Gabe Newell Describes Why NFTs Aren’t Welcome on Steam
Steam’s President and co-founder Gabe Newell has revealed more information about Valve’s decision to ban the blockchain. Steam is a massive storefront, and them not allowing games with NFTs or cryptocurrency is a huge blow to that style of game.
At the end of the day, Gabe Newell simply doesn’t see the positives of NFTs outweigh the bad actors. This is what he said:
“The people in the space, though, tend to be involved in a lot of criminal activity and a lot of sketchy behaviors. So it’s much more about the actors than it is about the underlying technology.”
He feels these people just exist to rip people off or partake in money laundering. Steam may allow a lot of nonsense on the storefront, but they have made a stand against NFTs.
Steam also had a bad time when they did accept cryptocurrency. Gabe found the prices constantly fluctuating, and most of the transactions were fraudulent. This is what he had to say:
“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.”
I’m glad Gabe and Valve have taken a stand here. It is clear that right now, NFTs simply don’t add anything worthwhile to games. It isn’t worth ruining the user experience. It will be interesting to see if Valve sticks to their position going forward.
Are you glad Steam has banned NFTs from the storefront? Do you think NFTs have anything to add to games? Let us know in the comments below!
Source: Press Release