Steam is one of the most popular gaming platforms in the world. Period. It’s use of being both a store for PC games, a haven for indie game titles, and a way for developer to work out problems early, while giving the game to players via Steam Early Access is what has made it so popular, and so successful. But as in all things, you can’t stay stagnant.
So, in a post on Steam, Valve revealed some new changes that are coming to the platform, and how developers will bring games to it. In that sense, they are getting rid of Steam Greenlight, and bringing in Steam Direct.
For Valve, Steam Greenlight was a necessary step to getting quality titles from good developers on Steam. After all, they couldn’t just let any game in, could they? And Greenlight’s success is well documented. In fact, over 100 titles that went through Greenlight have made over $1 million dollars on Steam. But, Valve feels they can do better.
For as they note, it’s not just about getting good games on Steam, it’s about making sure that us the player and game know that the games are there. Valve has actually been working very hard to get tools and search options into our hands so that we can find games that we didn’t know about before, and see what they are about. This desire led to things on Steam such as reviews, user tags, Steam Curator, and more, and this is all leading into what will be called “Steam Direct”.
Now, Steam Direct is aiming for a Spring 2017 release, and there’s still some details that need to be worked out. But, the key thing here, is that the new process will be better for developers, better for gamers, and everyone in between. For a full breakdown of what Valve said, click here. And be sure to let us know what you think of this big announcement.