Valve kills Steam Greenlight – here's why it matters

System was intended to prevent stream of low quality software flooding the store but failed to halt explosion in content last year

Market-dominating PC game store Steam is ending the X Factor-style voting system is has used for the past five years to decide which independent developers can sell on the storefront. Valve, the company behind Steam, will replace the programme with a simpler system which guarantees access to any developer who can pay an application fee.

Previously, developers below a certain size could use the programme, called "Greenlight", to put their games up for a public vote. Those with enough votes would be allowed space on the web store, while those that failed to excite potential customers were kept behind the velvet rope.