https://techraptor.net/content/steam-greenlight-cancelled

The voting process will be removed in the new system and the developers will be required to submit their game for approval along with digital paperwork verifying personal / company identity, tax documents and seriousness of the project. Also, instead of $100 fee for life, it will now be a separate fee per game.

I don't think any approval process is gonna allow as large a number of games to be published as the system currently allows, but is that a bad thing? Also, lack transparency already exists since greenlit games often take months to show up on the store while some get greenlit and come on the store in a week or two. As the article says, the new fee structure will definitely keep out developers of the smallest level because its not pay $100 and publish anything anymore. Personally, I think offering a higher verification standard for the application trading cards would be a less obtrusive way to stem the tidal wave of trash on steam.

What does everyone think?

I saw a Neogaf thread on that. Apparently some indies feel that if the price is wrong that they'll be screwed, but such are the consequences of replacing an open sewer with a water treatment plant.

Too bad that unlike my metaphor, Steam can't also decide, "And we're going to have to remove all the weeds from our system too. They're clogging everything up."

I mean they could, but then they'd have to deal with Multiple Digital Homicides unless each and every case was thrown out.

Edit: If GOG's barricade wasn't so damn...eldritch, this would be a great opportunity for them to welcome indies with open arms.

That is the thing though. Developers like DigiHomi survive not on sale of their game but sale of trading cards. I don't know if everyone is familiar with the system but I remember linking the video explaining it a few months back. Basically, more trading cards in circulation means the developers of the game whose card it is gets a portion of the sale price every time its sold (not one time, since cards are passed around, every time, ie the same individual card I earned and was sold around the marketplace 100 times brings in money for every sale it was part of).

So it begs the question of whether a trading cards system overhaul was all that was needed. Many of the games that may be out on steam today may not be chosen if they went through a formal approval process. We all know the positives and negatives of a curated system, my fear is that such curation may reject new ideas over what it falsely sees as quality.

If stopping scum developers was the main concern, they could stop giving steam trading cards to everything with an exe in it and make TCs dependent on how much money you spend on the game or something like that. With the current measure, I think the open-ness of the platform has been reduced, and I don't think that's a good thing.

Well, I'm just glad that they are doing something about the greenlight situation. It may shut out smaller indies that actually give a damn, but I guess it would be preferable to having loads of low quality games getting onto the storefront. For the smaller indies though, I think they have other options for their games (itch.io and IndieDB maybe?). They might find it hard to get noticed on Steam anyway.

Another site, itch.io, does have its response, "itch.io direct", where you can upload a game without it having to be approved.

https://itch.io/direct

So, you have options:
1. If you want a curated DRM-free store, you have gog.com. That isn't expected to change.
2. If you want a non-curated mostly DRM-free (IIRC), there's itch.io, which will likely get many of the games from developers that have been priced out of Steam.
3. If you don't have a problem with DRM (or if you actually *like* it), there's still Steam (which I will not link to); it's just that the developers will now have to pay to get their games there.

Damn I was ninja-ed and didn't even know : https://www.gog.com/forum/general/meanwhile_at_valve_incoming/page1

Can't help but feel that GOG might have an advantage on this situation.

GOG is basically where Steam used to be. A store limited by how many games they are capable of releasing/promoting and thus forced to pick and chose the games they release. They gave it a fancy name but in reality they simply wouldn't be capable of doing what Steam is doing now, releasing as many games as they are. Even Steam wasn't capable of doing it till not long ago.

So GOG is forced to cherrypick the games they release, ideally the ones most likely to turn a profit. (which often turn out to be the games that are already proven to do well on Steam, at least the inDev ones).

Despite that, at least as far as I can tell, GOG appears to be releasing more and more games every year, so they're on the same path Steam is, and at some point they'll get to a place where more games is not an infrastructural burden anymore but just more opportunity for profit. That's when they'll face the same decision Steam has faced and is dealing with for now, and I guess ideally, they'll be able to make better choices on how to handle it based on what happened on Steam.

Unfortunately, if all your options are itch.io and IndieDB, that pretty much ensures you will stay small (probably won't break even, won't make another game). Unless you get incredibly lucky.

Face it, the PC games market is almost entirely on Steam. And there are way, way too many people who will never ever bother look anywhere else for games. Making indie games is hard enough, and if you get shut out of the largest market, life will be very tough and without much promise of turning for the better.

But I don't think Steam is going to just shut indies out. I doubt the fee will be that high.

Curation is fine. But GOG's rejected games for reasons which make absolutely no sense before, especially if they sell good and are high quality.

Not to mention GOG has also accepted games which turn out to be complete clunkers. Like Empire Earth III, Conga Master, MOO3, Pixel Piracy, Windforge, SENSIBLE SOCCER 2006, and more.

For me, the biggest two differences between steam and gog right now are

1. Gog is drm free
2. Steam gets much timelier updates that gog might never get.

Both have some really crappy games. Steam of course has a lot more due to its size and position. Gog is no longer about good old games. Steam, I can't believe how a huge portion of the games get released, and I am surprised anyone buys some of the games.

When it comes to new games, I stick with steam, because I know it will get much better support in the future. Too many times I have seen some sort of issue getting patches to gog that have been on steam for months.

Exactly. Although I use Steam for some games, I don't exactly stick to Steam for new games, but I hesitate to buy some of them at all when the developer/publisher has a history of neglecting games.

In addition to that GOG has rejected some of my favourite games that are on Itch.io and Steam.

Have you got a source on this or is it just guesswork? Because the maths just don't add up

(And by source i do not mean a YouTube rant)

Youtube is the only place where I've seen it. But they guy does go into stats so here it is : https://youtu.be/I1ny4gOEPm0?list=PLGHAo4zNj-bqmixbwlISsMwdSt1bLrqMD&t=120 And it does seem to add up if the numbers from valve's part he talks about are correct. And don't worry, its not a ''rant''.

Umm.... this is exactly what I would call a YouTube rant... it is an unsubstantiated opinion piece. I am now at 08:00, and no maths have been provided so far.... he is now saying something about "keeping cocaine habits in place".... I cant be bothered anymore, that was 6 minutes of my life I will never get back. This is why we need things written down, so you can see within a few seconds if it is worth your time or not. This was not.

The math do not add up, as there is not a unlimited supply of cards.

Firstly - Yes, they do get 1 pence from each card sale, but each game only drop x amount of cards. This means that if they sell a game which drops 7 cards for $0.10, they still only get a maximum of $0.07 from card sales, if the player just sell all their cards, which means they still get more monies from the sale of game then from the cards.

Secondly - the cards disappear when they are used to craft badges, i.e. they are removed from circulation. Yes, there are booster packs, but it is random and dependable o steam level... I get like 1 booster pack every second month (3 cards) and it is a random game out of my 100's of games available for it. The main point, the cards are being removed.

Thirdly - he contradicts himself. He complains about the people boosting their steam level (which again will take the cards out of circulation), who are idling for cards. These people will not sell their cards (maybe only duplicates, but since you can craft many levels of badges this is also unlikely), and those cards are removed from circulation.

Unless you can provide a reputable source, I will call bullshit on this statement. Yes, it provides additional income for developers / publishers, but without any evidence I doubt any can survive on cards alone.

Edit -t he worst part is that I probably made sure this random YouTube person got a bit more monies now due to increased clicks...