, and promptly bailing at no risk. If the end result is higher quality games across the board on steam, then I'm okay with this. Too much shit and hype to sift through on Steam. Dumpster diving should be done elsewhere.
This is new and scary and it scares me.
Mirak
Stand back. Artist at work. I paint with enthusiasm if not with talent.
9300
Welp, i'd better forget about ever publishing a commercial title.
THIS IS OUR CHANCE TO REDO THE STORE AND OFFER A SALES SERVICE FOR DISCERNING INDIE GAMES!

:DDD

Steam doesn't want them anymore. I say we take them into the fold. >:D
5000 usd though...how many indies can afford that?
pianotm
The TM is for Totally Magical.
32347
Archeia_Nessiah
5000 usd though...how many indies can afford that?


My thinking is that only the high end ones that we only call indie on a technicality anyway. In otherwords, people that have already made it. Only successful companies and kickstarters will be able to make that big fee. What does between 100 to 5000 dollars mean? What is the criteria? I'm making a commercial game on Game Maker Studio 2. It's a bog standard space shooter, but it should be fun. What will I be expected to pay to get it on Steam?
Sailerius
did someone say angels
3214
author=pianotm
Archeia_Nessiah
5000 usd though...how many indies can afford that?
My thinking is that only the high end ones that we only call indie on a technicality anyway. In otherwords, people that have already made it. Only successful companies and kickstarters will be able to make that big fee. What does between 100 to 5000 dollars mean? What is the criteria? I'm making a commercial game on Game Maker Studio 2. It's a bog standard space shooter, but it should be fun. What will I be expected to pay to get it on Steam?

Probably $5000. Valve likes $$$$$ and if they can get away with charging it, they will.
author=Liberty
THIS IS OUR CHANCE TO REDO THE STORE AND OFFER A SALES SERVICE FOR DISCERNING INDIE GAMES!

:DDD

Steam doesn't want them anymore. I say we take them into the fold. >:D


+1 there are a LOT of rm games on steam, they'll need a home
I dont see why everyone is thinking high end of $5000, i highly doubt it. There goal is to increase their catalog while deterring indies who aren't committed enough. The idea is to stay competitive in a fastly changing marketplace. My guess is its going to be around $300-$500 maybe alittle more i doubt that as well. sure valve likes money but their a business and to stay in business you need a competitive edge, and the only way to do that is to pick a adequate price range.
author=Natook
author=Liberty
THIS IS OUR CHANCE TO REDO THE STORE AND OFFER A SALES SERVICE FOR DISCERNING INDIE GAMES!

:DDD

Steam doesn't want them anymore. I say we take them into the fold. >:D
+1 there are a LOT of rm games on steam, they'll need a home

Yeah this is actually a good idea however seriously you were saying it Libby. :P

I could see Valve being greedy. I guess we'll have to see?
Honestly, some of the best games on Steam are still EA. The Forest, Long Dark, RimWorld, Stranded Deep, Rust, 7 Days to Die... just to name a few. And yet, they're still in production and periodically update and are all great games.

Not that there aren't horribad games out there, but they're gonna shoot themselves in the foot with this. What could have been high-profile games no longer finding a space there.

I mean, look at Stardew Valley - one person working on a game and they would have shut him out. It brought in a ton of revenue for them, since it exploded like it did. And other games like To the Moon would never have been able to find its way there - how many of them are they going to be pushing out just by forcing this?

Honestly, seems like they're just shutting anyone who isn't a goddamn AAA or close-to out. Which is a pity, because even some of the shitty-looking games were pretty fun.
I wonder how the tax 'refund' policy will go as it's hard to speculate much without knowing it.

author=Nerdboy
I dont see why everyone is thinking high end of $5000, i highly doubt it.


But I'll plus up this, setting a sky-high tax will keep too much people away and leave space to indie portals to rise and snipe sales, more than they would gain for the tax raise. Not sure of how well it would keep cash-grabs and poorly made games at bay either depending on the tax refund policy.

ps. Went to the store to check for Bleed2 on popular releases, there's a game with 53% approval called Bloody Boobs there instead, guess Greenlight filter missed something again.
Even if the fee ends up being relatively manageable, there'll still be a huge problem for most indie developers: the launch window for their games will be exceptionally smaller.

I guess this means that even more time and effort need to spent towards marketing than before.
author=Luiishu535
Even if the fee ends up being relatively manageable, there'll still be a huge problem for most indie developers: the launch window for their games will be exceptionally smaller.


There's a positive side window-wise though. Direct is far more predictable than leaving it there and awaiting to it get enough votes eventually, so the developers will have a steadier schedule to work on, specially for early access titles.
That's a great thing, but what does it matter when your game is only going to remain visible in a few hours at most? To put this in perspective, imagine all of the games on Greenlight being available directly on the store.
I don't know how to feel about this. To be honest, it screams "!!cash grab!!" to me. But then again, dumping a paywall would definitely turn away a considerable amount of the filth entering the market.

Five grand is too much though. That sounds like something only established (or starkly confident) developers/publishers could pay off. Thankfully, it's more of an upper limit, but still...
I personally like the the new system Direct offers more opportunities for indies than before. My only worries is that the updated Discovery Algorithm turns out to not Highlight* small indies in categories or similar recommendations to other titles, than how it does now. My brothers game which is still in early accesss made $400,000 plus in 3 years its been in development which is pretty much just a playable demo on steam. Pretty good for early access title. But that's probably because its a multiplayer RPG game.

The future of Steam isn't the Fee it's the Discovery Algorithm. Since the market will be flooded most likely, but what idk.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
If you read Valve's actual post they never once claim that they're even considering the $5k value.

author=Valve
We talked to several developers and studios about an appropriate fee, and they gave us a range of responses from as low as $100 to as high as $5,000.


All they did was share some results from their initial research and people are flipping out. Welcome to the internet.

That said, I am apparently out of the loop because I don't actually know why everyone thinks Steam Greenlight is bad. I see a lot of posts stating that it's been demonstrated to be a failure and they're glad it's being replaced. Is there a problem with it?
author=LockeZ
That said, I am apparently out of the loop because I don't actually know why everyone thinks Steam Greenlight is bad. I see a lot of posts stating that it's been demonstrated to be a failure and they're glad it's being replaced. Is there a problem with it?

It's sort of weird because the flaw people pin on greenlight is exactly it's lack of a proper check-up before letting stuff in, which ends in a "flood" that comes with the eventual clearly rubbish and scam titles. And direct doesn't seem to help with that at all.

I don't see that as a critical greenlight flaw either because, if there's something rated "Mostly Negative" with only 20% positive reviews, and half of them are lame jokes, bail out immediately to the next title. Also, I hardly bump into those unless sorting for lowest price.
author=Kloe
author=kentona
In other news, get ready for RMN Direct, where I just set all games to auto-accept on RMN.
That could be interesting.
10 days later
OH MY GOD THERE ARE SO MANY PORN GAMES AND GAMES FROM RTP MAPS!! :O


actually i could see a community centered on rmn porn games being a pretty interesting place :~ HAH


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This... Feels kinda odd. I don't know, just pay a fee and you're there? I feel it's gonna be a lot harder to stand out no matter if your game is quality, not because there's more competition but just because there's more stuff overall.

And I don't think this heightening in price, even if it is $500, will prevent people from doing it. I mean, it's gamers. Also lots of rich people with rich daddies' credit cards. Even setting it at $5000 wouldn't stop it.

So IDK. Kind of an odd choice.

I like Square Enix Collective.