Indies angry about Steam Greenlight fees, Valve says its a work in progress

Independent developers were none too pleased to learn that Valve is now charging a $100 fee to list games on Steam Greenlight, a new service which allows users to vote on which games will be offered for sale on Steam.

The fee came into being because lots of fake games and porn titles began clogging the service, and making it difficult to find genuine titles. Valve felt that the $100 fee would discourage trolls, and vowed to offer all the extra revenue to Child's Play to show they're not trying to make a quick buck.

However, some have fired back saying that it amounts to putting an economic stranglehold on the service, ensuring that struggling game designers or poorer people wouldn't be able to list their games. 

Valve has now issued a statement that somewhat addresses the outcry.

"We always try to build quick iteration into our process for development of new features, and Greenlight will be no different. We have a huge list of suggestions from customers and the lessons we've learned from shipping, so Greenlight will definitely continue to evolve over the next weeks and months as we tune the system and add valuable features."

While it's certainly not an admission of wrongdoing, this comment reads like they're saying "whoa whoa, don't everybody get angry just yet. This might not be permanent, we're still evaluating things." We'll be following this story and will update this space if Valve offers any further comment.

Source : gamesradar[dot]com

Valve Will Charge $100 for Steam Greenlight Submissions

Valve has announced that submitting a game to Steam Greenlight will now cost $100. Steam Greenlight was announced in July and allows users to vote on which games they believe should be available for sale on Steam, but in an announcement posted on the Steam Community, Valve says there is “unfortunately a significant amount of noise and clutter being submitted, either as a joke or by fans not fully understanding the purpose of Greenlight.”

In order to cut down on that noise, Valve will be charging a $100 fee for developers to post a game to Greenlight. All proceeds from the fees will be donated to the Child’s Play charity, as Valve says “we have no interest in making money from this, but we do need to cut down the noise in the system.” The announcement notes that anyone who has already submitted a game to Greenlight will not be charged the fee retroactively, but they will need to pay for future submissions.

Valve is also changing discoverability in Greenlight, giving users new ways to find games that relate to their interests. “The next time you visit Steam Greenlight you’ll be shown a smaller, manageable list of games that you haven’t rated,” the announcement says. “This view is a mix of popular games and new games to Greenlight.”

Valve concluded by saying it’s “very interested in maintaining an environment that is fair and beneficial to everyone involved, and one that is fun and rewarding to join” and that it will “keep iterating on this system and updating as we learn more about how the community and developers want to utilize it.”

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following him on Twitter or IGN.

Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com

Steam Updates Groups, Enhances Content Management

Valve has announced more new updates to the Steam Community, making changes to group pages as well as how users manager their uploaded content. Valve says that over 2.5 million groups have been created, and their pages will now receive an entirely new layout, adding a group overview, friend showcase and new group discussions.

Discussions can be public or private and users will have “complete moderator control” over their own groups, including the ability to create sub-forums, add moderators and delete posts. Groups can also list their favorite games and a default language can be set.

Valve has also added a new way to keep track of screenshots, replays, videos linked from YouTube, workshop Items and Workshops on your profile page. All content will be available for users to display or manage, with an image wall that will offer multiple ways to view your uploaded screenshots. Players will also be able to favorite screenshots in order to find them later or share them with friends.

Today is the third day of a week’s worth of Community updates that Valve is rolling out this week. The first update came on Monday with the introduction of Game Hubs. For more details about all of the new features, check out the Steam Community’s official site.

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following him on Twitter or IGN.

Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com