In the online shooter Team Fortress 2, a glitch causes players to receive rare drops. They then sell them on the Steam marketplace. Prices have become completely chaotic – one player earned over $1000 overnight with items he had already forgotten about. The player count for the shooter dramatically surged for a few hours.
What kind of glitch is this? As reported by the site Kotaku , there was a bug in the system in the shooter Team Fortress 2 (2009). This resulted in older loot boxes, “Crates,” having a 100% drop rate for unusual items.
This means that hats, which are the primary cosmetic item in Team Fortress 2, were suddenly abundant.
This is referred to as a “bug in the game’s economy.”
Prices for Crates go up on Steam, for hats down
What impact does this have on Steam? The “cosmetics” in Valve’s games can be traded for real money on the Steam marketplace. There were even betting systems around weapon skins in CS: GO.
The hats in Team Fortress 2 are popular items that are actively bought and sold on Steam.
There is a hat, “The Dragonborn Helmet,” which is based on Skyrim. This hat is actually very rare – only three have been sold on Steam in the last week.
But in just a few hours, on July 26, over 120 were sold. As a result, the price of the helmets temporarily fell to $6 to $7 – usually the price ranges from $20 to $40.
How do players benefit from this? A player shared his market transactions on Reddit. He earned over $1000 on July 25. His old crates were sold, which suddenly became so sought after.
The user says he used to play a lot of Team Fortress 2, over 10,000 hours, but then stopped and had not logged in for two years.
But back then he put all his old crates on the marketplace far above the market price on Steam – they suddenly became valuable overnight and were snatched up from him.
Steam player count for Team Fortress 2 booms briefly
What is happening with Team Fortress 2? The glitch caused Team Fortress 2’s player count to almost double for a few hours.
This is Valve’s response: The Steam operator has temporarily suspended trading in Team Fortress 2. They will investigate the situation and report back after the weekend with a solution.
Some even expect a rollback. On Reddit, players recommend to others to temporarily halt trading with items.
