Valve have have finally come to a decision on pricing for Steam Direct, which is set to replace the indie Greenlight system. They've also announced some changes for Steam Curators.
When they asked for feedback on pricing for Steam Direct, they were given figures by people ranging wildly from $100-$5000. The higher the cost, the larger the possibility that some truly interesting smaller games would never make it onto Steam. So it's pleasing to know Valve thought hard about it and have settled on a $100 price-tag.
This will be $100 per-game, which should hopefully limit the amount of shovelware where developers repeatedly tweak small things and release them as entirely new games, or just outright terrible asset-flips. That fee will be recoverable by developers though, if they make enough money.
Considering that's quite a low barrier of entry, I think it's only going to make websites like us and all the others more important than ever. You're going to need a bit of help to sift through the junk, so they're also upgrading the Curator feature.
One upside, is bad publishers will hopefully have a harder time locking less experienced developers into poor contracts. I've heard some horror stories over the years, so hopefully indies will have a better time.
Honestly, I hardly ever touch our Curator page since they just seem so utterly pointless right now, but maybe Valve can change my mind. They plan to allow you to include videos and make lists of games, so we can group together fantastic FPS games available for Linux, for example.
Valve are also planning to make it easier for Curator's to connect with developers, to request access to keys:
I like the sound of that one especially. Considering some developers don't even have a website or any contact details, that might help quite a bit.
See the full announcement from Valve here. A little late as always Valve, but reading stuff like that makes me understand how much thought they're putting into it. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
When they asked for feedback on pricing for Steam Direct, they were given figures by people ranging wildly from $100-$5000. The higher the cost, the larger the possibility that some truly interesting smaller games would never make it onto Steam. So it's pleasing to know Valve thought hard about it and have settled on a $100 price-tag.
This will be $100 per-game, which should hopefully limit the amount of shovelware where developers repeatedly tweak small things and release them as entirely new games, or just outright terrible asset-flips. That fee will be recoverable by developers though, if they make enough money.
Considering that's quite a low barrier of entry, I think it's only going to make websites like us and all the others more important than ever. You're going to need a bit of help to sift through the junk, so they're also upgrading the Curator feature.
One upside, is bad publishers will hopefully have a harder time locking less experienced developers into poor contracts. I've heard some horror stories over the years, so hopefully indies will have a better time.
Honestly, I hardly ever touch our Curator page since they just seem so utterly pointless right now, but maybe Valve can change my mind. They plan to allow you to include videos and make lists of games, so we can group together fantastic FPS games available for Linux, for example.
Valve are also planning to make it easier for Curator's to connect with developers, to request access to keys:
QuoteIt's often hard for Curators to get the attention of developers who build the specific kinds of games that a Curator covers, and it can be similarly hard for a smaller developer to find the Curators who would be interested. So we're building a system that will make that a painless process for everyone involved, which means that you should see more useful curations coming out of the Curators who like to explore newer titles.
I like the sound of that one especially. Considering some developers don't even have a website or any contact details, that might help quite a bit.
See the full announcement from Valve here. A little late as always Valve, but reading stuff like that makes me understand how much thought they're putting into it. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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The comments on this article are closed.
Way, waaaaaaay too low fee. The junk and shovel ware will continue.
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Comandante Ñoñardo Jun 3, 2017
Quoting: DisharmonicJust wait and see Steam get flooded with crappy games, unless they have some other deterrents planned. They're basically throwing open the floodgates.
I agree..
I think Steam will fall by its own overweight if this continue...
when I joined Steam back in 2011 (I did it as a requirement for the Mafia 2 Demo) it was much more curated...
Not all games were able get to the Steam store in those days.
I prefer an store with an small catalogue of highly curated games than an store with tons of crapp...
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Quoting: scaineQuoting: rudzhaAll this is fine and nice, but ffs, can we finally get 4k support, I mean it's not that hard.
Yeah, good point. I run my 4K screen at 1920x1080 because Steam is unusable at high resolution. Also, admittedly because games are silky smooth played at lower resolutions.
Financially speaking, it is because 4k/8k are way ahead of the curve. Only about 1% of gamers choose to purchase those resolutions ( and, I guess the high-end GPU needed to drive it ). Even 2560x1440 is < 2% of gamers, and, as supporting higher resolutions doesn't sell more games, there is not much incentive to do so.
Practically speaking, most games that have a "3D world" actually scale that part well. This is because 3D rendering is typically performed to a "unit cube" ( x,y,z between -1 an +1 ), which is mapped to whatever screen resolution you have; so any resolution is theoretically supported.
However, 2D games, and any 2D element of a 3D game, such as the UI and overlay layers, are generally crafted specifically for the game, and each supported resolution/screen size combination may require significant extra work.
I think generally developers understand that a scalable UI is a good thing, but it is actually a non-trivial exercise, particularly where text is involved, to present a custom UI in a legible manner on all resolution/screen size combinations.
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Quoting: Comandante ÑoñardoQuoting: DisharmonicJust wait and see Steam get flooded with crappy games, unless they have some other deterrents planned. They're basically throwing open the floodgates.
I agree..
I think Steam will fall by its own overweight if this continue...
when I joined Steam back in 2011 (I did it as a requirement for the Mafia 2 Demo) it was much more curated...
Not all games were able get to the Steam store in those days.
I prefer an store with an small catalogue of highly curated games than an store with tons of crapp...
Yeah, most of the Steam "experience" is of questionable value to me. I remember reading an interview with GabeN where he said that they were learning all the time, from how people interact with Steam, and that they are often surprised by what is popular/wanted. From what I can tell this means that Steam responds primarily to the enthusiasm, intensity and engagement of the pre-adult audience.
I guess this is what drives the Steam trading cards, badges, in-game items and the market, as well as frequent game mechanics like achievements and collectibles. Similarly, I guess that for this core audience, wading through 15000 games or countless workshop items isn't so much of an issue, if they live and breathe the community.
Personally, I only go to the Steam store when I already know what I want; and I don't bother with Steam Workshops if there is something better available, like a Nexus mod site.
I know that truly usable computer interfaces are not easy to design, but Steam seems to be particularly poor in many ways. I think what sums if up for me is their notion that "curators" can help you find what their UI can not. Unfortunately there are now 2000 curators, so choosing between those is non-trivial...
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Really, suggesting 1k$ as an entry fee? You have to be in a rich country where even burger-flippers earn that in like two weeks... 1k$ where I live (center of EU) is above median by like 20% per MONTH. For a hobbyist making his game in free time it means he will never get it to Steam which IMO is bad. Why should only rich people or people from rich countries should be able to publish on Steam?
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Quoting: monnefReally, suggesting 1k$ as an entry fee? You have to be in a rich country where even burger-flippers earn that in like two weeks... 1k$ where I live (center of EU) is above median by like 20% per MONTH. For a hobbyist making his game in free time it means he will never get it to Steam which IMO is bad. Why should only rich people or people from rich countries should be able to publish on Steam?
I get what you mean. Live in central EU as well.
I think people are just sick to death of asset flips and groups voting garbage to steam.
Truth is we wait and see. Best solution would be for steam to get people to review games rather than put up money hurdles and hoping things sort themselves out.
That said , there are other services like GameJolt and Itch.io that could be a great starting place for hobbyists and amateurs. Steam should be a more professional game store for more experienced devs. (despite the fact it is partly a garbage dump now)
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