Video game company Valve Corporation, the developer of the software distribution platform Steam, has apparently quietly updated its guidelines for game developers to include a new crypto-related rule.

The “Onboarding” section of the Steamworks documentation has a new rule (#13) that states games developers should not publish on Steam “applications built on blockchain technology that issue or allow exchange of cryptocurrencies or NFTs”.

According to a report by The Verge published yesterday, this change was first pointed out on Thursday (October 14) by the developer of an NFT-based game (“Age of Rust”), which he says has been removed from the Steam platform because of this new rule:

The developer believes the main ramification of this anti-crypto rule is that “blockchain games as whole are going to be removed.”

He went on to say:

  • “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. While I respect their choice, I fundamentally believe that NFTs and blockchain games are the future. It’s why I started this journey with all of you.“
  • “At this point, we will put our energy back into gamedev, creating more NFTs, & empowering the community than try to fight Steam alone…“

The Verge report added that although Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has said that “the company isn’t interested in touching NFTs, that policy doesn’t seem to apply to games in its store.”

The Verge reported in another article published yesterday that they were told by Epic Games via email that they are “open to games that support cryptocurrency or blockchain-based assets” on their app store and that although there were be some limitations on NFT-based games, they are ready to work with “early developers” in this “new field”.

Epic also told The Verge that “the games would have to comply with financial laws, make it clear how the blockchain is used, and have appropriate age ratings”. Furthermore, they mentioned that “developers won’t be able to use Epic’s payment service to accept crypto; they would have to use their own payment systems instead.”

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