Team Fortress 2 just turned 10 years old

This past Tuesday, October 10, Team Fortress 2 celebrated its 10th birthday since it’s release in 2007. This year also saw the 18th birthday of the official series as whole, as the original Team Fortress was released on April 7, 1999. Although no formal update or celebration has been announced by Valve yet, players are eagerly anticipating the long awaited Pyro Update, which will be the the first significant content patch since the Meet Your Match update early last year, which introduced competitive matchmaking to the game for the first time.

Many of the items in game have been created by the players

In a digital age where even AAA titles measure their lifespans in months rather than years, TF2 has lasted a decade thanks in part to its continued support from Valve in the form of content patches, as well as maps, items and cosmetics submitted by community members through the Steam Workshop.

Valve has often used TF2 as a testing ground for various mechanics implemented throughout their games. For example, it was in TF2 that they debuted the now infamous “loot box” system in the form of TF2’s serialized crates; an addition which spread to CSGO and Dota and now serves as a primary system of monetization in many current games, most notably in Blizzard’s smash hit Overwatch, which draws inspiration from TF2 beyond just the loot box system.

Recent updates, like Meet Your Match, have focused on delivering large scale features such as matchmaking

Whether TF2 will continue to serve as a proving ground for innovative new strategies remains to be seen, but its ability to stand the test of time has been proven, and the community it has created looks to love and enjoy the game for many years to come.