Putting the ‘F’ into NFT, or the ‘block’ in blockchain are puns we’re going to be seeing a lot of. Valve recently updated its policies for submitting games to its gaming platform Steam to take aim at game titles that leverage blockchain.
The news first broke as Age of Rust’s developers – SpacePirate Games – tweaked out the new terms and conditions for publishing on Steam.
The update to these policies weren’t simply ‘missed’ by developers; they were a very recent addition by Valve. According to The Verge, which provided a Wayback machine snapshot of Steam’s policies, there were 12 points until at least late August.
As the team alluded to, Valve’s decision impacts a large number of blockchain game titles that use the platform as a means of reaching a larger audience. Just recently, Fracture Labs launched the pre-alpha of its game Decimated on the gaming hub.
For many, the decision by Valve might appear shocking, but it’s had its run-ins with NFTs and blockchain before. WAX the widely acclaimed NFT marketplace, had its origins on Steam. Of course, this was before the company slapped it with a cease and desist notice in June 2018.
While there was some speculation that other gaming platforms might follow Valve’s example but Epic isn’t one of them. It’s taking full competitive advantage.
According to Epic Games CEO & Co-Founder Tim Sweeney, the company is ‘open’ to accepting blockchain game titles.
However even this move has nuance as Sweeney has stated Epic won’t be using NFTs in its own games such as Fortnite, although also describing blockchain as “an indisputably neutral, distributed way of expressing individual ownership” during an interview with VentureBeat.
Of course there are plenty of blockchain-first companies looking to take advantage too, with the Ultra PC game distribution platform gearing up for its launch.