Team Fortress 2's Conversion Rate Is Huge And Confusing

[The Wooster]

Team Fortress 2's Conversion Rate Is Huge And Confusing

Nearly thirty percent of Free Team Fortress 2 players are spending their hard earned cash on paid content, which both delights and confuses Valve.

According to Valve co-founder Gabe Newell, Team Fortress 2 has a "twenty to thirty percent" conversion rate - that is: free players spending actual money on in game items - compared to other games which can only manage two to three percent. What's driving such high sales? He has no idea.

"We don't understand what's going on," admitted Newell at a recent WTIA TechNW [http://www.geekwire.com/2011/experiments-video-game-economics-valves-gabe-newell] panel. "All we know is we're going to keep running these experiments to try and understand better what it is that our customers are telling us."

"And there are clearly things that we don't understand because a simple analysis of these statistics implies very contradictory yet reproducible results. So clearly there are things that we don't understand, and we're trying to develop theories for them."

Valve switched TF2 over to a free-to-play model back in June, hoping that increased sales from the Mann Co. store [http://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Mann_Co._Store] would replace the revenue previously generated by game sales. It proved successful, but F2P players have met some hostility from the game's established fan base, with some premium players going as far as to use server-side mods to boot F2P players from private servers [http://www.joystiq.com/2011/07/01/team-fortress-2-players-segregate-f2p-users-with-insta-ban/]. Currently, F2P players can only find, craft and carry limited number of in-game items, and they cannot trade with other players. However, buying any item from the Mann Co. store grants the F2P player the same rights and privileges as a player who bought the game before the great free-to-play switcheroo.

It makes sense to me, of course, there is something very appealing about those hats.

Source: Geekwire [http://www.geekwire.com/2011/experiments-video-game-economics-valves-gabe-newell]


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[orangeban]

Hmm, maybe it's something to do with TF2s steam connection? If you have cash in your steam wallet, I can understand why you might buy some TF2 stuff.

 

[Irridium]

It's also interesting how they note that Russia is their second market in Europe. Considering how many view Russia as a country that pirates everything, it's quite the conundrum. Or maybe not, since Valve seems to have figured it out.

I wonder if other publishers will figure it out. Most likely not.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

The hats must amount to something I guess. Buy one thing in the store, and you have access to every single item in the game from then on in. Sounds like a fair deal I think, and a very good incentive to buy stuff.

 

[therandombear]

The hats must amount to something I guess. Buy one thing in the store, and you have access to every single item in the game from then on in. Sounds like a fair deal I think, and a very good incentive to buy stuff.

HATS HATS, MOAR HATS.

OT: I buy stuff in the Mann Co store, esepecially now when it was sale on pretty much everything. I get the hat I want, instead of risking it on crafting and hassle of trading, and the guy who made the hat gets my money.

To be honest, this is how F2P works, 1 purchase at 1.99 and full premium and access to everything. xD

 

[NLS]

It's also interesting how they note that Russia is their second largest European Market. Considering how many view Russia as a country that pirates everything, it's quite the conundrum. Or maybe not, since Valve seems to have figured it out.

I wonder if other publishers will figure it out. Most likely not.

I didn't have the chance to visit a Russian games shop while I was there, but I've been to Lithuania and seen the markets selling pirated games on open street. But that still doesn't beat one of the only 2 official state funded shopping centres in Minsk (Belarus/White Russia) selling pirated copies of most games, including S.T.A.L.K.E.R.. I still have that pirated copy on my shelf.

 

[Kopikatsu]

I should probably be on VALVe's payroll. I can tell them what happened.

Since it only costs $5 (Minimum amount you can put in your Steam wallet) to get a premium TF2 account, Traders just make 6-10 alt accounts (Some even go as high as 25), put $5-10 dollars into the Steam wallet, then buy a $0.49 item from the store and use the leftover to buy a cheap game and gift it to their main account. Thus heavily skewing the conversion rate.

WHERE'S MY MONEY, VALVE?

 

[Lilani]

I think it's quite simple, really--TF2 is worth it. So many FTP games are made to be FTP, so they were made on a lower budget and their gameplay often shows that. But TF2 was made to be a full, standalone game. Combine that with Valve's dedication to quality and player experience, and voila. You have a game worth dropping some change on.

Though I think a more interesting statistic would be how many FTP players buy more $5. That is, more than what is required to get full service.

 

[Lilani]

I should probably be on VALVe's payroll. I can tell them what happened.

Since it only costs $5 (Minimum amount you can put in your Steam wallet) to get a premium TF2 account, Traders just make 6-10 alt accounts (Some even go as high as 25), put $5-10 dollars into the Steam wallet, then buy a $0.49 item from the store and use the leftover to buy a cheap game and gift it to their main account. Thus heavily skewing the conversion rate.

WHERE'S MY MONEY, VALVE?

I think you're misunderstanding the situation. The article says most games that are FTP can only manage to get 2-3% of their FTP players to actually pony up the money for full service. The other 97-98% never pay any money. TF2, however, is getting 20-30% of the FTPers to pay. It's not a matter of how much they spend--it's a matter of whether or not they're spending at all.

 

[garfoldsomeoneelse]

I have the definitive answer right here: the simple fact is, people are spending much more on this game than others with comparable transactions systems becaHL2.exe has stopped working

 

[blankedboy]

Well the cheapest items go for 50 US cents, so that's a fair price to pay to get the rest of the game. I'm surprised it's only ~20-30 percent and not like 60, to be honest. I guess alot of F2Pers just don't want to/aren't allowed to spend money on that, full stop.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

I quite like F2P players.

They make such beautiful targets.

 

[Random Argument Man]

I quite like F2P players.

They make such beautiful targets.

I'm a F2P player and I decided to get better so the originals wouldn't notice.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

It's also interesting how they note that Russia is their second largest European Market.

Uh...Geography fail?

 

[Kopikatsu]

I should probably be on VALVe's payroll. I can tell them what happened.

Since it only costs $5 (Minimum amount you can put in your Steam wallet) to get a premium TF2 account, Traders just make 6-10 alt accounts (Some even go as high as 25), put $5-10 dollars into the Steam wallet, then buy a $0.49 item from the store and use the leftover to buy a cheap game and gift it to their main account. Thus heavily skewing the conversion rate.

WHERE'S MY MONEY, VALVE?

I think you're misunderstanding the situation. The article says most games that are FTP can only manage to get 2-3% of their FTP players to actually pony up the money for full service. The other 97-98% never pay any money. TF2, however, is getting 20-30% of the FTPers to pay. It's not a matter of how much they spend--it's a matter of whether or not they're spending at all.

I understand the situation. My point is, the vast majority of those accounts aren't people who just love the game so much that they wanted to upgrade.

They're mostly metal traders. Unusual hats go for $200-2,500 REAL MONEY. People actually pay hundreds to thousands of dollars for a virtual hat with a particle effect. Other FTP games don't have that, which is why their conversation rate is so low while TF2's is mindbogglingly massive.

 

[Geo Da Sponge]

I just think Valve are very good at dangling carrots, both within games and when it comes to selling stuff. I mean, comparatively loads of the new weapons are really shoddily made and animated. The Soldier still doesn't actually put anything into the Direct Hit. The Demoman shoves grenades into a space to the left of where they actually need to go on the Loch-N-Load. When a new weapon is added, it's a surprise when it's given a kill-icon from the start. Everything seems to clip with the player model.

These things annoy me, even while I'm paying for them...