With all these games out there transitioning from pay-to-play to free-to-play, why can’t the same thing apply to software development kits? Well, it can. That means gamers and game developers alike can use the source SDK to create all sorts of crazy new projects, games and mods...for free.

According to Rock, Paper, Shotgun…

Well, we’ve just received word from Valve’s Robin Walker that due to the recent release of a free Team Fortress 2, the Source SDK will soon become free to use in its entirety, for everyone.

That’s definitely some good news for everyone out there who didn’t plan on buying Half-Life 2 or Team Fortress 2 just to gain access to the SDK. But to be entirely honest, who hasn’t already bought a Valve game? Either you aren’t much of a gamer or you’re one of the low-down dirtiest pirates around.

Well, regardless of your past and present video game purchases, the SDK will be freely available to download to anyone all because Team Fortress 2 going free-to-play. The snowball effect was sparked based on a Reddit thread that discussed the possibility of gaining access to the SDK by purchasing items from the Team Fortress 2 cash shop. Rock, Paper Shotgun wanted full confirmation of this free SDK news and they contacted Team Fortress 2 lead developer, Robin Walker, and received the following response…

We are in the process of getting it all done. It’s a bit messy because we have multiple versions of the SDK, and there’s some dependencies we need to shake out. But yes, the gist of it is that we’re just going to go ahead and make the Source SDK freely available

So there you have it…free SDKs for everybody!

Heck, before you know it there will be mods out there that will be vastly superior to the crap we have to pay $60 for. Now that’s going to be a historic day in gaming.