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Have you got a spare hour? I could use one of those to watch Valve's Gabe Newell speak at the University of Texas at Austin. Quotes from his talk, titled "On Productivity, Economics, Political Institutions & The Future of Corporations: Reflections of a Video Game Maker," have been making the rounds. PC Gamer transcribed one segment of particular interest to me: the economy behind Team Fortress 2 item making. Cutting to the chase, "The most anybody has earned [from TF2] in a single year is $500,000, so they're making content, selling it to other customers, and we have a revenue share with those people and their takeaway is $500,000," said the co-founder. "The first two weeks that we did this we actually broke Paypal because they didn't have -- I don't know what they're worried about, maybe drug dealing -- they're, like, 'nothing generates cash to our userbase other than selling drugs.' We actually had to work something out with them and said 'no ... they're making hats.'" I can't wait to hear that last line uttered dramatically in a Hollywood adaptation of Valve's story. "We started to see things like inflation. We started to see deflation. We started to see users creating their own versions of currencies, mediums of exchange. Countries started to create regulatory structures. In Korea you actually have to create the equivalent of a W4 form for your players to account for the virtual income they get in playing your game." According to Newell, the TF2 community produces "ten times" the content Valve does. "The only company we've ever met that kicks our ass is our customers," he explained. "We'll go up against Bungie or Blizzard, or anybody, but we won’t try and compete with our own userbase, because we already know that we’re going to lose." Top TF2 item makers yoink $500k a year, “we cannot compete with our customers” says Gabe [PC Gamer] Did you know? You can now get daily or weekly email notifications when humans reply to your comments.
2:00 AM on 05.25.2013 GameStop stock drops following Xbox One revealAs if the fallout from the Xbox One reveal on Tuesday couldn't get any weirder, along comes news that GameStop stock ended the trading week down 19%. The company's share price had been dropping steadily throughout the week, a...
10:00 AM on 05.24.2013 Grid 2 Mono Edition is the most expensive game everGrid 2: Mono Edition has been dubbed the "Most Expensive Video Game Commercially Available -- Special Edition" by the Guinness World Records group. This PS3 game package goes far beyond your typical DLC and cloth maps, though...
9:30 AM on 05.24.2013 Microsoft predicts over a billion next-gen consoles soldSupremely high expectations have been a large part of this generation, and it appears the next one will continue the tradition. Microsoft is convinced the combined might of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 will see over one bil...
3:00 PM on 05.20.2013 Jimquisition: Guns BlazingDark Souls 2 is all about going in, guns blazing, and hoping to God it works. Oh dear. Namco Bandai's PR chief recently shone a spectacular light on the broken mentality of "AAA" publishers, describing the promotion of ...
10:30 AM on 05.19.2013 Ghost of a Tale meets funding goal, play your mouse lute!Ghost of a Tale, the promising game starring a mouse with a LUTE AND A HAT, made its crowdfunding goal of 45.000€ last night. There shall be much rejoicing. The game caught attention through its incredible des...
1:00 PM on 05.15.2013 Pachter: Wii U sales continue to sink as Wii outsells itIndustry analyst Michael "Veggie Kisses" Pachter has forecast even more troubling times ahead for Nintendo and the pauvre Wii U, estimating a lamentable sale of 55,000 units in the past month. This would mean a drop in monthl...
12:30 PM on 05.15.2013 Ubisoft had a great year, up $83.3 millionA lot of companies have been releasing their financial figures lately, but it doesn't seem as if any can hold a candle to Ubisoft's performance. While most had a non-remarkable or down year in fiscal 2013, Ubisoft reported pr...
10:15 AM on 05.15.2013 Namco Bandai treating Dark Souls 2 as a 'huge AAA title'Namco Bandai's marketing support for Dark Souls was modest, to say the least, but apparently it won't be making that same "mistake" with the sequel. Dark Souls 2 is to be treated like a major "AAA" title, according to the pub...
9:30 PM on 05.14.2013 Among the Sleep hits Kickstarter goalAmong the Sleep, Krillbite's exciting horror game played from the perspective of a two-year-old, has reached its Kickstarter goal of $200,000, getting the funding it needs to be finished and polished for a 2013 release. ...
4:00 PM on 05.14.2013 Screw fashion! How to really spend $20 in Dota 2When I first saw Cara Ellison's post on Rock, Paper, Shotgun on how to spend $20 in Dota 2 while simultaneously making your characters look stunning, I thought it was a nice way to completely waste $20. Sure, there are s...
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