Dec 17, 2011

Analyst Pegs Team Fortress 2 Hat Economy at $50 Million

Kotaku

Analyst Pegs Team Fortress 2 Hat Economy at $50 Million Done with that Zynga story? Thought that was all the economics you were getting today? Nope. While he's not recommending investor action, writer Paul Manwaring did some number crunching and conservatively valued Team Fortress 2's unique items economy at, oh, about $50 million.

Now, that's not $50 million in real money that Valve has either made, or has been invested by gamers into a system and is floating around loose somewhere. Hats and unique items are found by unlocking crates, crates are unlocked with keys, and keys can be acquired for free, basically at the equivalence of 18 dropped weapons to one key. (They may also be bought for actual money, too.) This is a valuation, nothing more.

Manwaring examined the statistics kept (and made public) for TF2 and, long story short, finds that a community of 30,000 concurrent players each day in TF2 on Steam is injecting $1.54 million worth of "refined metal" into this virtual economy each week. Refined metal is what creates a key. Since the hat economy began in May 2009, Manwaring estimates that "we can be confident in a minimum figure of $52.7 million," as its valuation, "without even taking into account weapons bought in the store, promotional items and more. The true figure is probably double this."

I highly recommend you read Manwaring's entire post. Again, it's not money in Valve's bank account. But it is another way to characterize the enthusiasm and time investment Team Fortress 2's dedicated players sink into the game.

The $50 Million Virtual Millinery [Paul Manwaring, for The Online Society]

Dec 16, 2011

Team Fortress 2 Update Released

Product Update - Valve

Updates to Team Fortress 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Fixed the Frontier Justice getting infinite crits
Fixed a problem that would allow Pyro Mmmph to activate in the air without taunting
Fixed Manmelter getting crits from Mmmph
Fixed an exploit with The Eureka Effect and The Phlogistinator where the effects could activate without taunting in high-lag situations
Fixed the Brown Bomber not showing up on the Demoman
Fixed client HUD crash
Fixed colors on Christmas lights for the Blue team Scout weapons
Fixed a bug that would cause minicrits when switching weapons rapidly
Steam Workshop zip file size limit has been increased from 4 MB to 10 MB

Dec 16, 2011

Team Fortress 2 Update Released

TF2 Blog

Updates to Team Fortress 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Fixed the Frontier Justice getting infinite crits
Fixed a problem that would allow Pyro Mmmph to activate in the air without taunting
Fixed Manmelter getting crits from Mmmph
Fixed an exploit with The Eureka Effect and The Phlogistinator where the effects could activate without taunting in high-lag situations
Fixed the Brown Bomber not showing up on the Demoman
Fixed client HUD crash
Fixed colors on Christmas lights for the Blue team Scout weapons
Fixed a bug that would cause minicrits when switching weapons rapidly
Steam Workshop zip file size limit has been increased from 4 MB to 10 MB

Dec 16, 2011

Valve announces Team Fortress 2 Australian Christmas update part 2

Eurogamer

Valve has announced the second annual Christmas-themed update for free-to-play shooter Team Fortress 2.

The Australian Christmas update part two includes two retro-futuristic "Dr. Grordbort" class packs for the Engineer and Pyro, designed by Weta Workshop's Greg Broadmore.

It adds CP_Foundry, a new five-cap control point map designed by Valve's Team Fortress 2 team and featuring 12 map-specific achievements.

The update also adds 14 new Christmas-themed weapons, hats and items made by the Team Fortress community's item creators using the Steam Workshop.

For Christmas, Valve has knocked up to 75 per cent off over 50 items in the Mann Co. in-game store. This sale lasts until 2nd January 2012. Valve has also doubled the in-game item drop rate for the first week of the event.

Dec 16, 2011

Team Fortress 2 Australian Christmas event adds new map, new items, doubles drop rate

PC Gamer

The Team Fortress 2 Australian Christmas celebratory extravaganza is go! The free update adds a new control point map called Foundry which, according to the achievements list, will feature a big, deadly cauldron fire. Pyros and Engineers get new class packs and 50 items are 75% off in the Mann-Co store. The update is detailed on the Australian Christmas page on the Team Fortress 2 site. "But what about the new hats?" you're perhaps asking, clawing at your unhatted head with eager fingers. Read on and all shall be revealed.

