*watches linked video*

Wow. Just... wow. That's fscked up.

All joking, ranting, and biases aside... am I the only one that finds it somewhat disconcerting that getting on Steam isn't merely a (very) nice boost, but has seemingly become a necessity?

Yes, but it is still not Adult Swims call, they can try to talk with Valve for them, but they can not get them on Steam. Only Valve can do that, same as with any other independent retailer.

What was that one game that was available on Steam in some regions, but not others, and they had to go through Greenlight to get into those other regions?

Drakensang

Edit - and if I remember correctly, Valve picked it out of the greenlight process.

Exactly my thoughts. It's like they're trying to push their own system that they've admitted is fucked up. But I can only see it backfiring and keeping people from joining Greenlight and, furthermore, probably deleting their Greenlight entries in an effort to remove themselves from it entirely so they can get published.

It's a necessity because it's the largest solid market and many gamers have developed a complex where they only use Steam as it's a one-stop destination for buying, downloading, updating, playing, and modding games. It's a market with an average of 3.5 million people on at any one time. Can you blame them for wanting to get there? Just getting your game released gets it on the front page where it's seen by millions.

Yes, but that's besides the point. The statement from Valve suggested that it is somehow inappropriate to use publishers as a method of directly accessing Steam, even though this is the entire point of using a publisher.

Things don't always work out with publishers. Things don't always work out going directly through Valve. That's just a business reality, and it's neither here nor there.

I hadn't heard about that, but looking it up amok is right, that did happen with Drakensang.

Also, if you find bansama here on the forums, I think he told a story once about something similar in trying to get a game published in Japan on PC.

P.S.: I gave up on going through Greenlight trying to find good things. Now I only vote for a game if I find out about it somewhere else and they give a link to their Greenlight page.

This. Very much this.

This is only the beginning of a downward spiral between Steam and indies

So Instead they are going to not ever create a greenlight page and just go looking for the publishers. I wonder if Steam is trying to secretly kill greenlight by themselves.

Oh, I have no doubt that's what will happen. But for the indies and others already on Greenlight, it seems they're screwed unless they manage to win one of the monthly tournaments or do exceptionally well like Papers, Please and shoot up in the rankings so fast they get Greenlit. And there are a LOT of people on Greenlight, so I can imagine that that puts them in the awkward position of fighting harder or just giving up.

It is very troubling. This topic came up about a month ago on NeoGaf and the developer of the game Gunman Clive talked about his experience. The game has sold 100k+ copies on other platforms combined outside of the PC, and was even featured in a Nintendo presentation about attracting indies to the 3DS for how well it has done there. On PC without getting through Greenlight and on to Steam is has sold all of 200 copies outside of bundles it got included in.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=57033838&postcount=504

If a publisher that has games already on Steam is willing to back a game it should be able to get on. It's their reputation on the line if they push out crap and become like a modern day version of LJN or whatever. The quality control excuse isn't really valid when something like The War Z got on while Wadjet Eye had to do Greenlight themselves.

Desura should open a Red Light District.

So if you fail at Greenlight you can never get on to Steam? The new Rise of The Triad is being put on Steam directly by the new Apogee without the involvement Greenlight. But if they had gone to Greenlight first they wouldn't have been able to use the direct route?

There is a very simple fix for this. All Adult Swim needs to do is have a contest and giveaway a bunch of promotional stuff. The only entry required is that you vote for Paranautical Activity on Greenlight. Problem solved.