Wow, what? They're opening their servers up as a way for anyone to host anything? How will that scale?
I assume they're going to have to do something to prevent people just uploading cracked versions of games that are otherwise available for money.
I assume they're going to have to do something to prevent people just uploading cracked versions of games that are otherwise available for money.
Greenlight was a failed experiment, and it's extremely encouraging to see them acknowledging that. Valve could be, if they want to, the platform for all indie games, not just broadly popular ones. So far they've resisted that, and I can't imagine it's been a particularly good business decision.
I know people want "curation", but have you seen some of the crap that's already on Steam? Probably not, because it rarely features on their storefront, which can always be curated regardless of how many other games they accept and sell, which might only be found through a search or a direct link. That's the best of both worlds.
The piracy issue will be interesting, although I guess this could be dealt with by using a team of mods and/or scanning their servers for possible infringing files.
Interesting times ahead.