Having your face stuck inside a gas mask that's also inside a space helmet makes it awfully hard to smoke a pipe. The Pyro's new helmet solves that problem by building a pipe into the space helmet. It looks a lot better than it sounds. He's also getting some new weapons, including The Third Degree, a fire axe that will damage the player your hitting, and any players attached to them by medic beams (ie. Medics). The Phlogistinator is a flamethrower that will gradually boost its "Mmmmph" meter with all damage dealt. It can then be activated to heal yourself and crit anyone you're flaming at the time. That sounds powerful.

Engineers, meanwhile, will be able to earn the Brainiac Pack. This includes some Einstein style hair, a wrench that can teleport him back to the spawn zone and a "level 10 indivisible Particle Smasher." It shoots bolts that pass through enemies. If it hits a medic, it'll dock them 10% of their medigun charge. Stricken spies will be stripped of 20% of their cloak power.

Valve also mention "14 new holiday-themed weapons, hats and cosmetic items by the TF community's item creators." This will see some of the fantastic entries we've seen in the Steam Workshop making their way into the full game. These items will only be available by unlocking the "nice crates" that will be appearing in TF2's maps for the duration of Australian Christmas. "Naughty crates" will also drop. These contain "Smissmass lights" that can be used to spruce up weapons. The item drop rate will be doubled for the first week of the event, which kicked off yesterday. Bonanza!

Dec 16, 2011

Team Fortress 2 Gets Wintery Update

Rock, Paper, Shotgun - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Jim Rossignol)

Presents! They said it couldn’t be done, but they did it anyway: Valve’s free-to-play FPS, Team Fortress 2, has been updated with new items and stuff! Seasonal weapons are now available, with “naughty and nice” crate gifts appearing across levels in the game. You can learn about the new stuff in detail here, or just jump into the game and get automatically updated with Christmasness. And I have to admit, it does seem like the time of year to spend your hours blasting people into chunks with exotic weaponry, doesn’t it?

Dec 15, 2011

Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike: Source, Day of Defeat: Source and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch Updates Released

Product Update - Valve

Updates to Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike: Source, Day of Defeat: Source and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Source Engine Changes (TF2, DoD:S, HL2:DM)

Fixed a bug which caused Windows Aero Extensions video option to always be enabled, regardless of setting. Disabling this can improve compatibility with third-party programs and overlays, but may also affect performance.
Fixed SourceTV showing player counts for the game server instead of the number of clients connected to the SourceTV server

Team Fortress 2

Australian Christmas has begun!
- Added community-contributed winter event items
- Added new Grordbort Pyro and Engineer item sets
- Added the "Valve Gift Grab 2011 – TF2" achievement
- Added Naughty and Nice winter keys to the Mann Co. store
Added a new Valve-authored control point map: Foundry
- added 12 achievements for Foundry
- added achievement reward milestone reward for Foundry achievement
Added UGC Highlander medals
Relaxed some restrictions on what misc items can be equipped simultaneously
Additional improvements for client stability
Updated the localization files

Day of Defeat: Source

Added the "Valve Gift Grab 2011 – DoD:S" achievement
Updated the localization files

Counter-Strike: Source

Added the "Valve Gift Grab 2011 – CS:S" achievement
Added rate limiting for connections and added the following ConVars to support that:
- sv_max_connects_sec
- sv_max_connects_window
- sv_max_connects_sec_global
Dramatically improved the dynamic model loading system's memory usage, performance, and stability
Reduced memory usage on systems running Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7
Improved alt-tab handling under Windows Vista and Windows 7
Fixed a client crash during demo playback
Updated the localization files

Dec 15, 2011

Team Fortress 2 Presents: Australian Christmas

Announcement - Valve

The second annual holiday-themed "Australian Christmas" update, features two retro-futuristic “Dr. Grordbort” class packs for the Engineer and Pyro, designed by Weta Workshop’s Greg Broadmore.

In addition to the class packs, the update will also ship 14 new holiday-themed weapons, hats and cosmetic items by the TF community’s item creators, using the Steam Workshop. “CP_Foundry,” a new five-cap control point map designed by Valve’s TF2 team, comes with 12 map-specific achievements.

As part of the holiday celebration, over 50 items in the Mann Co. in-game store will be on sale for up to 75% until January 2nd, 2012. Additionally, the in-game item drop rate will be doubled for the first week of the event.