the fact that selling those crates was more profitable than unboxing those unusuals is crazy

The crate depression shows how at the end of the day, unusuals are worthless in the end

This is the thing with a gambling-heavy game like TF2. The house not only always wins, it _has_ to always win; because if it ever loses, so does literally everyone else involved in it.

This was such a bad fumble by valve, and that's kind of amazing

I still remember the sweet taste of traders tears on that day.

I still hate myself for missing out on this glitch

This moment in TF2 was a perfect example of why investing in a virtual "economy" isn't the smartest idea

I actually remember when this happened,the community was almost as widely awake as the days when leaks happened,even if those were pretty frequent

I remember not unboxing any crates when this glitch happened as I thought I would receive Cheaters Lament for not using this glitch. I remember how disappointed I was afterwards when I found out I won't be getting Cheaters Lament.

Ah yes, the Crate Depression.

I still have my crate depression hat. I even gave it a name and timestamped it It's a historical relic now

Step 1. Have a massive influence on social media Step 2. Become bored Step 3. Tell your fans to buy or sell or just ruin an item price Step 4. Congrats, you have shown how powerfull a large influence can be

i remember this so clearly. i was on holiday in france with my dad and i was so pissed i couldnt unbox or buy any cheap unusuals

i've never really cared about unusuals so i had NO possible horse in the race as it was going on. it was such a wonderful couple days of watching everything descend into anarchy and panic

My one regret is not opening a single crate at the time in the belief that we may be bestowed the Cheaters Lament.

People who exploited the bug: "FREE UNUSUALS" Valve: "Ok, I guess you get to keep them but every one except the first is untradeable" People who didn't exploit the bug: "Do we get anything?" Valve: "Lol, no."

thousands screaming at a TF2 update: "Oh my, it seems I have made a grave miscalculation in my monetary spending. I should remember to consider my options before making a commitment like this in the future." me, sleeping in like a baby: ...

A great example on how virtual items are essentially worthless and their whole worth fully depends on one line of code

Trolling the economy: the game

I remember this. I have a pretty big inventory so I didn't risk unboxing more than 3 crates because I thought I'd be banned. People who unboxed and traded were actually rewarded lmfao next time this happens people will not hold back whatsoever lmao

This is actually kinda next level, even for you. The effort put into the presentation and jokes here is really well done, and it pays off. (The Heartbeat Monitor aesthetic is also super cool) Considering it was barely before my time, learning about the Crate Depression is always interesting, and this video is by far the most stellar one Ive seen.

I remember these few days very firmly. Especially how I decided to just sit and do nothing because I had no money. It was actually sort of fun to watch everything burning, while being too poor to be affected

I remember when this happend... Only reason I didn't got my very first unusual during these times is because I was too broke to even buy a key.

How to kill a Game’s Economy in 13 hours: stock up on a forgettable weapon and make a UKpostsr release a popular video about that weapon

I had quite the laugh with me and my buddy when we unblocked a burning team captain and bought like some of the most top tear unusuals for like 5 or 10 bucks

Very high quality video, thank you the what show! I love the whatshow and i also love the Spaceguy person.

valve’s response was actually fairly well played, which makes me wonder if they had an economist or something to advise them on what to do

I will always regret the fact that while the crate depression was happening i was trying to sleep and i just ignored it because i was tired, thinking that it was probably just a joke and it wasn't real. Boy did i feel stupid when i woke up.

Honestly I prefer this, it’s nice to be able to just buy amazing looking hats for cheap after all these years

I remember when everyone joked about that one comic page where Engineer from the future warned mercs not to open the god damn boxes... This fandom is so bizarre

This video was really well made. I love the parts where you get other content creators opinions on the subject. Editing spot on too 👌

I’m predicting this is the 100% summer unusual thing a couple years back

Honestly game cosmetics shouldn't be more expensive than a can of actual food.

Imagine being a hat trader and thinking you're morally superior to a ccryptobro.

that feel when the fake gamer economy is an exact structural replica of the real economy

Everyone mocked NFTs as they should. Only to learn that cosmetics are in fact just NFTs.

