What Valve Thinks About the Future of Festivals on Steam: A Valve Q&A

Valve representatives Alden Kroll, Kaci Aitchison, and Tom Giardino held Q&As at DevGAMM and Indie X in November 2021, and marketing consultant Chris Zukowski paraphrases their answers with his own commentary. The central theme is how indie developers can gain visibility on Steam, with particular attention to the future of festivals and front page placement.

On discoverability, Valve explains that each user's front page is personalized by play history, followed developers, and region. Zukowski argues it functions as a reward for games that have already sold well, typically those earning hundreds of thousands of dollars, reached first through strong wishlists, Popular Upcoming placement, and good tagging. Valve confirmed Steam Next Fest will continue after the pandemic, though the answer was notably silent on third-party festivals such as Gamescom or Wholesome Games, which Zukowski considers the most valuable visibility tools and urges organizers to keep pursuing. Developers wanting to run their own themed event should contact Valve about three months ahead through a Steamworks support ticket, with a compelling organizing theme and at least one proven seller. Zukowski's experience suggests a game with over $350K in Steam revenue, an unofficial threshold.

Valve lists common developer mistakes: launching store pages too late, incomplete pages lacking trailers or rich descriptions, failing to promote outside Steam, offering only one language, and omitting controller support. It recommends translating the store page early and using Steamworks wishlist data by region to decide on full localization.

Valve says the pandemic accelerated rather than reshaped Steam's growth, with concurrent users holding at a new baseline of 26 million. Growth is strongest in Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa, aided by regional currencies and payment methods introduced around 2015-2016. Valve cautiously adjusts regional pricing given currency volatility, and Zukowski advises developers to trust its defaults. Games can now appear in Popular Upcoming only once, curbing launch-date manipulation. Valve may hold a virtual Dev Days.