In an effort to stem the tide of faked and explicit submissions to their Greenlight community approval process, Valve has initiated a one-time $100 submission fee for all projects going forward. In an official post in Steam’s community section, Valve’s Alden Kroll states that all funds received from the fee will go directly into Penny Arcade’s Child’s Play charity coffers.
“We have no interest in making money from this, but we do need to cut down the noise in the system.” wrote Kroll, “(Note: Anyone who has already posted a submission to Greenlight will not have to retroactively pay for any existing submissions, but will need to do so for any future submissions.)”
While fees are the last thing struggling indie developers need, slowing the flood of users making wishlists out of the service by posting unowned properties or throwing up ridiculous projects like a World Trade Center plane crash simulator is a noble goal in and of itself. Valve has made themselves clear that the entire feature is still very much in creative flux, so further dramatic changes are still possible.