Valve urges Greenlight devs to stop trading keys for votes

Valve has requested developers with games listed on Steam Greenlight to cease the practice of trading game keys for votes.

IGN reports on Steam’s message sent to participating devs, which points out how these votes skew the true customer interest in the Greenlight submission.

"We do not think these votes accurate reflect customer interest, and it makes our job harder in deciding which games customers would actually buy and play on Steam."

"Additionally, when you give away copies of your game for votes, then every other developer on Greenlight thinks that is now the thing they need to do in order to get noticed. We don’t think that is healthy for the system or really what customers want."

Valve adds that if it continues, the process of certifying approved Greenlight submissions for listing on Steam could be slowed.

"It is much more work for us to try and understand customer interest in a title that has collected some unknown number of votes in this manner."

We understand that running contests or giving away copies of your game can be viewed as a form of marketing. But for the purposes of Greenlight, we don’t think that giving away copies of your game in exchange for votes accurately reflects genuine customer interest.”