Valve relaunching Team Fortress 2 as free-to-play title

by Mike Schramm on Jun 23rd 2011 8:42PM

Develop has posted an interview with Team Fortress 2 developer Robin Walker in which he says that the company has decided to make the popular class-based shooter completely free-to-play, supported only by microtransactions. Walker says the game has experimented with multiple price points over its long history (including allowing players to play for free during temporary periods) and that making this transition now "feels like a fairly straightforward next step along the 'Games as Services' path we've been walking down for a while now."

Walker also says that this is a model that specifically fits the multiplayer game at this moment in the product's life, when Valve is trying to reach as many players as it possibly can. The permanent price drop won't affect development on the game at all, but monetization will only go through the game's item shop. You can read more in the interview, live now over at Develop.

There's no official word on any of this from Valve yet, on either the Steam blog or the official Team Fortress 2 site. We are scheduled to hear about the next update today (and even see a "Meet the Medic" video) and the game was set to go free for just a week, but this is obviously a more permanent direction. We've contacted Valve and will post more here when we get it.

Update: Valve's Doug Lombardi has responded to us with a simple confirmation: "Yep." Enjoy your free TF2, kids!

Update: The site has been updated as well. The game's completely free to play, forever!

Source: Develop

Tags: free-to-play, in-game-store, items, microtransactions, pc, robin-walker, team-fortress, Team-Fortress-2, valve

Reader Comments (123)

Great news.

I've been waiting for this to hit $2.50 again, but, this is even better.

Hats for everyone!

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze

Except the hats cost money now.....

@Timjoy

If hats really keep you from playing then you are not playing the right game.

@Timjoy

Except the hats were for sale whether it went F2P or not, and you can still get them through playing the game, just as you always have.

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze
Waiting for one of the best online multiplayer games ever made to hit $2.50 before you buy it?

I'd call you cheap but really it's just sad that you've been missing out for so long over a few bucks.

@Timjoy
You can get hats by crafting or random drops too. Or, if you lack the patience to wait for one to drop, buy it from the in game store.

@CaramelZappa
Completely agreed, TF2 has given me 188 hours of literal, unambiguous fun, and it has been so fascinating to see it grow and improve every step of the way. There's no levelling and little progression to fool you into thinking you're having fun, it's just great gameplay, servers, maps and community.

I hope it doesn't happen. Those models are always: pay to win. And that's not cool. At all. And I convinced some friends to buy it a couple of weeks ago. >

@DarkSan00
Yeah, those models are usually pay to win, but if you've kept up with TF2 at all you'd know none of the monetized items really give you an advantage over the regular items. And most of the monetized items are just hats and paint.

That said I think the TF2 community has kind of went downhill since the hat updates.

@DarkSan00

This is Valve. I think we can rely on them to run the Free to Play model the right way.

@DarkSan00

I sorta felt the same way, but Valve just posted the FAQ up on www.teamfortress.com and I gotta say, I feel a lot better about this change now.

@DarkSan00 Most items can be obtained in-game (excluding promotional items and even in this case, you can make SOME of them) as you've always been able to. They can either be "dropped" simply by playing or you can craft them. The differing weapons are NOT upgrades. They're "sidegrades" (coming with both positives and negatives) that offer a different playstyle. Players are no worse off for using the stock weapons. The game still comes down to how well the player is.

@DarkSan00 I can assure you this is not how valve is doing things

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze

Yeah they have a spectacular track record of doing what they say they will.

"Hats will never effect game play!"
Polycount Pack: Hats are set items and complete the set to give bonus stats. Technically the hats themselves have no stats..... but that is just lawyer ball.

People rage and they backpedal but don't remove it as to not piss off the people who shelled out tons of money for the game play effecting hats. But essentially promise that it won't happen again.

The Uber Update: The scout set includes the new scout hat ...........

Yeah total trust.

@Scuffles
I'd like to see your source where it says the scout set requires the hat.
Sure, all the new items hve shown the classes wearing a new hat, but no where in the uber update pages does it say you get a set bonus or requiring a hat for one.

@DarkSan00 TF2 is a shooter that was designed to be paid, not an mmo.. the stock weapons are almost all better than any unlockables (the best retro unlockables are obtained through achievements) and are the ones used in competitive play. Collecting them is fun, though.

I've played this for years and I can say from experience that the ingame store isn't required. I've gotten every unlock that isn't a skin (big kill is exact same as revolver, just a different color) via drops and crafting.

Everyone pick it up. The more the merrier.

