Valve Introduces Developer Managed Item Stores on Steam

Valve has introduced new item outlets called Item Stores. In these stores, players can purchase in-game items and select workshop items at prices set by the game developer.

The Rust Item Store is the first of its kind. There are not only in-game items that were already known, but also certain Steam Workshop items that are created by users themselves. According to a post from Valve employee Doug Lombardi, workshop item proceeds are split between the content creator and the game developer. It is not clear what that distribution looks like and who determines it. For items from the developer himself, all proceeds go to the studio. Lombardi gives his explanation on the closed game developer group on the Steam Community, according to Gamasutra. Not everyone can post a workshop item on the Item Store; this requires developer approval, similar to how it works now with Team Fortress 2.

Perhaps the infrastructure that Valve is setting up with this will be used in the future to make paid mods part of Steam. It wouldn’t be Valve’s first attempt at getting modmakers to get paid for their content. Valve employees have already told Kotaku that they are still interested in the concept.

The Item Store is not a new concept. Studios have been implementing microtransactions for items for some time, but Valve is simply taking work off the developers’ hands. With the introduction of the Item Stores, they no longer have to worry about creating their own stores, nor do they have to deal with the integration of the Steam Workshop in those stores. An Item Store window will automatically appear on the game’s product page.

In addition to ease of implementation for developers, Item Stores have a major impact on the Community Market. It will simply continue to exist next to the Item Stores. On the Item Stores, developers determine what is paid for an item, which means that the Community Market can have a formidable competitor. This is immediately the case with Rust; at the time of writing, prices in the Item Store are significantly lower than in the Community Market. With the introduction of the Item Store, developers can therefore directly influence the market value of their in-game items.