Steam Greenlight shutting down

[Xyphien]

I was watching Boogie and he brought up that Steam Greenlight is shutting down.

What's your opinions on this? What bothers me the most is the people that have invested $100 into being able to upload their game will now pretty much lose the $100 once they remove the ability for greenlight. They're coming out with another program that seems to be just more expensive, and cuts out the community from voting on it. Pretty much funding the wealthy and kicking aside the less fortunate who cannot afford it...

 

[sage]

Hopefully, it cuts back on the amount of games that never get finished.

 

[LTN Games]

I say good riddance, I never really cared for steam greenlight and the new system don't sound that much better either. It won't bother me none.

 

[Companion Wulf]

I'm in two minds, although do gear towards the "good riddance". There have been a LOT of unfinished and downright **** games on Greenlight. So if this cuts down on these types, I'm in favour of the move. The increase in fees isn't a surprise because it's one of those rules where "if you're serious enough then you'll pay...for quality, not just quantity". That kind of thing.

 

[Xilefian]

I guess we'll see less low-quality, unfinished RPG Maker games being published to Steam now?

Green-light was terrible. It was being exploited massively, it was promoting so much terrible shovel-ware (particularly Unity Asset-flips) and it was making lots of money for crooks.

The better scenario would be to just have an open publishing platform - anyone can make a game on Steam, but with a license fee for each game (this is what the new platform is).

Pretty much funding the wealthy and kicking aside the less fortunate who cannot afford it...

Frankly, if you're publishing a commercial game you should have money sitting in your bank; I think any price Valve put on Steam's publishing license would be a fair price.

If you're making a commercial game - for any engine - but you don't have the capital behind you to support that then you need to get a part time job and start saving money.

If I had no money in my bank then I most certainly, 100% would not be running my own company; I'd be looking for a job and then I'd be on RPG Maker in the evenings.

 

[MinisterJay]

I just want a refund for my Greenlight fee, if it is no longer good.

 

[sage]

I believe the $100 went to charity, so I doubt anyone is going to get anything back.

Does anyone have any information on what they're going to replace Greenlight with?
I didn't watch the Boogie video, so I don't know if he mentions it.

 

[Xyphien]

I believe the $100 went to charity, so I doubt anyone is going to get anything back.

Does anyone have any information on what they're going to replace Greenlight with?
I didn't watch the Boogie video, so I don't know if he mentions it.

He did in fact mention it. As @Xilefian stated it will be an open upload system. Much like Android/Apples app stores. You pay a fee (Either yearly, or one time per game) and then upload the game to it. So, anyone will be able too, it will just costs money to do so.

 

[Lore]

I'm in agreement with the points mentioned above. While I'm disappointed about the lack of community involvement, if it is an open upload like the app stores, I wonder if they'll make the review/ratings systems better.

I suppose one can only dream/hope.

 

[Bricabrac]

Frankly, if you're publishing a commercial game you should have money sitting in your bank; I think any price Valve put on Steam's publishing license would be a fair price.

If you're making a commercial game - for any engine - but you don't have the capital behind you to support that then you need to get a part time job and start saving money.

You fail to take into account that minimum wages between countries varies wildly, and so are exchanging rates. Putting an high entry price doesn't only mean cutting out the poor devs, but possibly excluding lots of devs from not-european/american countries.

Having said that, I don't like this new system at all. Steam's instruments for discovering new games are terrible, but at the same time Steam punishes who buys the game on external sites, not allowing them to post valuable reviews.
The whole store risks becoming an unnavigable mess.

 

[Xilefian]

You fail to take into account that minimum wages between countries varies wildly, and so are exchanging rates

I also failed to take into account that the value of gold changes, asteroids have high amounts of platinum in them and people who make games could be lottery winners. Minimum wages/exchange rates are 100% irrelevant.

If you want to publish your game on Steam, you will meet Steam's fee, no matter what that cost is wherever you are on the planet or whatever the alignment of the moon is at that time. If you think that fee is too much, then the reality is you don't want to publish your game on Steam.

The people who will whine about the price (be it $10 or $1000) aren't serious about Steam and are absolutely the people that Valve do not want publishing their games on Steam.

This is the truth for selling with any private marketplace, be it the Apple App Store, Google Play Store or selling vegetables at your local farmer's market.

 

[MinisterJay]

There are different ways to obtain the fees, if a dev is financially strapped. If there is a large fan base, crowdfunding could be a viable option. Money can be saved, from a part-time or full-time job, on the side, until the fee is met. There are even non-Steam options available to sell one's products. When one has a goal that is important, he/she will find different ways to achieve it.

 

[Macro]

Wow I'm behind, I didn't know about this. I'm glad it's good though, tired of so many junk games on Steam.