Valve is opening up a new revenue stream on its popular Steam service by allowing its players to buy and sell virtual goods. The Steam Community Market began a beta period on Wednesday, currently applicable only to Valve's premiere free-to-play game, Team Fortress 2. What does this mean for game developers? Potentially, a new source of revenue. While Valve will pocket 5% of the revenue from these virtual sales (to recoup "nominal fraud incidents"), the company says there is also an additional game-specific fee for each transaction, which is determined and collected by the individual game's publisher. Currently that fee is 10 percent for Team Fortress 2. More information at the official FAQ.
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