There’s a few ways to make $50 million: Run a mega corporation, become a movie or pop star, become a drug lord. Or you could add a hat feature to your popular multiplayer game like Valve did with Team Fortress 2.
Analyst Paul Manwaring has valued TF2’s hat and unique item economy to be worth about $50 million. Now, there’s a lot of number crunching in there, but it shows that Valve could definitely afford the switch to free-to-play. If you read Manwaring’s original article, it’s actually a little terrifying.
Valve aren’t the only people making some serious cash off unique items in the game, however. Some of you might remember the story of the 15 year old who made $10,000 USD in the TF2 hat trade. The TF2 item trade is booming, and with new content and exclusives being constantly introduced, it doesn’t look like it’ll slow down any time soon. Might be a good time to consider going into business.
I remember running a pretty good item trade on Habbo Hotel as a teenager. Do kids still play that?
[Source: The Online Society via Kotaku]