Valve’s always said it didn’t think Steam Greenlight was the right thing for Steam and had been saying it would be replaced with something different. Steam Direct is going to be its replacement. This spring, a new system that does away with the voting process will appear. It will allow people to pay a recoupable application fee and submit papers to get their games on the digital distributor.
Here’s how Steam Direct will work. A company interested in submitting a game to Steam will need to fill out proper forms. They will turn in personal and professional information on themselves and their company, among them tax documents. Once accepted, Valve will require a fee to be submitted by a developer for each game they want on the storefront. The cost is currently undecided, but could be between $100 and $5,000 and will be recoupable.
I can see a clear downside to this. While Steam Greenlight is flawed, it at least allowed people some input on what appears on the retailer. Steam Direct would mean anyone who can pass Valve’s check and pay a fee could get on there. This could mean an influx of undesirable games. We’ll have to wait and see.
Source: PC Gamer