In a Steam Community update, the folks behind Steam Greenlight and the upcoming Steam Direct program announced Greenlight’s official closure, as well as plans for launching Direct. The post first walks us all through the original ideas and processes behind Steam greenlight. Steam realized demands for new and interesting games far outgrew the company’s internal selection process, which was largely manual. Steam Greenlight was launched as a method for players to vote directly on games they wanted to see on the platform. Many games, such as Stardew Valley , Rogue Legacy, and The Forest are all examples of games that came through the platform and saw great success.
However, as Steam Greenlight grew, so did opportunities for “bad actors,” dubbed by Steam. Voting abuse, bots and the like allowed for a growing quality control problem, as journalists such as Jim Sterling have built brands on calling out. Steam Greenlight has officially closed today, meaning all voting has ceased and no new submissions are being accepted. Steam is currently reviewing the remaining submissions. Developers who paid the submission fee but have not finished the submission itself can expect to receive refunds.
On June 13, Steam Direct will launch. Developers will fill out paperwork, submit their game and pay a $100 fee. The game is reviewed internally by Steam to make sure it passes quality standards and does not contain “malicious content,” and after a time will be able to launch their game on Steam. Once the game sells over $1,000, the initial fee will be reimbursed.
Source: Steam Community