Good that you covered every detail, with the buy orders and bots

With this video in mind, I'm sure it's an excellent idea to store sensitive information and identity paperwork on the blockchain

If valve ever wanted to make a killer profit off finishing off tf2, they’d do this on purpose. The amount of money they would make from key purchases would easily skyrocket into the tens, if not hundreds of thousand in purchases

If you think you got screwed because you were asleep or whatever during this, just remember, it could be worse. When this happened, my computer was getting fixed. I knew it was happening, yet couldn't do anything with it. Not only that, my computer was supposed to have been fixed by the time it happened, but the guys fixing it were taking longer than expected.

I remember when it happened. I was there when the update dropped and randomly checked the discussion tab, I unboxed an unusual as test, then sold it and for a more favorable unsual then I waited and sold all my old crates I've had for years for a bunch of money. Managed to do it before the prices went all to hell.

I remember when this happened, I got wind of the bug just around 20 minutes after they fixed it, what still pains me is I actually had 2 of the crates that were giving out the unusuals 😭

The perk Maccready gives you is god tier, wtf

I was there when this happened, i was able to open a few crates and get a few unusuals. I was so happy to watch the economy burn for a while. finally owning a few unusual of my own without having to spend actual money for one or spend hours upon hours haggling for a low tier one. And i'll gladly do it again.

The day oldschool Halloween unusuals started going nuclear

To this day I still wear my Crate Depression hats proudly.

My favorite part of this was seeing someone with an iPad protesting this at a CS invitational that was happening at the same time

Great video, funny and informative. Needs more of Linkara doing the ninja run, tho.

very good video thewhat keep up the good work

The reason there weren't any major updates for years is because Valve fired all the TF2 Developers after the crate depression

Damn, this video was so well made, congrats

i just wish I could experience unboxing back to back cool old 1-18 unusuals i love those hats so much

Alt title:Nick crashes TF2's economy as a joke

I sold couple of crates that day and bought Cyberpunk with that money.

I love your outro music. 8-bit American Football is something I didn't know I wanted.

you should of mentioned the retired hats that cant be unboxed in unusual variants, those were the only items that could retain/grow in price!

Honestly in hindsight, I’m kinda glad this happened. It’s a big middle finger to the overpriced, money squeezing, predatory cosmetic markets that plague video games these days. I don’t see why valve should get any more of a pass than EA when it comes to taking advantage of consumers.

I’ve heard this story before but bro some of the side gags with the edits got me good

I played a game years ago called Runes of Magic. When I 1st started playing the economy was pretty balanced. The economy was based around thkse who farmed gold, and those who spent money to get mainly a.specific item called puries which you needed to atat up good armor. Gold farmers got greedy , diamond sellers responded to inflation , a war began that drove the economy to record high prices, amd.the forums were full of arguments. Game economies are kinda fun to study

I didn't unboxed a single crate. Not because I expected to be rewarded for not doing so, but because I did not had a single fucking cent in my account nor any tradable items because less than a week ago I sold everything to buy games. This is not the first, nor it will be the last time that something like this has ever happened to me... Remember the Pyromancer's Raiment? I sold it A FUCKING DAY AGO BEFORE A NEW CRATE DROPPED, ADDED A WIZARD HOOD AND MADE A WITCHY PYRO LOADOUT A HIGH-DEMAND SET, WHICH INCLUDED THE PYROMANCERS, MAKING IT SKYROCKET UP TO 10+ KEYS OF VALUE.

unboxed 6 hats and made 250$ selling crates that night lmao what a trip down memory lane

this is the one video that EVERY tf2 youtuber NEEDS to make at least once yours is the best i've seen so far though

looking back, the crate depression actually did have a HUGE and MASSIVE effect on the economy of unusuals, that being OG unusuals and unusual miscs, originally, i thought the overinflated prices of the OG effects and unusual miscs were most likely because they were high in demand and collectors were buying them all, until i remembered the crate depression, alot of people unboxing these god tier unusuals in mass quantities eventually led to unusual miscs being even higher and higher in demand, eventually coming to the state of the economy we are in now, where viewfinders are averaging 700ish keys per low tier and single class miscs even going for hundreds and hundreds of keys, hell its literally impossible to find an OG effect on any type of hat for under 100-200 keys, its honestly really depressing knowing that alot of these unusuals are basically impossible to get anymore, some costing literally the entire yearly wage of a minimum wage worker, i know its controversial but like honestly, if valve actually cared about the economy and longevity of tf2s stuff, theyd probably think of a way better solution than what they did also, honestly the really only solution i can think of for this is finding some way to bring back most if not all the of the crates and unusual effects from years past, atleast in a way to keep them rare enough while still making them atleast obtainable, and also bringing back unusual miscs

To be honest this would have been cool to experience too bad I wasn't playing the game at the time

I sold some moldy old crates and bought the complete edition of FFXIV, which is now my favorite game ever! Thanks crate depression! :D

the crate depression is evidence my luck is awful because the day of it being discovered was right as i left for a vacation, and i couldnt do anything.

