Up until now, deciding which games were worthy of Steam's coveted distribution slots was the exclusive purview of an internal team at Valve. Soon, though, a new feature called Steam Greenlight will let Steam users contribute to the decision-making process for the first time, with the aim of streamlining the approval process and making it more directly responsive to player interests.

Starting August 30, developers will be able to use the existing Steam Workshop framework to submit completed and in-development games for consideration on Greenlight. Steam users will then be able to rate the projects based on their level of interest, and Valve will then reach out to the developers behind the most popular titles about full-fledged Steam distribution.

While a team at Valve will still be making the final decisions about which games to offer on the service, the company says the guidance provided by user opinions should help prevent games from getting tied up in lengthy internal debates. "Making the call to publish or not publish a title isn't fun," Valve's Anna Sweet writes in a statement. "Many times opinions vary and our internal jury is hung on a decision. But with the introduction of the Steam Workshop we realized an opportunity to enlist the community's help as we review certain titles and, hopefully, increase the volume and quality of creative submissions."

It's an interesting change to the game selection process, and one that has the potential to combine the best of Valve's carefully curated store with the populist nature of something like the iOS App Store. We just hope Steam users use their new democratic powers responsibly, and that 4chan users don't hijack the voting process to push Barbie's Horse Adventure 2 to the top of the Greenlight list.