Update for June 11: Steam’s community site is down once again.
The social aspect of the Steam service isn’t working.
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Other parts of Steam, however, are unaffected or at least are not suffering from a total outage.
We’ll keep you posted about the state of the Steam service.
The Steam Community is not just a way for players to connect and chat with one another, it is also the primary market through which people sell things like virtual items and skins for hit games like Dota 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. So Valve — along with its community partners — are actually missing out on sales during downtime like this.
In January, Valve revealed that it had paid its 1,500 community creators more than $57 million. That’s approximately $38,000 per person, which is enough for many people to make a living selling items through the Steam Community.
More recently, Valve announced a way for community developers responsible for modifications for the open-world role-playing game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim to sell their mods. That caused an outcry from fans who are accustomed to getting mods for free. Valve and its partner Bethesda, the publisher of Skyrim, backed off of the initiative.