From Gabe's AMA on Reddit: "... leading us to make Steam a self-publishing system."

edg3

Short transcript of thread from here: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1zkfmv/wearea_videogame_developer_aua/cfugih8?context=3

failsrus96 said:

Hello GabeN (if I may call you that), how are you doing? Here's my question: Before Steam Greenlight was introduced, what was the process of adding a game to the Steam store?

GabeNewellBellevue said:

We got bottle-necked pretty fast on tools and decision making which lead us to Greenlight, and is now leading us to make Steam a self-publishing system.

Full AMA: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1zkfmv/wearea_videogame_developer_aua/

There are discussions going on regarding this here: http://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/1zmy52/steam_to_become_a_selfpublishing_system/

What are your guys thoughts/wishes/wants/hopes? Good/bad?

Personal opinion:
I think this could be great if they do it correctly, however I feel that there should still be a form of quality control on things that make it onto Steam. As a platform I think it makes sense for Steam to grow in this direction, however as for their high regard for quality to date I feel it would be detrimental to just open the floodgates to all the bad quality (low quality is fine if the developer is willing to update and raise quality, but the truly bad games) and there would need to be some kind of intermediary process in place to keep the platform full of top quality games.

Disclaimer: being an opinion, I can try my best to justify it, but it is just an opinion, and it could perhaps change over time.

Tuism

I believe that even if they do it like that, there'll be a tiered system (maybe like XBLA or something) where self-published titles stay on the one side of the fenced garden until they prove themselves on that side before being allowed in the same pool as Half-Life.

In that way I think it's ok, actually it'll be a lot like the App Store, and the walled garden being the Featured apps sections.

farsicon

I'm not sure if I like this route, even though I have yet to publish my game on steam, and it would surely be easier now. I was actually looking forward to the green light battle - there's almost a sense of validation to be greenlit, a factor that will be sorely missed IMO.

edg3

Tuism said:

I believe that even if they do it like that, there'll be a tiered system (maybe like XBLA or something) where self-published titles stay on the one side of the fenced garden until they prove themselves on that side before being allowed in the same pool as Half-Life.

In that way I think it's ok, actually it'll be a lot like the App Store, and the walled garden being the Featured apps sections.

Well XBLA is an older model, Im hoping it is more like the X1 strategy where it is all the same game store, but rather there is a quality control step to make sure it is a finished product and seems stable.

AlphaSheep

They've said before that they expect the social side of Steam to avoid the problem other app stores are having, and I think it will work. Think about it. You can already see not only what games your friends have bought, but how much time they have actually spent playing them. So, as a game buyer, if one of my friends gets a game and only spends 20 minutes playing and never goes back to it, I think twice before buying it. If several of my friends are always playing the same game, then I will want to buy that game. I don't need to sift through the trash to find stuff I might like. The social side of Steam already does that for me.

On the other side, as game developers rather than game buyers, we're naturally going to be concerned that our games might be mistaken for the trash. The only way to make your way above that is to have a quality game, good press coverage, and really make an effort to get as much good publicity for your game as you can. But, that's kind of how Greenlight works already, so making Steam self-publishing is just taking out the middleman.

In other words, if your game and marketing strategies are good enough to get enough people to vote for it on Greenlight, then they're good enough to make your game stand out from the crowd on a self-publishing system too.

farsicon

@Alphasheep: there is a difference, though - "voting" on greenlight and "buying" games comes from a different emotional basis, so it's not that directly comparable - I'm not sure it will have the intended effect. I may be wrong.

TheFuntastic

Valve having been saying for a good long while now that Greenlight is stepping stone to self publishing and user generated store fronts. I think "shelf space" is still a premium commodity that will still only go to worthy titles, in particular the "official" valve store will still probably retain top billing, and be similarly important to getting featured by apple on the app store.

Everything you need to do on greenlight still applies. I predict that taste makers will become king-makers, as popular youtubers are in prime position to capitalise on curated storefronts and make shit loads of money (good for them). That's both terrifying and super exciting.