Home Gaming Valve wants developers to stop bribing for Greenlight votes

Valve wants developers to stop bribing for Greenlight votes

2 min read
14

REdlight

Valve’s Greenlight system is an interesting one, and it’s great in that it enables independent developers to find a platform; and a rather large one at that. It lets consumers take a look at in-development games that they’d otherwise never hear of, and vote for them to find a place on Steam’s digital store shelves. But there’s a problem. People have been essentially bribing users; asking for Greenlight votes in exchange for keys to the games once they’re available. Valve really wants people to stop doing that.

In a message sent to developers, Valve has asked really, really nicely for people to stop. It’s on a locked-to-developers, private group which you can find here. If you can’t access that, you can see the message here. Here it is in full:

This has been coming up more and more lately, and seems to warrant discussing our perspective on the practice of giving away copies of your game (either directly or as a drawing) in exchange for votes.

When you give away copies of your game in exchange for votes, you put us in a really uncomfortable position. We do not think these votes accurately reflect customer interest and it makes our job harder in deciding which games customers would actually buy and play on Steam.

Additionally, when you give away copies of your game for votes, then every other developer on Greenlight thinks that is now the thing they need to do in order to get noticed. We don’t think that is healthy for the system or really what customers want.

We understand that running contests or giving away copies of your game can be viewed as a form of marketing. But for the purposes of Greenlight. We don’t think that giving away copies of your game in exchange for votes accurately reflects genuine customer interest.

This is something we continue to take into account when evaluating titles to be greenlit. The result is that it may take significantly longer for your title to get Greenllt. As it is much more work for us to try and understand customer interest in a title that has collected some unknown number of votes in this manner.

I have to agree. The Greenlight system is both amazing and broken – and this is one way to go about fixing things, and getting games that really deserve the spotlight a chance to revel in it, instead of those made by developers who’re only too happy to throw keys around like confetti.

Last Updated: February 11, 2015

14 Comments

  1. HvR

    February 11, 2015 at 08:41

    Refreshing to see a company worried more about the effectiveness of their system than the number of people on it.

    Reply

    • Captain JJ the crafter

      February 11, 2015 at 08:57

      Or about the Shareholders only

      Reply

  2. Raptor Rants A Lot:Original #7

    February 11, 2015 at 08:41

    100% agree.

    Reply

  3. Admiral Chief

    February 11, 2015 at 08:44

    I like to shatter people’s dreams when they try to greenlight a crappy game. You know, games Umar might like, those types of games.

    Jokes aside, some games on the Greenlight list really makes me wonder how the hell they got there

    Reply

    • So Hard (Umar)

      February 11, 2015 at 08:47

      DAAAAAAAAAAMN That’s cold, son. I thought we had a connection?

      Reply

      • Admiral Chief

        February 11, 2015 at 09:33

        We ARE connected, I think I have you on Steam?

        Reply

  4. Ghost In The Rift

    February 11, 2015 at 08:47

    I still wonder how the hell that crap Flight Simulator type game that was broken got a green light..:

    Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      February 11, 2015 at 08:52

      Free flights?

      Reply

      • Ghost In The Rift

        February 11, 2015 at 08:59

        Think its Air Control, check reviews if you haven’t yet, dit is kak snaaks!!!

        Reply

  5. Hammersteyn

    February 11, 2015 at 08:53

    This is why we have games like Ravens cry.

    Reply

    • So Hard (Umar)

      February 11, 2015 at 08:56

      LOLOLOL Damn…burn!

      Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        February 11, 2015 at 09:02

        XD

        Reply

  6. Captain JJ the crafter

    February 11, 2015 at 08:57

    If you catch them doing that, take the game off Steam.

    Reply

  7. Majik

    February 11, 2015 at 11:25

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Check Also

Change regions on Steam to get cheaper games? Well, I have some bad news for you

Valve is closing up a loophole that allowed gamers to switch countries on Steam to get che…