14 DAY TRIAL // Video game developer Valve has announced that it is testing a Steam based system which will allow users to trade, in a secure and legitimate environment, in-game items and even full video games that are available on the service.
Steam Trading is at the moment limited to items that have been obtained by players in Team Fortress 2, a game where Valve has introduced a lot of items that can be obtained through gameplay and by performing other actions on Steam.
The initiative will probably prove to be a boon for those who covet some of the Team Fortress 2 hats and see not other way of obtaining them.
Games that are bought as Gifts and that are Extra Copies and not yet installed by a player can also be traded with the new system, which means that extra content can now be redistributed to other gamers.
Valve says that the Group Chat feature can be used to start trading and that on the first attempt all those who are opted into the beta will see a small tutorial explaining how it all works.
Valve has not said how long the beta stage for the new trading feature will go on and where it will be used when it is fully implemented.
Recently Steam has also added support for free-to-play and microtransaction based video games, which probably means that soon we might see players trading items from one game for something from another.
It's also a small step from allowing users to trade in-game items and extra content to allowing them to potentially trade their right to play some of the games in their library to others for a lower price than Steam usually asks.
The digital distribution service from Valve is adding new features in an effort to keep its lead in the PC gaming space, which is threatened by the launch of something like Origin, which has the marketing power of Electronic Arts behind it.