Team Fortress 2 Workshop Pays Millions to Custom Creators

Fanghawk

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Team Fortress 2 Workshop Pays Millions to Custom Creators

According to Valve, third-party TF2 designers were paid $250,000 for the Robotic Boogaloo update alone.

Team Fortress 2 was incredibly popular the moment it launched with The Orange Box, and custom content has only fueled that appeal. Valve's official design tools even allow players to create weapons, power-ups, or hats, and offer them to an eager and paying public. Fans knew that the system was successful, but what you may not have realized is that it's also profitable for creators. As of last weekend, Valve has paid out a combined $10 million dollars to anyone who submitted content through the Team Fortress 2 Workshop, most of which was likely designed in each creator's free time.

According to a Team Fortress 2 blog post, over 400 contributors and partners have received payments for their custom content. Of that figure, 60+ individuals received $250,000 for items featured in the Robotic Boogaloo update alone. If one were to break the numbers down individually, I'm sure none of these designers could retire to the Caribbean, but it's still impressive for a market <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/120271-Steams-Workshop-Celebrates-Its-First-Birthday>that's barely two years old. While not mentioned in the post, Valve is probably earning even higher sums from its cut of in-game sales.

Not willing to rest on its money-filled laurels, Valve will be improving the item submission process even further. For example, all new creations will be automatically evaluated to ensure your masterpiece is game-ready upon submission. Players will also be able to view renders within the creation tool, and all submissions will be tagged with gold stars to show they've been vetted.

As a final bonus, Valve added that its next Team Fortress 2 update will consist entirely of gold star content, with no limit on the number of included items. It seems that now is the perfect time to create the digital hat of your dreams, and earn a profit in the process.

Source: <a href=http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=10843>Team Fortress 2, via <a href=http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-06-12-team-fortress-2-workshop-pays-out-USD10m-to-contributors>Games Industry International

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Genocidicles

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Sep 13, 2012
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I take it this is how Half Life 3 will eventually be made then, by just getting the fans to make it?
 

Andy Shandy

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Jun 7, 2010
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Bloody hell. And I'm assuming Valve takes a cut from people buying this stuff, so they have to be raking it in as much if not more (depending on the percentage)
 

Colt47

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Oct 31, 2012
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kajinking said:
For the love of god people how many hats do you NEED?!
I don't know, but if the Loading Ready Run crew is any indication, you can never have enough hats. Makes me wonder how many hats some of the eldest players have in TF2. XD
 

Roxas1359

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Aug 8, 2009
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kajinking said:
For the love of god people how many hats do you NEED?!
I believe that question can be answered with just a simple little song my friend:

Basically, you just want more and more hats! XD
 

Mr.Mattress

Level 2 Lumberjack
Jul 17, 2009
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I really wish I knew how to model correctly/add stuff to the game. Especially if I'm paid 250,000$ for creating a virtual hat!
 

kajinking

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Neronium said:
kajinking said:
For the love of god people how many hats do you NEED?!
I believe that question can be answered with just a simple little song my friend:

Basically, you just want more and more hats! XD
Eh, I've got my vintage soldiers stash and mining light so I'm happy.
 

Chemical Alia

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Andy Shandy said:
Bloody hell. And I'm assuming Valve takes a cut from people buying this stuff, so they have to be raking it in as much if not more (depending on the percentage)
Valve takes 75%, item creators 25%. If there is more than one contributor per item, the creators can split that 25% any way they want.
 

Neverhoodian

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Colt47 said:
kajinking said:
For the love of god people how many hats do you NEED?!
I don't know, but if the Loading Ready Run crew is any indication, you can never have enough hats. Makes me wonder how many hats some of the eldest players have in TF2. XD
Well, lessee here. I've been playing TF2 on a fairly regular basis since October 2007, and I have...

*Checks backpack*

...56 hats. Granted, I got a good nine or ten of them from trading my Max's Head away a few years back. Having said that, I tend to avoid the trading part of the TF2 community unless I have a bunch of crates I want to dump for a weapon or two. In my experience, any sort of prolonged exposure to that crowd is hazardous to one's sanity.

In any event, it's good to see it's a win-win situation for Valve and community creators. I have no doubt that TF2 wouldn't have remained nearly as popular without the constant updates (going free-to-play helped too). Still, I'd be lying if I said its distinctive aesthetic style hasn't suffered a bit:
 

Neverhoodian

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Ultratwinkie said:
Wow, if you kept that Max's head you would have made a good 85$ off that hat alone in today's economy.

I hope you got unusual hats for it, bro.
Nope, just a bunch of regular hats that looked good on my characters. I don't really care about the TF2 economy and what certain items are supposedly worth.

Besides, I can't think of a better headshot magnet than a hat with bright, colorful effects swirling around it.
 

Andy Shandy

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Chemical Alia said:
Andy Shandy said:
Bloody hell. And I'm assuming Valve takes a cut from people buying this stuff, so they have to be raking it in as much if not more (depending on the percentage)
Valve takes 75%, item creators 25%. If there is more than one contributor per item, the creators can split that 25% any way they want.
Well, that's quite a bit of money Valve have raked in themselves with this. And seems reasonably fair too.
 

Evil Smurf

Admin of Catoholics Anonymous
Nov 11, 2011
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kajinking said:
For the love of god people how many hats do you NEED?!
Once you have one hat, you need more. It's like cocaine without all the rockstars.
 

momijirabbit

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Nov 2, 2012
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I love how whenever somebody finds a hat the entire server erupts in "OOOOOOO!!!" Maybe I should learn how to make hats...
 

Aeshi

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Dec 22, 2009
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Kinda depressing that the people behind the Robotic Boogaloo update got paid so much for what is basically a bunch of re-skins (though there are plenty of Workshop items out there whose creators more than deserve the money they get)