5 ms·

The market size for computer game skins is worth billions? I find that absolutely incredible. Do you have an article that talks about it?

user5994461 8y ago
That's fairly reasonable when thinking about it. The sales for an AAA game is in the hundreds of millions of dollars. A free to play game should be able to earn the same order of magnitude through its shop, or there wouldn't be so many of them.
- blevin 8y ago
  Know any good writing that introduces the game item market to outsiders? I am curious about the thought process of people who spend money in this way, and their perception of value. I imagine a taxonomy of motivations, like the one Larry Harris has in _Trading & Exchanges_. Presumably some people get entertainment value (because surely there is a kick in seeing a game's world modified beyond its normal rules of state mutation); some speculate on price trends (hence the price graph on opskins.com; what are time series graphs for if not to spark idle dreams of avarice), and others getting some sort of utility (i.e., money laundering).
  - eeeuo 8y ago
    Skinning is probably a slight misnomer. The skins are applied to the player's weapons and can be seen by all other players as well as spectators. They are, in effect, a status symbol. This feeds into the supply and demand component quite heavily, as you can imagine. All secondary effects follow this initial relationship.
  - exolymph 8y ago
    Play Money by Julian Dibbell! It's on the dated side now but dives into MMO economies from a practioner's perspective — incredible read.
m3rc 8y ago
Someone did some back of the napkin math here https://www.hltv.org/blog/11798/how-much-money-valve-is-making-from-csgo https://www.hltv.org/blog/11798/how-much-money-valve-is-maki... which estimates Valve's 10% cut of all transactions at just over 355 million.
- tyingq 8y ago
  Wow.
  - stevehawk 8y ago
    Well Fortnite just made over $300 million in one month. https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/24/17390004/fortnite-battle-royale-money-made-revenue-300-million-april-2018 https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/24/17390004/fortnite-battle-...
- flashman 8y ago
  No, you've read it wrong. $320m of that $355m is the revenue from selling 21 million copies of the game (and doesn't adjust for discounted copies). The 10% cut of transactions figure ($21m) is based on how much money they'd make if all the items on csgobackpack.net were sold at market value. But the actual fraction of those items which changed hands would be much smaller. Valve is rolling in money from its cut of transactions but these numbers are misguided.

user5994461 8y ago

That's fairly reasonable when thinking about it. The sales for an AAA game is in the hundreds of millions of dollars. A free to play game should be able to earn the same order of magnitude through its shop, or there wouldn't be so many of them.

blevin 8y ago
Know any good writing that introduces the game item market to outsiders? I am curious about the thought process of people who spend money in this way, and their perception of value. I imagine a taxonomy of motivations, like the one Larry Harris has in _Trading & Exchanges_. Presumably some people get entertainment value (because surely there is a kick in seeing a game's world modified beyond its normal rules of state mutation); some speculate on price trends (hence the price graph on opskins.com; what are time series graphs for if not to spark idle dreams of avarice), and others getting some sort of utility (i.e., money laundering).
- eeeuo 8y ago
  Skinning is probably a slight misnomer. The skins are applied to the player's weapons and can be seen by all other players as well as spectators. They are, in effect, a status symbol. This feeds into the supply and demand component quite heavily, as you can imagine. All secondary effects follow this initial relationship.
- exolymph 8y ago
  Play Money by Julian Dibbell! It's on the dated side now but dives into MMO economies from a practioner's perspective — incredible read.

m3rc 8y ago

Someone did some back of the napkin math here https://www.hltv.org/blog/11798/how-much-money-valve-is-making-from-csgo https://www.hltv.org/blog/11798/how-much-money-valve-is-maki... which estimates Valve's 10% cut of all transactions at just over 355 million.

tyingq 8y ago
Wow.
- stevehawk 8y ago
  Well Fortnite just made over $300 million in one month. https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/24/17390004/fortnite-battle-royale-money-made-revenue-300-million-april-2018 https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/24/17390004/fortnite-battle-...
flashman 8y ago
No, you've read it wrong. $320m of that $355m is the revenue from selling 21 million copies of the game (and doesn't adjust for discounted copies). The 10% cut of transactions figure ($21m) is based on how much money they'd make if all the items on csgobackpack.net were sold at market value. But the actual fraction of those items which changed hands would be much smaller. Valve is rolling in money from its cut of transactions but these numbers are misguided.