Valve on Steam opportunities: 'We're not the taste police'

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"We don't sell ad space or pick winners."

Speaking at the Business Conference for Games Industry event in Russia this week, Valve's Jan-Peter Ewert said the company is "not the taste police" with regards to opportunities on Steam. 

Ewert's slideshow presentation, relayed by HeroCraft's Michael Kuzmin, was delivered to a room of indie developers and discussed the perceived benefits of signing up to Steam. 

One slide headed "the elephant in the room" explored Steam's game releases per week. As shown below, Ewert said Steam launched five games per week pre-Steam Greenlight, 70 games per week during the Greenlight programme (which closed last year), and 180 games per week via Steam Direct thereafter.

A later slide titled "Steam is a big opportunity" acknowledged the platform's increased output, but also considered rising player stats—with Steam having had 13.5 million "new first-time purchasers" between January and May this year. "We don't sell ad space or pick winners and losers," read the slide, followed by: "We are not the taste police".

Kuzmin's thread is worth checking out in full, which includes his question to Ewert about Valve's stance on Steam Spy.  

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Joe Donnelly
Deputy Editor, PC Gaming Show