the message below isn’t really directed at anyone in particular
Steam and VAT would probably end take up 50% of the gross profit of any game (or game DLC) sold on Steam. This doesn’t take into account the Stockpile, but, yes, Nelson is not hurting for money and has said such numerous times.
However, Nelson most definitely cannot support himself and the game without incoming revenue. He hosts four websites, and has subscriptions for things like Trello, GitHub, and Amazon S3. Unturned II has official servers, which can be expensive to host. He also has to support himself, and anyone (or anything) else that lives with him.
All of that being said, once again I’m reminding y’all that…
…Nelson does not plan to just scrap the Steam Economy entirely. He plans to reconsider the system, and potentially bring it to Unturned II in a reworked state.
And although Unturned II will be free, it is planned for the game to have a Server Pass that grants access to the official servers.