3 days after deadline, no non-game software on Steam

Back in August, Valve had officially announced that it will be selling non-gaming software too on its popular digital distribution platform, Steam. So far, the date that Valve had given for this major shift in Steam has passed, but there is no sign of software that isn't for gaming.

The deadline that Valve had set for this venture was September 5. Obviously that day has come and gone by now with nothing but games and game-related stuff for sale on Steam. The software titles that are supposed to be coming to Steam range from creativity to productivity applications. Many of the launch titles will take advantage of popular Steamworks features such as easy installation, automatic updates, and the ability to save your work to your personal Steam Cloud space so your files may travel with you.

Still no sign of non-game software on Steam

This initiative may help smaller development studios get their software out, as Steam plans to use Greenlight for non-game software too. More software titles are expected to be added now after the September 5 launch, and developers are welcome to submit their own software via Steam Greenlight.

"The 40 million gamers frequenting Steam are interested in more than playing games," said Mark Richardson at Valve. "They have told us they would like to have more of their software on Steam, so this expansion is in response to those customer requests."

Valve had launched its attempt at letting the customers decide what games would appear on Steam recently. The new service, called Greenlight, has been going through some rough waters though. Due to many bogus games being submitted for Greenlight, Valve had recently decided to add a $100 listing fee for the service. The $100 posting fee will be donated to the Child’s Play charity as, according to Valve, “We have no interest in making money from this, but we do need to cut down the noise in the system”. Those who already have their games on Greenlight will not have to retroactively pay the posting fee for those games, but will need to pay it for any future submissions they make to Greenlight. This is one of the two changes Valve is making to the service. The second one is mostly a change in the way games are displayed on the Greenlight page. According to Valve, “The next time you visit Steam Greenlight you’ll be shown a smaller, manageable list of games that you haven’t rated. This view is a mix of popular games and new games to Greenlight”.

Announced earlier this summer, Steam Greenlight allows developers and publishers to post information and media about their game in an effort to convince the Community that the game should be released on Steam. Greenlight piggybacks on Steam Workshop’s flexible system that organises content and lets customers rate and leave feedback.

“We’ve been working on this feature for the last few months with the input from a group of indie partners, and the response has been extremely positive,” said Valve’s Anna Sweet when the service was launched. “With the additional help of beta testers, we are able to launch with a solid line-up of titles for the community to start viewing and rating. And, as we’ve done with all Steam features, we intend to continually grow and modify Greenlight as more and more developers and community members have a chance to get involved”.