Allegedly Valve is paying out less
Going back as far as the ’90s, there has been a small collective of modders in the community that either have a successful side hustle, or a full-time gig providing content on top of what the development team already offers. Valve is pretty much the perfect mark, as they have a built-in audience of millions and facilitate that content creator/overlord relationship, but that’s changing with Dota 2, and people aren’t happy about it.
Over on reddit one post is getting a lot of traction. The chief allegation is that Valve is paying out less cash for items that are sold on their marketplace, and haven’t told people ahead of time that the change would take place. Originally that involved getting a 25% cut, but that changed to 12.5% (with a 12.5% cut for Battle Passes), and now, supposedly 12.5% across the board without concessions for passes.
Another issue is that Valve has made the space even more crowded with this cut, so people are competing like crazy to make ends meet. Content creators also state that immortal items ruin the market, as players who obtain immortal items (including Axe players, who has an immortal in every equippable slot) won’t buy anything else. In case you were wondering, yes some folks make a living off of these mods, so this alteration has been pretty life-changing for them.
Even if you aren’t remotely interested in Dota 2, MOBAs, or skin economies, the entire breakdown is a fascinating read. We’ve reached out to Valve for comment and will update if we hear anything back.
Dota 2 [Reddit]
