Let me preface this with saying I’ve read most of the replies in this thread.
This development in publishing on steam I think is a bit backwards of a movement. I agree with that there needs to be some sort of curation process going on, at least to filter out the obviously trash games that have no purpose being on Steam in the first place. But with this new process, we’re taking that curation process out, and simply opening the flood gates.
With that said, I think the $100 price tag to get in is fine (although, I may have gone for something just a tad higher, but less then $500). I firmly believe that a barrier entry fee isn’t going to deliver better quality; it will filter out games for sure, but it would definitely be hindering plenty of legitimate (indie) game developers. The scammy, asset store flipping developers are just that - scams to some degree, and usually those people are going to have plenty of money already to continue doing what they’re doing. Even if you increase the entry fee to $500, all it is doing is hurting legitimate developers, rather then blocking out the garbage.
There is essentially no barrier now to get onto Steam, to be quite frank. People complain $100 is a lot of money, which it definitely is to some… but you’re developing a product that you intend to sell, and you need to spend some money if you want to make some as well. Even a AAA game nowadays costs $60 dollars, its really not much more then that. And to people producing small tiny games en mass and flipping assets, its absolutely nothing.
What really needs to happen, as pointed out with his statistics that it is indeed manageable, is Valve needs to get a few people dedicated to doing some QA with the kinds of games coming in. There is a reason that console developers like Microsoft and Sony have publishing requirements for games to get onto their platform - there is no reason Steam shouldn’t have the same/similar guidelines with their own set of people to monitor the stuff being submitted. I am all for everyone having a fair, easy access to the PC gaming worlds biggest market, but their really needs to be a human factor in the filter, just to get the obvious **** out. Even Apple on the mobile market has this.
But even with all this, one thing does matter, and that is having a quality unique game that stands out. As some others already pointed out, if you make a great game, do marketing correctly, getting some press attention, etc, you’ll do ok. The problem still lies though - your game will be in a vast ocean of other games, some great, some bad, and surely it will make it harder to sell, especially when your game may cost $15 and theres 5 other games someone could buy for a few dollars.
Also, people who complain about the fee not being high enough are also a bit salty in my book. You’re literally using a multi-million dollar game engine for practically nothing. With your same logic UE4 should cost a few thousand to be able to use. Get over it. 