Steam Workshop originally started years ago as a means by which the community itself could add to and grow the gaming experiences delivered by Valve's digital distribution service, though the company hopes to reach more gamers and expand with new games supported.
Valve writes on the Steam Workshop page that Valve-made games like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Team Fortress 2 have already proven the Workshop system's success:
When we launched Workshop late in 2011, we expected that it would grow, but not that it would grow this much, this quickly. So far, the total payments made to individuals for the creation of in-game items sold in Team Fortress 2, Dota 2, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive have passed $57 million. This money was earned by over 1,500 contributors spread out across 75 countries.
Now, Steam hopes to serve as the basis for even more games modding by opening new curated workshops for games not developed by Valve: Dungeon Defenders: Eternity and Chivalry: Medieval Warfare.
Additionally, successful creators will want to use Valve's new revenue tools to watch their creations take off:
The Workshop has continued to grow and a larger number of contributors are now earning revenue from more pieces of content in a wider variety of games. To help answer questions about where revenue is coming from, we're also launching a set of new tools that enable contributors to view real-time sales data for their tiems as well as view detailed per-item revenue breakdowns and historical statements.
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