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Valve has implemented a $100 submission fee for its community-driven game development service Steam Greenlight.
The service itself allows Steam users to vote for, or against submitted titles, and ultimately decide which games should be made available through the digital distribution service.
Previously, any users could submit a game project into the system, however, this one-time fee must now be paid by anyone looking to showcase their project via the service.
Valve has introduced the fee as a method to "cut down the noise in the system" as a large number of the games submitted to Greenlight were spoof or joke projects.
The firm has removed a number of these from the service already as they were deemed inappropriate and/or sexually explicit, with examples included a submission entitled Titz and a flight-sim based around the World Trade Centre.
Whilst seemingly solving the service’s spam issues, the fee has come under fire from a number of voices within the industry, stating that it will restrict the quality of games submitted to the service as indie developers with little to not financial backing struggle to front the fee – which, at the end of the day, only guarantees submission, and does not promise a game’s approval.
Valve has made it clear that the fee is strictly to limit the amount of spam content submitted to the Greenlight and is not for financial gain, with the proceeds raised from the fee being donated to the Child’s Play charity.
"We have no interest in making money from this, but we do need to cut down the nice in the system," Valve explained in a statement.
As well as introducing this submission fee, Greenlight has undergone a number of changes and introduced a number of new features, which are designed to enhance its users experience.
Content is now better featured through the service, whist implemented social media features make it easier for users to check their friends activity, favourite content and post statuses.
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