Frequently asked, properly answered

A one-time $100 USD Steam Direct fee per app, paid in Steamworks during onboarding. It is recouped: once your game earns $1,000 in adjusted gross revenue, the $100 is credited back to you.

Beyond that, Steam takes 30% of revenue (25% past $10M lifetime, 20% past $50M). There are no listing or update fees.

Monthly, roughly 30 days after the end of each month, by bank transfer to the account you verified during onboarding. Steam handles consumer VAT/sales tax on sales; what you receive is your revenue share, which you then declare as income in your own country.

Valve is a US company, so every partner completes a US tax interview. Non-US individuals and companies file a W-8BEN (or W-8BEN-E) through the interview, which usually reduces US withholding to 0% if your country has a tax treaty with the US (Ireland, Croatia and most of the EU do). You'll need your local tax identification number. It looks scary; it's a 10-minute form.

Yes. You can request batches of keys in Steamworks at no cost, for press, creators, giveaways or selling in other stores. Valve reviews large requests and expects you not to undercut Steam prices significantly when selling keys elsewhere. Key sales pay you 100% (Valve takes no cut on keys), which is why bundles use them.

Two separate reviews. Your store page is reviewed before it can go public as Coming Soon: typically 3 to 5 business days. Your build is reviewed before you can release: Valve runs the game to check it launches and matches the store page, also days, not hours. First-time partners can be slower. Plan both reviews weeks before your date, never the same week.

Valve enforces a minimum Coming Soon period (currently around two weeks) between page approval and release. Treat that as a floor, not a plan: wishlists are your launch fuel and most successful indies run their page for 3 to 6 months minimum.

Yes, freely while in Coming Soon, via Steamworks. Moving it earlier than an announced date close to launch needs Valve's help. The release date on the page is a player promise, so pick "Coming soon" or a quarter until you're confident.

A demo is its own app with its own App ID, created free from your main app's Steamworks page (Tools → create demo). It gets its own build upload and appears as a Download Demo button on your main page. Demo players' wishlists go to your main game, which is the whole point.

A week-long Valve event held several times a year where games with demos get massive storefront visibility. Each game may participate in exactly one Next Fest ever, before release. It routinely multiplies wishlist counts, so time it 1 to 4 months before launch when your demo is genuinely good, and don't burn it early on a rough build.

Steam Playtest is a free request-access testing system attached to your page ("Request Access" button). It is gated, audience-limited and great for feedback. A demo is open to everyone and is a marketing asset. Use Playtest early, demo later.

Usually zero code. Steam Auto-Cloud is configured in Steamworks (Application → Steam Cloud): you specify the file path pattern where your game saves (e.g. %AppData%/MyGame/saves/* on Windows, with per-OS roots), set a quota, publish, done. Steam syncs those files around play sessions. Only games with unusual save systems need the programmatic Cloud API.

Achievements: strongly recommended at launch, they're cheap to add and players check for them. Trading cards: nice-to-have, and they won't drop until your game passes Valve's sales threshold anyway. Workshop: post-launch feature unless modding is your core pitch. Don't delay a launch for any of these.

Valve tests games for Deck Verified status on their own schedule; you don't apply at launch. You can prepare: full controller support, readable fonts at 1280×800, no launcher requiring a mouse. A Linux build is not required since Proton runs most Windows builds, but test via Proton yourself.

Players wishlist your game and get notified by Steam when it launches and when it is discounted.

Wishlist count drives the Popular Upcoming list near launch, and wishlist velocity influences how much algorithmic visibility Steam gives you. Wishlists convert to sales over years, not just week one, and every sale event reactivates them.

Every app completes a content questionnaire describing violence, nudity, themes and so on. Your honest answers control which countries can see the page and whether an age gate appears. Misdescribing content is a fast way to a difficult conversation with Valve, so answer accurately.

Players can self-refund within 14 days of purchase with under 2 hours played. Refunds are deducted from your revenue. Typical refund rates are 5 to 12%; very short games and tech-issue launches run higher. You see the rate in your sales reports.

Curators are Steam users who publish recommendation lists. Through Curator Connect in Steamworks you can send free review copies directly to curators with relevant audiences. Quality varies wildly; a handful of genuine genre curators are worth more than a hundred random ones. Ignore curators who email demanding keys, that's a key-reselling scam.

Each Pro key works on a limited number of devices at once (normally 3). If you hit the limit: open the license page on a device you no longer use and press Deactivate, which frees that slot instantly. Replaced a machine and can't deactivate from it? Reply to your purchase receipt and the activation will be reset for you, usually the same day.

No. It is a one-time purchase. The license page shows "Expires: never". One license covers all your games and projects.