Those that criticized Valve's introduction of the Mann Co. Store -- the marketplace for Team Fortress 2 user-created content -- may want to adjust their opinions, as according to Gamasutra, several community content creators have now just banked over USD$39,000 each, courtesy of the venture's 25% royalty payments.

Today, Valve said that community content creators Rob Laro, Shawn Spetch, Steven Skidmore, Spencer Kern and Shaylyn Hamm took home initial royalty payments ranging from $39,000 to $47,000 each from the first round of Team Fortress 2 content creation. And these are just the checks from the first two weeks of operation.

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Valve said it was going to deposit the royalties in the modders' PayPal accounts, but the revenue from the sales was so high that it exceeded some of the service's limits on deposit size. Valve flew Kern and Skidmore to the developer's Kirkland, WA headquarters to give them the payments in person.

Apparently, people really love those hats and are willing to pay for them. By offering the mod community a slice of that pie, Valve have opened up a whole new source of revenue and longevity -- one that other publishers will no-doubt be paying a lot of attention to. How long until we see a game offering royalties for user-created maps?

Click over to Gamasutra for the complete, and very interesting read.