Gabe Newell wants to "make Greenlight go away" as Steam evolves

Photo by Michael Chang .

Steam Dev Days , the developer-only conference kicked off by Valve in Seattle this morning, is off to a roaring start. In the first two hours of the show, every attending developer has been given a new Steam controller and a promise of a free Gigabyte Steam Machine. Now, Valve founder Gabe Newell has stated his goal of getting rid of the often-troublesome, frequently controversial Steam Greenlight system.

Press aren't allowed at the Dev Days conference, but fortunately for us, Twitter exists, and #SteamDevDays has been a font of information this morning. Dave Oshry, one of the minds behind the revival of Rise of the Triad, has been pumping out information like we hired him to do it—which, just to be clear, we have not. Here's what Oshry sent out during Newell's welcome address:

And, from the Steam Machines team:

Perhaps Rami Ismail's earlier speculation that Greenlight will be killed so Valve can further open up Steam will come to pass. The buzzword around Steam Dev Days does seem to be “open.” Valve keeps reiterating its goal that devs should take more control over the marketing of their games, and that Steam and Steam Machines should exist to help them do that, not to necessarily help Valve. In that vein, Valve also confirmed that Steam controllers will be manufactured and sold by third-party developers.

The most interesting part of this, to me, is Valve's commitment to the long view , a strategy that would be challenging if it were a public company ruled by shareholders. Valve is developing a freely available operating system and setting up a banner for hardware companies to rally around. For Valve, the upside is that as PC gaming grows, Steam grows with it—and that's where Valve's bottom line rises and falls. To wit:

All of the talks at Steam Dev Days are being recorded for posting online eventually, and we'll bring you more in-depth analysis then. For now, the best place to keep informed is #SteamDevDays .