Yesterday (9th July 2012) Valve announced Steam Greenlight, to be available to the public at the end of August (30th August 2012). The aim of Steam Greenlight is to give developers an opportunity to promote and sell their games on Steam. How does it work exactly? Let us say you were an up-start Developer with a game in your hand. You know you have a player base, but you want to try to shine in the bigger spotlight. Most online Stores pick at their own leisure what is and isn’t sold. After all, they have to make money, and accepting a new studio into their store could cost them more than the profits you could offer.

Steam Greenlight is meant to change how this will look, on Steam at least.

Steam Greenlight, coming soon.

Valve Announces Steam Greenlight

According to the official Steam Greenlight info site, anybody will be able to submit their game on Steam Greenlight, together with some screens and videos. What happens then? The community becomes judge and jury. Their votes decide whether your game gets accepted or not. People will be able to leave feedback and comments for you to respond to.

You will not only have an opportunity to promote your game, but if all goes well you will be able to sell it through Steam. It is all “Win Win” then? It seems that way.

On the other hand, I have my suspicion that Valve’s logic is in fact associated with making certain a game sells. What better way to know how big a sale will be achieved if not by the raw numbers of how many people managed to approve the game, within a certain time frame?

Is this a bad thing though? Not at all. It is only a way for Valve to have games which will sell. The developers will have a base to sell their games from, while also having a chance to speak to the community about their game and promote it. Let us be fair, if a game does not get approved this does technically mean it is not a good game (or it was not sufficiently promoted). A game which fails to pass will still remain on Greenlight, I presume, if you want to give it another go in the future.

Also, for those who are still dreaming of the stars, you will be able to post up concepts of  your games, as well as early builds. Check the Info site for details.

Overall, Steam Greenlight does sound a lot like Desura/ModDB. The main difference is that Desura/ModDB allows a developer to gain Alpha Funding, while Steam Greenlight is more of a store front, which only opens up once your products are in place and sufficiently popular. Either way, small developers will have a new way to make a living and promote their hard work, which in this Era of Video Game giants and numerous small developers will be a step forward.

Alex “WriterX” Bielski