It seems that Valve is set against blockchain games. According to the updated Steam rules, titles with NFT will not be allowed in the store. This also applies to projects already placed on the site.Age of Rust
Attention was drawn to this by the SpacePirate Games studio, which developed the Age of Rust adventure game.
In it, users receive NFTs with which they can unlock new missions, items and mini-games. Despite the fact that Age of Rust previously received approval from Valve and was supposed to be released on Steam this year, its page may soon be removed from the store.
It’s all about the point of the rules from the documentation for Steam developers. It states that “blockchain-based applications that allow the exchange of cryptocurrency or NFT” cannot be released on the platform. At the same time, this item is still not on the Steam Direct welcome page.
Community: 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. Behind the scenes, we’ve had good communication and have been upfront with Steam. #blockchaingames #NFT
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— Age of Rust (@SpacePirate_io) October 14, 2021It is not known when exactly Valve made changes to the rules for accepting games.
SpacePirate claims to have found out about it just yesterday. According to the developers, they had previously kept in touch with Steam and openly warned about the presence of NFT in the game.
“Steam’s point of view is that it is impossible to place items of real value on the platform. Although we respect their choice, we are deeply convinced that NFT and blockchain games are the future,” the statement reads.
This year, NFT games are experiencing a real boom. At the beginning of the month, the developers of Axie Infinity raised $ 150 million, and the turnover of trading operations in the game itself exceeded $ 2 billion. And in September, the authors of the Sorare football NFT project received an investment of $680 million.
At the same time, not everyone in the industry supports blockchain games. For example, Tim Sweeney has stated that there will be no NFT in Epic Games titles. He doubts the reliability of the technology and fears fraud in this area.