Leave it to Valve to find the most predatory monetization possible.
this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2025
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Who is buying these skins. I feel like such an alien sometimes. I just can't understand wanting to spend any money at all on a cosmetic skin
Before this shit existed (like back when the hottest shit was Quake), I thought it might be cool to get a professionally made skin everyone in the game could see for like $0.25-$0.50. A dollar, at most.
The first iteration of a system that could have potentially made that a reality, the things you'd actually wanna buy were $25-50. Like who the fuck workshopped these ridiculous prices?
Adjusted for inflation, the price is probably the same 😅
But seriously they just charge whatever people will pay. It's not like it's free market, if people can't make their own custom skins.
I wouldn’t spend money on skins in most games but Counter Strike is different. You can buy a skin, use it for years, and then sell it for more than you paid. In fact, skins are actually a very good investment that have historically had less volatility and better returns than stock indexes like the S&P 500.
But you can't get your money back out. You only get Steam wallet credit when you sell it, right?
These skins have 15% returns? That seems dubious but it could be. I don't think you can sink $300k into skins like you can vanguard, though.
I bought operation cases for around 100€ 5 years ago, it's now worth 1000€
I don't think you can sink $300k into skins like you can vanguard, though.
There are skins worth millions, so definitely you can.
...who is paying a million dollars for a skin??
Whales.
That's the case with a lot of collectibles. LEGO is a great investment but you have to keep it somewhere
Agreed. The only time I'll buy a skin is if it literally improves camouflage. I see no reason to buy a flashy skin that only serves to make you more visible to enemies.
Don't hate me for asking a question. I don't endorse loot boxes and do think they suck. But help me understand:
Isn't this better than loot boxes?
You get to see what you're paying for before you pay. You pay more for rarer items that clearly have very high monetary value and you're allowed to sell on items for real money of you want.
Valve also still sticks with a cosmetics only model and no gameplay affecting transactions. Selling cosmetics only is probably the best way to monetise.
and you're allowed to sell on items for real money of you want.
Just to be real: You can sell them for Steam Wallet funds, which is not "real money" since it can only be used on Steam.
You can sell them on hundreds of third-party marketplaces that let you withdraw to your bank account or crypto wallet.
You can do that, but you're not allowed to do that.
Valve may not endorse it, but they certainly allow it. In fact, there are many skins that cannot be traded on Steam’s official marketplace, but only on third-party sites due to their high value.
You get to see what you're paying for before you pay.
Yes, for the first box. The box after is not shown. So its basically just „hey, if I open this Box, it could very well be that the next box will be a legendary knife”
So you are just betting for what comes after that
Still the point is you don't spend money without knowing what you get so it is better. Still predatory, but better
The new case doesn't have legendaries.
I don't play CS, but...
I dunno, bit better, bit worse, little bit of column a and b. To me this reads like "surprise-fomo-store": congratulations, you found the rarest of things, good job, now fork over this months rent money, you'll probably never get this lucky again!
Sure, you don't need to pay, but same argument applies to lootboxes in general.
The prices of these rarer items are just silly. TBH.
Previously, loot box's gain is a probability distribution over (market price - fixed box price). Now it's (market price - rarity price according to Valve).
I think in the end the market will take the Valve price (fixed or with rarity) into account since it's known and the same to everyone. Then it's again just playing against the probability distribution of items.
Oh so it’s loot boxes mixed with a limited time store multiplied by FOMO. Very cool.
Not!
Also: “At what point do they become macro transactions?” IMO at $2. That’s the micro/macro cutoff for me.
Predatory as hell. Almost impressive how Valve manages to simultaneously be one of the best and one of the worst companies in gaming.
Best or worst, aim for No. 1!
Just goes to show the dire state the rest of the industry is in.
They shot themselves in the foot in my opinion. I just won’t play video games that have that gambling aspect to them. I already spend enough on trading cards for that thrill
“Best of the worst”.
Best of both Worsts.
I think being able to see the item and having the option to purchase is much better than opening a random box that you have no idea what you'll get.
Stop paying for stupid shit in games or just stop playing these games. Donate to charity instead.
I would never pay for a cosmetic or loot box. but if that's the story of thing someone wants to do, I think this new system is fine
Urg, AAA games suck ass more than ever. Thank christ for offline, AA and indie games!
I’ve been saying for years that valve is an extremely predatory and scummy company but don’t let the gamers hear that. Queue downvotes
The fact that the skins don't affect gameplay is really nice, but you can't ignore that the lootbox system is just a slot machine and that they allow skins to be gambled on the web.
Also their moderation is fucking awful
I mean, this is just cosmetic stuff and you can see what you're getting before you buy, plus you can sell the stuff for real world money. This is the least scummy way to do it.
It’s just cosmetics is the excuse companies have given since the very first days of horse armor and look at where we are now…
Wow look at this bait! So fresh!
Not bait. I’m just morally opposed to the normalization and encouragement of gambling especially for underaged populations but really for anyone.
Its PEGI 18
That means nothing?
Its a parenting skill issue.
Addiction is a disease. No amount of parenting can prevent it. You know what could? Regulating corporations :)
Exactly! They should start by banning porn games. Then lgbtq games that corrupts our children. Then any political opposition. Only then will we live in a free and safe society. /s
Porn and lgbtq games are not the same as gambling. You’ve used a false equivalency fallacy
This is pretty disgusting. Just make a normal skin store where people can buy the skins they want at whatever price you(valve) decide they are valued at. No fomo. No gambling.
Isn't that what they did? Except to help preserve the "value" if the rare items you still have to get lucky to be allowed to buy them.
If they had a store where you could buy the ultra rare skins for 1000$, that would push down the "value" if the skins more quickly.
The way they are preserving the value is a form of fomo.