It’s been seven weeks since Valve launched its Greenlight replacement Direct, with data showing a massive uptick in new releases.
Ico Partners’ Thomas Bidaux tweeted release data (below) that shows 1,000 new games coming to Steam since Direct’s launch.
This data includes all releases since the platform’s refresh, so doesn’t reveal an explicit link between Direct’s launch and this surge of new releases, but it also cannot be a coincidence.
Valve itself did predict a wave of new games coming in a blog post when Steam Direct launched.
Bidaux also revealed that in the first week of July 2016, 28 games launched on Steam. This year, that figure was 84.
Steam Direct launched on June 13th and is Valve's replacement for its long-running Greenlight process. That scheme saw developers posting their concepts for games, with the community deciding what got made.
Much like Early Access, this was initially seen as a great way for developers to get their work out there, but due to a lack of quality control, the platform soon became a graveyard for low-quality and unfinished projects.
Direct has attempted to change this by charging studios $100 to release a game on the service.