this post was submitted on 18 Dec 2025
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Monopolized a market by offer good services to both end users and buisness clients.
Lets not forget the evil though : helped set the 30% cut for apps/games that became the standard across all digital spaces, arguably started online gambling and microtranactions in gaming.
The very first instance of microtransaction began with Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. You know the one, the horse armor for $2.50. That was in 2006.
Team Fortress 2 didn't come out until 2007.
Online Gambling has been a thing for quite a while beforehand. You can't entirely blame Valve, here. Inspired? Perhaps, but it took them quite a time to even start giving in.
Just a side note:
TF2, released in 2007, hasn't had lootboxes till 2010. Valve was not even the first game to have them.
spoiler
FIFA was 1 year ahead, but not the first one either.Also, TF2's lootboxes are not the same as Dota2 and CSGO/CS2. TF2 weapons have an actual change of gameplay to them while Dota/CS has just skins. Not to mention, you can get all weps in TF2 by just playing the game.
I agree with your sentiment, but you're wrong.
Horse armor was nowhere close to the first microtransaction. Maple Story released in 2003 and is widely considered to be the first videogame with micro transactions. You could make a strong argument that arcade games were the origin of micro transactions even.
Part of what made the horse armor so egregious was that it was for a full-priced game. And it's also worth pointing out that Microsoft was involved in that mess too. They had purchased times exclusivity for Oblivion on Windows and Xbox. An unnamed Microsoft executive allegedly went to Todd Howard and compared the pricing to things like Xbox system themes or iPhone ringtones, when at the time a 30s crappy quality version of your favorite song might cost $5.
Gambling has existed for thousands of years. I don't blame Valve. I don't really play their FtP games much, but my understanding is that the micro transactions are mostly cosmetic and not pay-to-win. There were times in my life when FtP games were a great boon and I had the discipline to not buy micro transactions, but today I prefer games that are just one purchase. Still, just because I don't like FtP games doesn't mean they shouldn't exist or that I hate Valve for having some.
Online gambling existed well before Steam.
How did they start microtransactions?
Selling loot boxes, where you pay 2-3 currency units to "unlock" a box that definitely won't have something of value the vast majority of the time. TF2 cosmetics, CS:GO gun/knife/glove/player model skins
To be fair those are cosmetic only items. I've played a ton of those games and didn't spend s dime, because I don't care about how cool my gun looks.
same. But to a lot of people, those pixels are valuable. So valuable an entire secondary market opened up outside of Steam. And the lootbox mechanic is literally gambling-- No different than a slot machine. When opening a box, it even gins it up with graphics and fanfare, just like a video slot machine.
Multiple billions of currency units in "value" all situated around virtual gambling. Valve created the most successful, valuable digital casino, ever.
And is still effectively DRM even if it's fairly non-invasive