Valve Announces Steam Greenlight

[btarunr]

Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Counter-Strike, Half-Life, Left 4 Dead, Portal, and Team Fortress) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced Steam Greenlight, a new platform feature that enlists the community's help in selecting some of the next games to be released on Steam.

Steam Greenlight will allow developers and publishers to post information and media about their game in an effort to convince the Community that their game should be released on Steam. Greenlight piggybacks on Steam Workshop's flexible system that organizes content and lets customers rate and leave feedback.

As well as serving as a clearing house for game submissions, Greenlight will provide an incredible level of added exposure for new games and an opportunity to connect directly with potential customers and fans.

"Making the call to publish or not publish a title isn't fun," said Anna Sweet, at Valve. "Many times opinions vary and our internal jury is hung on a decision. But with the introduction of the Steam Workshop we realized an opportunity to enlist the community's help as we review certain titles and, hopefully, increase the volume and quality of creative submissions."

Steam Greenlight will be released August 30.

For more information, please visit this page.

[DannibusX]

Good news for any developer lacking a publisher. I have a feeling the community will likely be harsh to a few indie developers though.

[Scatler]

Heck, knowing how some corners of the internet react to such things we can expect heavy raids on this service.

[NC37]

Originally Posted by DannibusX

Good news for any developer lacking a publisher. I have a feeling the community will likely be harsh to a few indie developers though.

Depends. The community has been very kind to indie devs sometimes, while ruthless to others. Coffee Stain felt their wrath when they started making paid DLC for Sanctum. While the price wasn't bad, a lot felt it should have been free. I personally wasn't happy with them but mostly because it wasn't all in a pack. Itemized DLC just screams nickle n diming DLC practices. They later released a pack but I didn't get them till the next steam sale. Damage was done.

The other major harshness I've seen has come on devs who just sorta vanish after release. This is of course justified. Titles like Skydrift would be fantastic had the dev kept refining it. Hydrophobia too, cept Phobia was doomed the second Dark Energy decided to alter the story and characters. Turned a clear win episodic title into a short eye candy romp with worse voice actors than it's original XBL release.

Hard Reset, Trine, Torchlight...going good thanks to active devs.

[Disruptor4]

Originally Posted by Scatler

Heck, knowing how some corners of the internet react to such things we can expect heavy raids on this service.

100% agree but I hope they find a way to detect this kind of activity...

[KissSh0t]

Now if only EA were as constructive to the gaming community.

[Prima.Vera]

In other news Valve just announced: HALF-LIFE Episode III !!!
Release date 31 February 3431 AC.

[tacosRcool]

Maybe we can pester Valve to release Half Life 3!!!!!

[qubit]

Sounds like a convenient way to offload all the tough decisions on to the gamers.

[TheMailMan78]

Originally Posted by qubit

Sounds like a convenient way to offload all the tough decisions on to the gamers.

Or give the consumer exactly what they want instead of telling them what they want.

[lyndonguitar]

Valve can become the greatest video game company in the world if they would just release games on time, without delays and not putting them in development hell.

will I ever see HL3 released in my lifetime

[Desert Eagle]

Originally Posted by Prima.Vera

In other news Valve just announced: HALF-LIFE Episode III !!!
Release date 31 February 3431 AC.

Well thank god but I probably won't live that long unless genetic research can end the aging process.
Gabe Newell could probably get $100 out of almost every gamer on this planet for that game and he just sits on it. It's hard to be mad at the guy though. He brought us Steam and stuck with it even though some very loud people hated it in its Origin. EA, meh.

[Totally]

Originally Posted by Desert Eagle

Well thank god but I probably won't live that long unless genetic research can end the aging process.
Gabe Newell could probably get $100 out of almost every gamer on this planet for that game and he just sits on it. It's hard to be mad at the guy though. He brought us Steam and stuck with it even though some very loud people hated it in its Origin. EA, meh.

I just hope they don't do what blizzard/activision did to diablo, and to a much lesser fraction of a degree what bioware did to Mass Effect. They could take their time, as long as they release it before I die.

