Last year, Steam stopped allowing blockchain-based games on the platform. It also allowed cryptocurrency as a payment method back in 2016 before going back on that decision over a year later. Despite that, Valve co-founder Gabe Newell does not appear to actually dislike the tech.
In an interview with Rock Paper Shotgun, Newell says that it’s important to separate the tech from the people using them. On that subject, he says that “the notion of digital ownership, and shared universes, are all pretty reasonable”. It’s the people that are “currently in this NFT space” that are “just not people you really are wanting to be doing business with”.
Newell shared that “the vast majority of those transactions, for whatever reason, were fraudulent”. Cryptocurrency is also so volatile that, according to the example he provided, someone could spend US$497 (~RM2087) to buy a game one day, and US$0.47 (~RM1.97) the next. That volatility, itself already a negative, was also causing more problems than the benefits of accepting cryptocurrency as a payment option.
Ultimately, while Gabe Newell doesn’t inherently dislike blockchain tech, the bad actors using the tech ultimately outweigh the benefits of the tech itself. Which is a sentiment most gamers can probably share when faced with news that more and more publishers want in on the tech.
(Source: Rock Paper Shotgun via IGN)
