"We make more money because more people buy it, not because we try and nickel-and-dime the same customers", said Team Fortress 2 designer Robin Walker. "You buy the product, you get the content."
Few years ago, charging for additional game content was unthinkable but since Microsoft launched Xbox Live, it has been pushing towards microtransactions as a means of continuing to extract development capital from completed games. This trend has find its way to pc in games like Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion where players paid for "official mods" (the first official mod was merely a better horse!).
Valve is not giving away free additional content for charity though. "Our philosophy there is, if you buy the product, we put more content out to keep the game interesting, we sell more products", said Valve's marketing director Doug Lombardi. "[In multiplayer games] the content you're playing is being created by the players you're playing against, so the more people that get into the game, the more content you're going to have," Valve's Charlie Brown concurred.
Valve is also planning to offer in game advertising, mainly as a way for small developers to be able to offer casual games at reduced prices or even for free while gaining profits. Valve suggests that new games would be offered at full price with no advertisements, or for free or reduced price with advertisements and/or anyway in between.
