A free account will have limited inventory slots, reduced trading capability and will be limited in the type of weapons that can be crafted. A premium account will not have any of these restrictions and will be given to anybody who has paid for the game or spent any money in the online microtransactions store. Premium accounts will also have access to rare and cosmetic items.

The announcement is part of the Uber Update patch that has been adding new items every day of this week and includes a new payload map and new items for several classes.

Some players have voiced fears that going free to play will result in more griefers and cheaters plaguing the game, but Valve has assured everyone that they are keeping a close eye on this, in particular with people making multiple free accounts to escape bans.

Team Fortress 2 was released in 2007 as part of the Orange Box compilation and has been adding new features on a regular basis. There have been over 200 updates.

Valve had been teasing that they were making one of their titles free to play earlier in the week and many sites correctly guessed that it would be Team Fortress 2. This follows the introduction of several free to play MMOs to Steam including Champions Online and Global Agenda.