Valve - indies shouldn't "split royalties with a publisher" and expect "automatic yes on Greenlight"
Valve has blocked Paranautical Activity from Code Avarice from being released on Steam, after the developer abandoned their Steam Greenlight submission for a publishing deal with Adult Swim.
According to the developers, Paranautical Activity was put on Steam Greenlight, hoping for approval for release; however, the firm was contacted by Adult Swim which wished to publish the game for the studio on Steam.
The studio then ran into a roadblock when Valve blocked the release on Steam. The team is now trying to get the game's campaign on Greenlight back on track.
Valve's Doug Lombardi said the game wasn't giving release approval on Steam because the firm didn't "want to send the message that indies can seek out publishers to bypass Steam Greenlight.”
“We review Greenlight votes, reviews, and a variety of factors in the Greenlight process,” said Lombardi to PCgamesN. “However our message to indies regarding publishers is do it for your own reasons, but do not split your royalties with a publisher expecting an automatic ‘Yes’ on Greenlight.”
Code Avarice noted it was hard for new indie developers to get their Greenlight campaigns noticed on the site with so many other offerings available.
A video for the game is below.
