Steam has been the recipient of a great deal of updates recently. While the service has had long stretches in the past without any new features being added, in a relatively short span of time we’ve seen the launch of the Steam Mobile app, Steam Greenlight, and Big Picture mode, as well as the addition of non-gaming software and an expansion of the Steam Community. As it explores launching its own hardware, Valve is continuing to move ahead with new Steam features, the latest of which provides its users with another opportunity to make money.
Before now, users could trade items from certain games and giftable copies of games with others through Steam. It’s now possible, with today’s launch of the Steam Community Market, to sell select items to other users for real-world money. With the feature currently in beta, support for this is limited: Only one-time consumable items from Team Fortress 2 — always Valve’s guinea pig — may be sold right now. That greatly limits the possibilities of what’s for sale, as the bulk of TF2’s items are cosmetic items (primarily hats) and weapons. It does sound as if these constraints will be loosened in the future and they are only in place for the purpose of the beta, but it remains to be seen if things will be opened up completely.
