Steam Meets eBay with the Steam Community Market

Whether you agree with pay-to-win systems that are becoming ever-prevelant in today’s gaming media market, or if you disagree against it on either a moral conscience basis; or simply because you get a downtrodden sense of dread whenever money seems to vacate itself from your wallet; Steam seems to have bought evermore into the notion with its newly released Steam Community Market. This at the moment gives gamers, and the aristocracy that devours these kinds of things, the ability to purchase tools, consumables and hats for Team Fortress 2. 

Steam is yet to confirm how far this system will go, and more importantly to what games it will extend itself to; with the likes of Dota 2 heavily under the watchful eye of the public – but it is safe to assume that it will grow within some respect provided the system stays altogether. However don’t fear too much; Sir Alan Sugar shall not be out-gaming you due to his sufficient cash-flow, as of time of writing the limit on the Steam Community Marketplace is limited to $200 so nothing worth more than $200 could ever be sold. However there are rumours of this limit being raised, changed or even scraped completely in the future.

This of course all boils down to why this exists; Diablo III got questioned because of its real-money auction house and it’s safe to assume that this will probably go through the same kind of grilling through time. But as 90% of the profit goes to the individual selling, therefore Steam taking only 10% of each sale, it’s hard to argue that Steam are doing for the extra dollar in their pocket.

Ultimately whether you think this is a good idea or not is entirely up to you; it’s an easy way to make money (even if the all money earned from the sales is account bound to your Steam Wallet and cannot be traded for that nice gold coin you carry round in your everyday purse) if you put the time in, or have the spare cash to up your game. The longevity and success of the Steam Community Marketplace will entirely depend on how much of an affect it will have on the average gamer in their day-to-day playing of a game. As for now, you can head over to the Steam Store and check it out for yourself.