Steam Community Market Now in Beta with Team Fortress 2

Video game developer Valve announces that its Steam Community Market feature is now in beta stage in the multiplayer shooter Team Fortress 2.

The overall aim of the market is to expand the Steam economy past the simple trading stage and gamers are able to use the service to buy and sell in-game items using funds taken from the Steam Wallet.

During 2013, Valve also plans to offer the Steam Community Market in other games, presumably those that it has developed or published.

It’s not clear when the service will be out of beta and whether other publishers are willing to allow it to work in their own game experiences.

A more complex Steam Community Market might be another sign that Valve is preparing to introduce its own gaming-oriented Operating System on the PC.