@(Unverified)

Gee Hurrr Durrrr, I dunno I looked at the new items in in the Mann-Co. Catalog. Try clicking on any of the new scout Items and read the Set list for the #1 Fan

The Soda popper
The Winger
The Atomizer
Bonk Boy (see: scout hat)

If their own in game catalog isn't enough of a source for you ....

So, as far as gameplay goes, is it any good for a hat simulator?

@Helghast102

Oh yeah, the entirety of Valve's physics engine was put into the Hats. Feathered hats flutter as individual parts spread and shift in the wind. Hard-hats clang and roll, and bullets bounce and dent with realism so great you'd only ever see it there!

And don't get me started on the Sniper's hat... it's beyond words what they did with it...

@Helghast102 It's decent. Comparing it to other hat simulators I have played, it is obviously a little bit more fun but doesn't do the best job with the physics of hats.

@DevilSei Curse you! YOu beat me to it!

@Helghast102

the hat aerodynamics are a little off, and the hat controls could be tighter. also, hats don't have very realistic weight. really, as a hat simulator its not that great, its an arcade hat game at best.

serious hat sim enthusiasts will be better served waiting for Hat Simulator 2012 in the spring. I hear they are putting in some revolutionary physics engine to produce some of the most realistic headwear ever rendered on consumer hardware.

@Peril damn, took too long typing. lol

great minds think alike!

But games... aren't services.

@Mariks They are now! Or rather, they have been for many years. It is the 21st century, and there is time for Klax. And by Klax I mean subscription-and-microtransaction-based-games-that-exist-as-services-or-utilities-rather-than-one-time-purchases.

@Once known as Shadsy

I think you and I are the only two people who remember Klax.

@KevinWI
if you're talking about the genesis game then yes.
asked my mom to buy me mortal kombat, then she came back with Klax.

@timbots Fairly certain I saw Klax in an arcade before the genesis version. Oh man now I remembered arcades are gone...again. :(

@KevinWI
Whoa... I was looking to see if there was Klax on iOS yesterday (there is a knock off made by the original programmer).

If only if had all the original sounds....

@yomachaser

Yeah, was on arcades first but I think the Genesis version was the best. Arcade version always seemed kinda slow and laggy to me. Maybe the Klax arcade machine in my local Shakey's Pizza was broken or something, who knows.

Oh come on. $2.50, $1, even $0.01, anything but free. Time for an influx of trolls and griefers.

@Marshillboy

On the bright side, it would mix greatly with this idea
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/110056-Valve-Discusses-Charging-Customers-Based-on-Popularity

Guess Valve got tired of trying to lure people into buying this game & just decided to give it away. That was nice of them. Now everyone can talk about hOw AW3S0M3 TF2 izzz!!!!

@Prboi seems like everyone is talking about how much it sucks now that it's free. and for the people saying that vanilla was so much better, why is it that when the steam servers go down and you can't access your load out everyone in every server i've played in bitches and cries about it?

Man this is going to get annoying. Every time you say something disparaging about free to play games somebody's gonna pop in and say WHAT ABOUT TEAM FORTRESS YOU ASSHOLE?!

@Acosta02
What's wrong with F2P games? A lot of them are really good or at least decent. Alien Swarm, Maplestory, Global Agenda, Spiral Knights, Champions Online, Alliance of Valiant Arms, Forsaken World, GunZ, Combat Arms, WolfTeam, Soldier Front, War Rock, Battlefield F2P, Battlefield Heroes, Fallen Empire: Legion, PlaneShift, Gunbound, and Soldat. That's just what I could think of off the top of my head.

@einhanderkiller

Well, nothing. It's just that for every decent ftp game there's a "____ville" game on facebook. When peope talk about bad ftp games, they usually mean that kind of thing– most people understand this automatically, so nobody pops up saying "hey you idiot what about gunbound?!"

@Mr Esc is the namesarcasm is my It's only your fault for having the mentality that you NEED/HAVE to pay money to get the new items which is for whatever reason in your mind, the only way to have fun in the game.

i think something is forming in my pants....yes yes i knew it, its a boner ladies and gentlemen.

@Esir
That's a first..

very cool move on Valve's part, but I have no desire to play Hat Fortress 2

I want my money back tbh. I hate what tf2 has become, I liked the old vanilla tf2 that came with the orange box. Also making it F2P will mean a HUGE influx of hack users.

@aea0a095 Me too, I pretty much stopped playing after the first items update. A few months later I completely uninstalled the game.

@aea0a095 Unless you didn't get your money's worth from the amount of time you've already played, you don't deserve anything at all as compensation. In what world would you actually deserve anything for a situation like this?

"Man, I wore this shirt for so many years that there's holes in it now. I should get my money back!"

See how stupid you sound?

@BluElement
Your comparison is quite off. It's nothing like that because clearly that shirt was damaged by the one who bought it. This would be like you buying that shirt because you liked the way it looked, then the company comes back, forcefully takes it from you, changes it into hat and gives it back, and you hate hats.

You didn't want a hat, you wanted a shirt, yea you should get your money back.

And on a side note, to those of you who didn't know, VAC does not automatically ban hack users, it takes a random time from a few weeks up to 3 months. Once that times is up and they're banned, guess what? They make a new account.

@aea0a095 It's still the same game at heart. I don't see how new content can make the game worse especially if most of it, besides maps is negligible.

TF2 is probably the only game where hacks could barely affect your game unless you were playing the sniper with an aimbot. Otherwise most any other common hack will be hard to utilize I imagine.

@aea0a095

If you want Vanilla TF2, just play it on 360/PS3.

@SisypheanLife

Play an fps with joysticks? ha, I'd sooner quit gaming altogether. Been playing PC FPS's since the early Quake, UT games, I'll never get how anyone could play a console fps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6OtFKNDPUc

@Item Box
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvdf5n-zI14&feature=related

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Team Fortress 2

Valve relaunching Team Fortress 2 as free-to-play title

Reader Comments (123)

Posted: Jun 23rd 2011 8:43PM Ezio Auditore da Firenze said

Posted: Jun 23rd 2011 8:45PM Timjoy said

Posted: Jun 23rd 2011 8:50PM Prboi said

Posted: Jun 23rd 2011 9:14PM Neofalcon said

Posted: Jun 23rd 2011 9:31PM CaramelZappa said

Posted: Jun 23rd 2011 10:36PM ColorblindMonk said

Posted: Jun 25th 2011 2:34PM Haggard said

Posted: Jun 23rd 2011 8:44PM DarkSan00 said

Posted: Jun 23rd 2011 8:55PM CaramelZappa said

Posted: Jun 23rd 2011 8:57PM Ezio Auditore da Firenze said

Posted: Jun 23rd 2011 10:15PM Colin said

Posted: Jun 23rd 2011 10:30PM ManofPeace said

Posted: Jun 23rd 2011 11:23PM Integral said

Posted: Jun 24th 2011 12:54AM Scuffles said

Posted: Jun 24th 2011 1:10AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jun 24th 2011 2:36AM ND92 said

Posted: Jun 24th 2011 8:46AM Scuffles said

Posted: Jun 23rd 2011 8:45PM Helghast102 said

Posted: Jun 23rd 2011 8:48PM DevilSei said

Posted: Jun 23rd 2011 8:51PM Peril said

Posted: Jun 23rd 2011 8:52PM Peril said

Posted: Jun 23rd 2011 8:57PM Aberhams said

Posted: Jun 23rd 2011 8:57PM Aberhams said

Posted: Jun 23rd 2011 8:45PM Mariks said

Posted: Jun 23rd 2011 9:16PM Once known as Shadsy said

Posted: Jun 23rd 2011 9:23PM KevinWI said

Posted: Jun 23rd 2011 9:36PM timbots said

Posted: Jun 23rd 2011 10:21PM yomachaser said

Posted: Jun 23rd 2011 11:45PM XLM said

Posted: Jun 25th 2011 2:35PM KevinWI said

Posted: Jun 23rd 2011 8:46PM Marshillboy said

Posted: Jun 23rd 2011 8:50PM DevilSei said

Posted: Jun 23rd 2011 8:49PM Prboi said

Posted: Jun 24th 2011 12:16PM berval said

Posted: Jun 23rd 2011 8:50PM Acosta02 said

Posted: Jun 23rd 2011 10:16PM einhanderkiller said

Posted: Jun 23rd 2011 10:20PM Acosta02 said

Posted: Jun 23rd 2011 10:44PM ManofPeace said

Posted: Jun 23rd 2011 8:52PM Esir said

Posted: Jun 24th 2011 2:52AM Imminent Fate said

Posted: Jun 23rd 2011 8:59PM Measlesopolis said

Posted: Jun 23rd 2011 9:02PM aea0a095 said

Posted: Jun 23rd 2011 9:12PM Davenj said

Posted: Jun 23rd 2011 9:14PM BluElement said

Posted: Jun 23rd 2011 9:24PM aea0a095 said

Posted: Jun 23rd 2011 10:54PM AutomaticClutch said

Posted: Jun 24th 2011 5:40PM SisypheanLife said

Posted: Jun 24th 2011 5:52PM aea0a095 said

Posted: Jun 23rd 2011 9:06PM Item Box said

Posted: Jun 23rd 2011 9:07PM ticklefist said

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