Valve is reportedly banning all blockchain, crypto, and NFT games from Steam.
The developer of first-person adventure game Age of Rust – which allows players to collect NFTs for completing in-game puzzles – went to Twitter to share its frustration at a rule change which now says Steam will no longer publish "applications built on blockchain technology that issue or allow exchange of cryptocurrencies or NFTs".
Steam's point of view is that items have value and they don't allow items that can have real-world value on their platform. While I respect their choice, I fundamentally believe that NFTs and blockchain games are the future. It's why I started this journey with all of you.3/4October 14, 2021
"A few minutes ago, we were notified that Steam will be kicking *all blockchain games* off the platform, including Age of Rust, because NFTs have value," SpacePirate Games explained (thanks, Eurogamer). "Behind the scenes, we've had good communication and have been upfront with Steam.
"We chose to be upfront about blockchain gaming & NFTs. As a result, we finally lost the battle with Steam. While I'm disappointed for Age of Rust being removed, the point is more to the fact that Blockchain games as [a] whole are going to be removed. This is [a] setback for all."
The developer goes on to insist that though Steam's point of view "is that items have value and they don't allow items that can have real-world value on their platform", the dev "fundamentally believe[s] that NFTs and blockchain games are the future".
"It's why I started this journey with all of you," the developer concluded.
Epic Games Store, on the other hand, will seemingly continue to accept games with blockchain tech – at least, that's what Epic Games boss Tim Sweeney recently tweeted in response to the furor.
Epic Games Store will welcome games that make use of blockchain tech provided they follow the relevant laws, disclose their terms, and are age-rated by an appropriate group. Though Epic's not using crypto in our games, we welcome innovation in the areas of technology and finance. https://t.co/6W7hb8zJBwOctober 15, 2021
"Epic Games Store will welcome games that make use of blockchain tech provided they follow the relevant laws, disclose their terms, and are age-rated by an appropriate group. Though Epic's not using crypto in our games, we welcome innovation in the areas of technology and finance," Sweeney tweeted.
"As a technology, the blockchain is just a distributed transactional database with a decentralized business model that incentivize investment in hardware to expand the database's capacity. This has utility whether or not a particular use of it succeeds or fails."
Neither Steam nor Valve have yet commented publicly on the rule change.
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