14 DAY TRIAL // Video game developer Valve has announced, on the occasion of the first year Manniversary, that it has generated a profit of more than 2 million dollars (which is more than 1.3 million Euro) from sales through the Team Fotress 2 Mann Co. store.
The company has not said how much of the revenue created by objects put on sale went directly to the company and how much went to independent creators but the sum remains impressive, especially given that the store has not been online for too long.
All those who believe have a good idea for an item in Team Fortress 2 can use the Steam Workshop to create it and then get feedback, through comments and ratings, from other players.
Valve has also announced a big sale for items which will last until October 17 and all those who play Team Fortress 2 and would like to get a few more in game trinkets can check the prices in the store.
Team Fortress 2 went free-to-play earlier during the year and is the first game from Valve to support microtransactions.
A number of players complained that the addition of objects that could be bought rather than earned through gameplay would affect the purity of the Team Fortress 2 experience but the game is reported to have gotten more players since it became free to access and revenue was derived via item sales.
Valve could be using the lessons learned from Team Fortress 2 to design the business system for the upcoming DOTA 2, which is set to be launched early during 2012 and was first shown off at Gamescom.
The free-to-play model is being embraced by more and more developers, who are relying on the fact that a bigger player base will allow a small number of gamers to pay and support the rest.