While Steam’s Greenlight initiative was introduced with good intentions, the system as a whole has been roundly criticized to be extremely flawed. After years of complaints, Valve has decided to remove Greenlight altogether and replace it with a much more straightforward system called Steam Direct.
Much like Greenlight, Steam Direct is a program that will developers publish their games on Steam. Unlike Greenlight, developers will just need to pay an initial submission fee to Valve in order to get their games onto the digital games store. Simply put, developers will no longer need to rely on community support in order to get their games on the Steam platform. Valve has yet to decide on an amount for the submission fee, but the company is looking at a USD100 to USD5,000 range.
Apart from the submission fee, Valve’s part in the Steam Direct process is limited to just a basic check that makes sure that the game is able to run properly. Valve will not be curating any of the games that are submitted via Steam Direct, so that part falls on the Steam user themselves.
Source: Steam, VentureBeat
