Steam Bans Games Based On Block Chain Technology
Valve has officially banned all games and NFTs based on blockchain technology from its Steam platform.
Any titles that work with blockchain technology and offer the possibility of buying or exchanging crypto currencies such as Bitcoin or NFTs are therefore prohibited.
This means that games that use this technology will be removed from the shop.
A brief digression: Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs for short, are becoming more and more popular and have recently made headlines. These are digital, tradable goods, which can be meme clips, but also skins in video games.
Two properties are decisive here:
- NFTs are not interchangeable
- Thanks to the blockchain, have a clearly identifiable owner
That is exactly what makes them unique.
Interestingly, World of Warcraft is largely responsible for the development of this exciting technology.
Now back to the topic.
The crypto-based game "Age of Rust" by the developer "SpacePirate" will be removed from the platform due to the ban. According to the studio, this reflects Steam's view that items must have no equivalent in the real world. He goes on and deeply regrets Valve's decision. SpacePirate is convinced that NFTs and the blockchain are the future and therefore want to continue investing in the technology.
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 whole are going to be removed. This is setback for all.
— Age of Rust (@SpacePirate_io) October 14, 2021
2/4
At the same time as the ban by Steam, Epic Games has spoken out.
They warmly welcome all developers of crypto-based games. Founder and CEO Tim Sweeney commented on this in a Twitter post and is excited about the innovations these developers bring with them.
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/6W7hb8zJBw
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) October 15, 2021
It remains to be seen whether Steam really did itself a favor with this decision at the end of the day.
However, Epic Games seems to position itself as a Crpypto/NFT friendly plattform for developers which might give some advantage for the rising Steam competitor.
I personally do not think that Steam made a clever decission here, but time will tell.
That is stupid whack and really funny. Funny since it's Steam, similar to what happened with Steem. When I used to tell people about Steem, they would always think I meant the gaming Steam at first. Anyway... thank you for the news, shared.
_
It really is kind of a weird decision considering Steam allows any type of game nowadays from even the smallest game developers. Oh well some other platform is probably going to jump on this sometime soon. I just hate having a bunch of game launchers installed lol.
True, considering the huge amount of "trash content" (the official term is "shovel ware") it's weird that the suddenly start to exclude certaint type of games.
Not a fan of multiple launchers as well :-/