Greenlight adds software projects

Valve has added non-gaming software projects to the Steam Greenlight portal.

Greenlight gives the Steam community a chance to vote on games they’d like to see on the digital distribution platform, and the latest changes are designed to shore up the service against several criticisms levelled against it.

Software sales are themselves new to Steam, and though it may be a logical move, it is surprising to see Valve offering community voting for products that are less consumer-oriented.

In recent months Valve has changed its company tune, portraying itself less as a single-minded games developer, and more as the bastion of hope for a threatened platform.

By allowing software sales on Steam, Valve is setting itself up as a better representative of the broader interests of PC users.

By permitting greenlight software projects, the company is extending that offer of friendship to innovators outside of the gaming sphere.

Whether software sales have been comparable to games remains to be seen, but it is beyond certain that Valve is getting serious about software.