Team Fortress 2 items pulling in lots of cash for users

Valve president Gabe Newell recently talked about their experiments in community-driven marketplaces, and how the most lucrative user earned half a million bucks in a single year.

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Team Fortress 2 has been a test bed for Valve's ideas, one of which was to let users create their own in-game items. This has turned into a lucrative marketplace, in which some item creators have made a killing making items for virtual killing.

"Ten times as much content comes from the userbase as comes from us," Valve president Gabe Newell told students at the University of Texas, reported by PC Gamer. "We think that we're super productive and badass at making TF2 content, but even at this early stage we cannot compete with our customers in the production of content for this environment."

So how much has do the top-earners pull in? "The most anybody has earned in a single year is $500,000, so they're making content, selling it to other customers, and we have a revenue share with those people and their takeaway is $500,000." Newell also joked that Paypal had concerns about the cash flow moving through the system, and asked if the drug trade was involved. "We actually had to work something out with them and said, 'no, they're making hats.'"

Obviously, not everyone is becoming a millionaire off of TF2 items, but the fact that one person could make that much shows how robust the market can be. The booming in-game economy led to real-life transactions and, eventually, the hiring of an economist. Late last year, Valve launched a real money marketplace.

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  • reply
    February 1, 2013 2:00 PM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Team Fortress 2 items pulling in lots of cash for users.

    Valve president Gabe Newell recently talked about their experiments in community-driven marketplaces, and how the most lucrative user earned half a million bucks in a single year.

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      February 1, 2013 2:14 PM

      That's a lot of money hats.

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      February 1, 2013 2:18 PM

      Wow, how much is Valve taking if one guy can make that much.

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      February 1, 2013 3:09 PM

      I stopped playing TF2 about 3 years ago and I just installed it last night to get all my hats from pre ordering other games and I have made $30 in the last 24 hours.

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      February 1, 2013 3:25 PM

      [deleted]

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        February 1, 2013 3:36 PM

        [deleted]

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        February 1, 2013 8:13 PM

        Same.. rofl!

        And half a mil!! That is insane... and very very cool! I bet the guy never thought he would make that much, he must have a permanent smile on his face.

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      February 1, 2013 8:26 PM

      how does one make so much money in tf2?

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      February 1, 2013 8:28 PM

      I've made $12 selling time-limited Dota 2 chests. Pretty good for things I wasn't going to open.

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      February 2, 2013 12:28 AM

      I didn't know the users could make their own hats? Doesn't that devalue the marketplace? People could make clones of the other popular hats?

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        February 2, 2013 1:07 AM

        Valve is still the gatekeeper for whether workshop items are accepted.

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      February 2, 2013 12:59 AM

      so as someone thats spent maybe 2mins with tf2 how does one get hats?

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        February 2, 2013 1:19 AM

        You find them randomly, you get them from opening chests with keys that cost $2.49 each, or you buy them.

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        February 2, 2013 1:22 AM

        either just play and get it randomly or buy it.

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        February 2, 2013 3:31 AM

        You can also trade them with other players and you receive hats and items for pre-ordering certain games sometimes.

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      February 2, 2013 9:36 AM

      Awesome! Now, nerf the fucking red-tape sapper. No bigger faggot in TF2 than a red tape, spycicle, dead ringer using spy.

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        February 3, 2013 3:19 AM

        Red Tape Recorder, yeah that might be a bit OP, but spycicle? What's your problem with that? That has to be the worst fucking piece of shit item ever xDD Entirely useless.

        The Dead Ringer requires skill, because of the limited time you can be cloaked and the loud sound it does when you uncloak. Also you can only fake your death once and then it has to charge again. I think it's fairly well-balanced.

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      February 2, 2013 11:40 AM

      this story reminded me to finally give it a try last night.

      sold a few festive items, my extra dota2 invites, and this morning my strange festive sniper rifle sold.

      now i have $61.05 sitting on steam :D

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