Valve: Steam gets $100 pub fee and more ‘human eyes’ in its algorithms

Valve is changing how its Steam store works, opening up its platform to any developer who wants to sell a game and is willing to pay a small fee.

Today, the company revealed that the price of that Steam Direct fee is $100 per game. Developers can recoup that money, so this isn’t a direct deposit into Valve’s bank account. In February, Valve invited GamesBeat out to its Bellevue, Washington offices to explain the reasoning behind Steam Direct and for ending its Greenlight program that previously served as the primary tool for choosing which games appeared on Steam. The company emphasized multiple times that it doesn’t want the power to pick winners and losers. Instead, it wants to give consumers that responsibility.