Valve adds $100 posting fee to Steam Greenlight
Greenlight now has a paid gatekeeper to keep out the clutter
Having a problem wading through Steam Greenlight to find the diamonds in the rough? Valve has announced a solution in the form of a $100 fee to post a submission on Greenlight. The company is quick to note that the proceeds will be donated to Penny Arcade's Child's Play charity.
"We have no interest in making money from this, but we do need to cut down the noise in the system," said Valve UI designer Alden Kroll in the announcement.
Those who have already posted to Steam Greenlight don't have to worry about the fee as Valve is not retroactively applying it. The company is also looking to improve its Greenlight recommendation engine so that users have a more manageable list of games to browse through.
"In the end, we're very interested in maintaining an environment that is fair and beneficial to everyone involved, and one that fun and rewarding to join.," Kroll said. "And, of course, we're going to keep iterating on this system and updating as we learn more about how the community and developers want to utilize it."
For independent developers who are chafing under the entrance fee, Dejobaan Games has offered a $100 loan to one aspiring developer and is calling on other indies to do the same. More information about the offer can be found here.