Steam Greenlights Games in Bulk Because Most of Them Don't Get Made

The vast majority of Indie Statik's hotly anticipated indie games are delayed by a year or more, according to a study done by me.

Barbarians at the Gate

Prior to Greenlight, the Valve-owned Steam digital video game storefront was once a supreme gatekeeper, mysteriously approving titles for distribution in a smoke-filled room. Well-connected indie game developers whose titles were approved could suddenly access Steam's then-30 million customers (the user base for the store has since ballooned to over 65 million players).

Eventually, the burden of approving games themselves grew too overwhelming for their staff, so Valve devised a system called Greenlight, whereby the store's own customers could vote for the games they themselves would want to play on the service. The popularity contest would float notable titles to the Steam staff, who would approve the games for distribution in trickles.

I'll take the three athletic-looking ones. You can have the fat ones and that cross-eyed kid.

Here Comes Everybody

In mid-to-late 2013, Steam surprised everyone by approving Greenlight games in batches of 100. It was suggested due to these bulk approvals that the days of careful curation were long over, and that the store would fill up with "just anyone" - an elitist attitude, surely, to match the store's elitist beginnings.

But there's a good reason why Steam is now approving Greenlight games en masse, and why innovative titles like Spellirium by Untold Entertainment (full disclosure: that game looks awesome) have been given a chance by Valve against all odds: Steam needs content, and the proverbial indie game devs working from their moms' basements aren't churning out quality titles quickly enough.

Indie Statik recently released their picks for the Top 100 Most Anticipated Indie Games Of 2014. Like Steam, they appear to have widened their net, perhaps to get more hits on base. Last year's half-sized list of 50 games, posted on January 1st 2013, has turned up only 7 titles that actually launched in 2013. The rest of the titles are either still in development, completely abandoned, or are slouching towards Steam to be born. Take a look at this pie chart:

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A full 82% of Indie Statik's indie game picks went unreleased in 2013. And they're just in it for the readership - put yourself in Steam's position on this one. You can Greenlight all the indie games you like, but the odds that they'll see the light of day within the year (let alone become "hit" material) are extremely slim. That's why it makes sense for Steam to start bulk-approving games for the service, and why bulk approvals aren't a sign of the End Times or of the store's slipping quality bar. To quote the late, great Mitch Hedberg,

The "Lucky" Few

For posterity, below is the list of Indie Statik's 2013 hopefuls cross-checked against their current playability/availability. Games that you can actually purchase and play to "full release" are in bold: