Valve has no idea why almost 30 percent of TF2 players spend cash in the game

by Jordan Mallory on Oct 25th 2011 9:05PM

"We don't understand what's going on," said Valve co-founder Gabe Newell, during last week's WTIA TechNW panel in Seattle. According to Newell, 20 to 30 percent of the people who play Team Fortress 2 end up spending money on the title's various microtransactions, far beyond the average two to three percent "conversion" Valve's partners are reporting.

"There seems to be something about the content that significantly changes how your monetization occurs, with apparently much broader participation than you would see out of something like FarmVille." When Team Fortress 2 relaunched as a free-to-play title back in June, the title's user base increased by "a factor of 5," which Newell attributes to TF2's designation as "free-to-play" rather than simply free: "You have to start thinking about how value creation actually occurs, and what it is that people are valuing, and what the statement that something is free-to-play implies about the future value of the experience that they're going to have."

Hey Valve, wanna know the secret? It's the hats. People love hats.

Via: The Escapist
Source: Geekwire

Tags: gabe-newell, mac, Microtransactions, money, pc, steam, team-fortress, Team-Fortress-2, valve

Reader Comments (42)

Inventory caps at 50 unless you buy something may have contributed to that. I got sick of having to delete an item before I could respawn.

@PatientJ

Aye, I bought the cheapest dang thing I could in the store just to get out of the "uber-cheap seats" and not deal with that crap. Haven't bought anything else since.

Seems simple, tf2 is geared to folks more accustomed to paying for games... Farmville is geared more towards casual gamers. Farmville seems like a bad comparison, wonder if some of the f2p mmos have as low as of a conversion rate.

I agree. Must be the hats... Or the fact that TF2 is amazing.

Of course it's the hats, while else would people be playing a War-Themed Hat Simulator? That's like saying people play Killing Floor (Zombie Themed Dosh/Economics Simulator) for the only the Survival aspects >.

@Jetleo1

>_ what's up with that? Only got one eye?

@originalzombieslayer888 That was a Demoman emoticon.

I hate the free 2 play model, but I'm okay with TF2 because it's an amazing game, not because it's "free 2 play" instead of "free"

I also have to wonder if this factors in people who already bought the game or just new players.

I was a F2P, but when I started buying stuff, it felt good to give back to a developer that gave me something great.

The game is fun without buying stuff, and also with. That has a lot to do with it. If players feel that the game is incomplete without it, then they start to enjoy the game less.

I've probably bought about $15-$20 worth of items n such, and I love what I get for my money!

Awesome sells? Anyone?

Because people love to gamble
http://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Mann_Co._Supply_Crate

@KillerSlinky

I've spent far too much on those damn crates!

@KillerSlinky I've never bought a key...

@Fugaku I actually gave a crate away yesterday. He was nice enough to give me a Buff Banner anyways, but I just didn't want to hassle with it.

DID SOMEONE SAY HATS?!?!!?!?!

MAY I TAKE YOUR HAT SIR? MAY I TAKE YOUR HAT SIR?

@Dooliss

I'll just leave this here...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9iF-OkSZFU

TF2 like CS,BF,COD,and Halo all have.
Good game play and a great community around it.

@(Unverified)

Take off every game after TF2 and you'll be more correct with the great community thing.

Just goes to show you that Valve knows how to get things done.

Unless it rhymes with Webisode Tree.

Don't be silly. Team Fortress 2 is about hats.

Er... I misspoke. Team Hatress 2 is about hats.

I mean Hat Hatress 2 is ahat hats

NO! I MEAN HAT HAT HAT HAT HAT HAT—

It's because the game by itself is amazing and drives people to spend money on it because they want to, rather than be pressured into doing it with pop-ups every 3 seconds about how you should post this on Facebook and get 100 likes to "unlock a map" or else you can't play on it.

If you treat your customers nice, they treat you nice back. Valve doesn't pull the usual sleazebag dev trick and mislead people into thinking the game is free only to have a pay-to-win model or restricting free accounts to hell. It's a game that's about delivering a good experience first and reaping rewards from it rather than trying to wring cash out of you the minute you walk in the door.

@PointlessPuppies
battlefield heroes, i'm looking at you and what evil you have become.

Because they designed a game first and -then- added the F2P stuff when it made sense. If you design a game to be F2P first then you will wind up creating a glorified slot machine and forget about the gameplay.

@kmeisthax

Agreed. I think this is also why I think LOTRO is somewhat successful. While they've retooled it for F2P, at it's core it never was.

@kmeisthax

Pretty much, the game was never intended to be free to play nor was it intended to have micro transactions, those are things that valve used their already fun and successful game to test and apparently they worked well.

But I do think that a lot of their numbers may be coming from the fact that players do buy the cheapest item they can to unlock the full features of the game and to not be ridiculed by the paying players, features such as the larger backpack, access to trading, etc.

It would tell a much bigger story if valve listed what the sales figures were for each item, or at the least a sales percentage given to each item simply to see how they rank in terms of sales vs the other items. For instance if 90% of the players only bought one of the cheapest item, then we know why.

I really hope that other publishers take a good, hard look at what Valve has done with TF2 and how successful they've been with it, and try to mimic this business model.

All of the major content for TF2 had been delivered for free (patches, class updates, new maps, new game modes, etc). All of the weapons can be earned over time by just playing (as well as most hats). For those who don't want to wait can buy the items they want. Even then, the stuff that's sold is not critical to the core fun of the game (alt weapons, hats, and name or color changes)

Could you image if other games were ran like this?

I also think part of the reason lies in Valve's reputation. Most people like/love them and don't see them as sellouts. They know their community, what it wants and give it too them.

They understand that if you provide a good product or service people will willingly part with their money, feel good about it and keep on parting.

Valve has been the leader in online distribution with Steam and seeing the success they have with TF2 isn't really a surprise.

I love Valve and I also love the servers / friends I play TF2 with, so every payday I buy a dozen of the "random mystery gifts" and give them out on the server I'm at while I play.

Amazing not one rip from some random troll. nothing but positive feedback. I myself have never played TF but after seeing this it has got my interest for sure.

Well, almost 30 percent of TF2 players realize that keeping this game running costs money, so they'd like to support their favorite developer.

Something that's got to be contributing at least a little is that TF2 rewards creating free accounts and converting them.

I can set up a secondary account, and for about $5 have an idle account that generates metal every week, which I can then use in my own crafting. Repeat as necessary.

I love the crap out of TF2, but let's not forget that not every paid account is 1 individual person.

Team Fortress 2: A game with more hats than Lady Gaga

Reads title of article...

Because they want to?

The secret is most of Valve's fanboy fans are idiots.

@Dick Socrates
I wanted to call you something with the word "Dick" but as I'm reading your nickname...you already did that to yourself. Good job.

May I take your hat sir?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9iF-OkSZFU

FREE HAT! FREE HAT!
FREE HAT! FREE HAT!
FREE HAT! FREE HAT!

I supported the map makers. Seems like most things drop eventually, so I haven't really been buying much. Although I haven't gotten many keys yet. I think I have about 20 locked boxes in my inventory.

It's nice that Gabe didn't make up some random bullshit like he always does.
He always says things about TF2 with a "matter-of-factly" tone because with hindsight. When infact, all the various updates he has done could have gone completely in the opposite direction.
Please, don't cofuse what I have said with the idea that I hate TF2, Valve or Gabe because I love them all.

Hmm maybe they should remake it for PS3...

http://share.blog.us.playstation.com/ideas/2010/09/10/re-release-the-orange-box-on-ps3/

Team Fortress 2

Valve has no idea why almost 30 percent of TF2 players spend cash in the game

Reader Comments (42)

Posted: Oct 25th 2011 9:12PM PatientJ said

Posted: Oct 25th 2011 10:18PM DevilSei said

Posted: Oct 25th 2011 9:23PM shaggyc said

Posted: Oct 25th 2011 9:26PM Knoxrun said

Posted: Oct 25th 2011 9:31PM Jetleo1 said

Posted: Oct 26th 2011 9:33AM originalzombieslayer888 said

Posted: Oct 26th 2011 6:46PM Jetleo1 said

Posted: Oct 25th 2011 9:38PM Fugaku said

Posted: Oct 25th 2011 9:39PM Panko said

Posted: Oct 25th 2011 9:40PM electricfuture said

Posted: Oct 25th 2011 9:41PM nomore7734 said

Posted: Oct 25th 2011 9:42PM KillerSlinky said

Posted: Oct 25th 2011 11:26PM liquidsoap89 said

Posted: Oct 26th 2011 12:02AM Fugaku said

Posted: Oct 26th 2011 8:29AM KingJorf said

Posted: Oct 25th 2011 9:54PM Papytendo said

Posted: Oct 25th 2011 10:03PM Dooliss said

Posted: Oct 25th 2011 10:21PM Psychoplasm said

Posted: Oct 25th 2011 10:09PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 26th 2011 1:53PM Marshillboy said

Posted: Oct 25th 2011 10:33PM DannibusX said

Posted: Oct 25th 2011 10:39PM EliminatorZigma said

Posted: Oct 25th 2011 10:46PM PointlessPuppies said

Posted: Oct 25th 2011 11:49PM mikia said

Posted: Oct 25th 2011 10:58PM kmeisthax said

Posted: Oct 25th 2011 11:39PM TheKillingJoke said

Posted: Oct 26th 2011 2:53AM aea0a095 said

Posted: Oct 25th 2011 11:42PM BPMOmega XBL PSN Steam said

Posted: Oct 26th 2011 12:00AM Mykell said

Posted: Oct 26th 2011 12:34AM Gaddes said

Posted: Oct 26th 2011 12:57AM Fuglyjerm said

Posted: Oct 26th 2011 1:07AM False said

Posted: Oct 26th 2011 1:34AM Perrsun said

Posted: Oct 26th 2011 2:26AM zubieta said

Posted: Oct 26th 2011 3:26AM tendoboy1984 said

Posted: Oct 26th 2011 4:53AM Dick Socrates said

Posted: Oct 26th 2011 1:55PM SoldierShredder said

Posted: Oct 26th 2011 6:48AM KamiKaji said

Posted: Oct 26th 2011 1:53PM SoldierShredder said

Posted: Oct 27th 2011 4:33PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 30th 2011 7:25PM mcnichoj said

Posted: Nov 18th 2011 1:46PM lenandude said

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