[Desert Eagle]

Agreed. Bioware totally screwed us with Mass Effect 3. Maybe 3's are bad luck in games. Maybe Gabe Newell knows something that we don't know. He's a pretty damn smart man. If he could somehow get around naming it Half Life 2: Episode Three then perhaps we can some day play it.

[Prima.Vera]

Man, this is so true. 3 is a BAAAAD number for sequels:

Mass Effect 3, Diablo 3, Terminator 3, Aliens 3, Matrix 3, Quake 3, Doom 3, etc, etc, etc...

[TheMailMan78]

Originally Posted by Prima.Vera

Man, this is so true. 3 is a BAAAAD number for sequels:

Mass Effect 3, Diablo 3, Terminator 3, Aliens 3, Matrix 3, Quake 3, Doom 3, etc, etc, etc...

Whoa......BACK THE TRUCK UP. Did you say Quake 3 was bad? I know that HAD to be a typo.

[qubit]

Originally Posted by TheMailMan78

Or give the consumer exactly what they want instead of telling them what they want.

Yes indeedy, it's democratic isn't it? And that's a good thing. Still, reading the blog you can't help feel that they'd rather not make those difficult decisions to reject a game, themselves.

What I don't understand, is if a game meets the criteria for publication such as amount of violence, sex, bad language etc, then why does it need to pass a popularity contest at all to be published? In a free market, any product would stand or fall on its merits, not on whether some third party approved of it or not. This is the core problem with any store, be it Steam, Apple or Microsoft.

[TheMailMan78]

Originally Posted by qubit

Yes indeedy, it's democratic isn't it? And that's a good thing. Still, reading the blog you can't help feel that they'd rather not make those difficult decisions to reject a game, themselves.

What I don't understand, is if a game meets the criteria for publication such as amount of violence, sex, bad language etc, then why does it need to pass a popularity contest at all to be published? In a free market, any product would stand or fall on its merits, not on whether some third party approved of it or not. This is the core problem with any store, be it Steam, Apple or Microsoft.

Because Valve/Steam doesnt want to be known as a junk dealer. Its thier platform. They maintain it and its reputation. If you let ANYTHING on the platform people will see it as crap venue. Just ask 1983 Atari.

[erocker]

I don't want to do someone else's job. Give me HL3, L4D3 and an awesome summer sale like last year.

[qubit]

Originally Posted by TheMailMan78

Because Valve/Steam doesnt want to be known as a junk dealer. Its Thier platform. They maintain it and its reputation. If you let ANYTHING on the platform people will see it as crap venue. Just ask 1983 Atari.

Reputation...ok I'll buy that.

[Morgoth]

when do i get my sdk 2012?

[TheMailMan78]

Originally Posted by qubit

Reputation...ok I'll buy that.

Honestly do you want to log into Steam and see 100 crappy Henti games right next to Cooking Mama Wii ports? No, you wanna see decent games at a decent price.

[Prima.Vera]

Originally Posted by TheMailMan78

Whoa......BACK THE TRUCK UP. Did you say Quake 3 was bad? I know that HAD to be a typo.

Well, Quake 4, but actually was the 3rd single player oriented Quake, right?

[Desert Eagle]

Quake 4 managed to make it past the accursed 3's and that was a solid game. There may be hope yet.

Are you referring to the Atari 800 XL? That was my first gaming machine. Atari failed at marketing and that's why Commodore put them out of business.

[TheMailMan78]

Originally Posted by Prima.Vera

Well, Quake 4, but actually was the 3rd single player oriented Quake, right?

Quake 4 was Quake 4. Not to be confused with Quake 3

Originally Posted by Desert Eagle

Quake 4 managed to make it past the accursed 3's and that was a solid game. There may be hope yet.

Are you referring to the Atari 800 XL? That was my first gaming machine. Atari failed at marketing and that's why Commodore put them out of business.

Um no. Atari didn't go out of business. Their lack of platform regulation caused the great video game crash of the early/mid 80's. Commodore was a drop in the bucket compared to Atari's market share at the time.