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Back in October last year, Steam banned blockchain-based games that utilized NFT and cryptocurrency, stating that "applications built on blockchain technology that issue or allow exchange of cryptocurrencies or NFTs" will not be allowed on the platform. Now Valve co-founder and president Gabe Newell has explained the company's stance on the matter.
NFT or 'Non-Fungible Token,' which is an ownership certificate for a digital item, has slowly been making headway into the world of video games. The highly contentious concept of NFTs has been much debated since they started being inculcated in the latter half of 2021.
Blockchain-based "play-to-earn" gaming has been a debated topic and one that has been met with apprehension from the community.
Although the notion is reasonable, Gabe Newell explains the reasoning behind barring NFT and cryptocurrency on Steam
In an interview with Rock Paper Shotgun, Gabe mentioned that even though "the underlying technology of distributed ledgers, and the notion of digital ownership, and shared universes, are all pretty reasonable," one needs to separate the technology from the actors who are utilizing it.
According to him, the NFT space is filled with people that one would not be wanting to be doing business with. Steam earlier used to accept cryptocurrencies as payments, but Gabe pointed out that that made customers mad, with the reason being the volatility that surrounded Steam listings.
"They don't want to find out that there's tremendous volatility when they're actually purchasing things day to day. Like, why did I spend $497 one day to buy a game, and the next day I spent 47 cents, what's going on here? Volatility is a bad thing in a medium of exchange."
Gabe further explained that a majority of these transactions turned out to be fraudulent, "where people were repudiating transactions or using illegal sources of funds and things like that." According to him, the issues are not with the technology but rather with the actors who are using it.
"That doesn't say anything about the underlying technology, it's just a reflection of the people right now who are viewing it as an opportunity to rip customers off, or engage in money laundering, or other things like that."
Steam's decision to ban games with NFT and cryptocurrency was followed by Epic Games making it clear that they will "welcome games that make use of blockchain tech." Although a number of outfits including S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 have changed their stance after getting backlash from the community, studios like Ubisoft and Square Enix have supported NFTs as the future of video games.