The part of this video that most surprised me was the never meant cover at the end lmao

I can't believe the whatshow is making a video on fortnite, truly amazing

I got a inventory page of unusuals from this, it was great

Tf2 really went from breaking the local economy and then announcing they're making a full sized themed update this summer (not summer themed)

i remember this day most craziest event i have ever witnessed man and i hated myself because i sold my old crates before this happened and i regret it till this day but im happy i was still able to witness all of the people unboxing unusuals 😂

I only play casual for years and idk what strange or unusual items were until 2 years of playing. Never thought tf2 is this deep lol

we do a small amount of trolling

At this point, the most unique and original character loadout in tf2 would be an all stock character.

That ad has to be some kind of comedic bit I'm not aware of

I knew about it and was too afraid of Valve retribution to open one. Something that haunts me to this day lol

Lesson learned! Exploit bugs before they’re gone.

“If you don't vote, the big midgets win.” -Bilbo Baggins

The Bomberman 64 music, i can see you're a man of class. Lol thanks for the blast from the past.

*i want it to happen again oh dear gaben make the traders cry again today in this bot crisis so i can own over 300 unusuals for the fraction* *of a soda can*

I remember unboxing one single unusual Then traded it after the fix because it was a low tier worth 8 keys But now I have an unusual taunt i got last year Is nice

If I was here for this I would've splurged unboxed and just kept every single unusual and never unboxed after

Man I typically ignore the background music in videos, but I immediately was able to recognize Closer.

I remember being on vacations back when it happened and I could not unbox any despite knowing about it. Oooh well. It was still funny reading everyone's reactions live xD

Giving a special hat to those who did not cheat was a genius move for a microtransaction situation, sad it did not happen

So random! I was lurking in Reddit and UKposts a few days ago about the Great Crate Depression and i have found this. I think that TF2 is a great game not only its maps but also its history. The skilled youtubers like you should work on those historical facts such as the Depression, mid 2010s bot crisis and etc. Because this game is still alive! Thank you so much!

I started playing a little Jungle Inferno came out due to having watched soundsmith and lazypurple’s videos at the time. I had never even unboxxed any crates until around Halloween 2020 (though at the time I had a surplus of summer crates so I opened them) I’ve never even had any unusuals until last Halloween (i had gotten an unusual Dustbowl Devil on my first 2022 Halloween crate, it isn’t Halloween restricted and i main Engie so that’s actually really lucky) I also didn’t have any keys for the glitched crates (or the crates themselves for that matter) so that kinda sucked.

And yet we learned nothing and NFTs became a thing

Remember ladies and gentleman, Valve laid the groundwork for loot boxes and DLC gambling. Anytime they get fucked, we win.

I really enjoyed the outro never even knew that version of the song existed.

Valve taught me a valuable lesson.. next time i'll just abuse it like everyone else instead of hoping for a reward for being a good boy.

I remember that day as if it was just yesterday... Oh the chaos it produced in the trading community! Glorious.

The solution valve came up was pretty dope to be honest, made everyone relatively happy especially for those who simply overpaid for the glitched crates and such

It's exactly like that spongebob episode where Mr krabs sells that #1 hat to spongebob and then the hat was worth millions. Then they find a dumpster full of them and the hats are worthless!!!

I dont know how you managed to find some 8-bit American Football but I love it.

it is like diamonds, technically speaking actual diamonds mines could sell alot more diamonds than they do but the companies mining them only give out a sliver a time to keep prices high because without demand, they would not be as expensive

I remember buying a $20 massed flies Killer Exclusive. Sucks that I missed the unboxing, but I did get it for a $30 discount compared to now

tbh would be kinda funny if this wasn't valves doing and everybody just got super lucky for that time period

I remember this, and I remember not being able to do anything about it because I was out of town, so all I could do was keep up with things from online posts and forums.

"unusuals for 50 cents" damnit i wish i had known about that part