Steam Blockchain Games Ban: Good News For NFT And Crypto Alike

An update to Valve's rules for games on Steam effectively bans all Blockchain games that use cryptocurrencies or NFTs. This is GOOD news if you're a cryptocurrency or NFT holder, at the moment, as it represents another public acknowledgement of the real-world value of cryptocurrencies and NFTs alike.

It's not clear yet if this means that any sort of game using ANY sort of blockchain tech will be removed – but it DOES stop all blockchain-based digital tokens from playing a part in games on Steam. Information was shared by the folks behind the game Age of Rust, a game that's built with blockchain tech that allows the exchange of NFT in accordance with puzzle solving gameplay.

SEE TOO: What is NFT? (for the crypto-newb)

If we're looking at the situation from the perspective of the developers of a game like Age of Rust, this is certainly a setback. It might just be a temporary setback, but it IS a setback. These developers will need to find a new way to distribute their games – which might mean they need to work with less well-known game hosting platforms.

The developers of Age of Rust suggested that Valve told them that "Steam's point of view is that items have value and they don't allow items that can have real-world value on their platform." So if you were wondering if a company as big as Valve considered those bits of code you were earning in your games to have any value outside of the games you've been playing... there's your answer.

Now it'll be interesting to see the point at which Valve must acknowledge the difference between in-game cryptocurrency and NFT exchange and in-game purchases, and whether there'll be any further distinction between the two in future updates to Steam's set of rules for hosted games. Given Steam's use of tradeable achievement cards, tokens, and the like, it would not be shocking to find Valve incorporating non-fungible tokens (NFTs) into their platform at a higher level in the near future.