An interesting trend a lot of companies seem to be going with these days. While a lot of indies and smaller businesses are embracing the future and new technologies as they come along. The old failing and dying dinosaurs seem to yet again be getting in the way.
I recall quite a while ago when Steam first attempted to give cryptocurrency as a payment option a try. By try, I do mean only that. Instead of searching for solutions within cryptocurrency to make it a future success they simply cited “high fees” among other issues before fully killing it off altogether after a very short and bumpy trial run. As if somehow they had no idea that would be the case.
Buying my first game on Steam with cryptocurrency was an intresting one. It was not ideal and yes the transaction fees sucked with how Steam was going about it with the payment processer they were using at the time.
I was hoping one day they would be looking to embrace and find new ways to get cryptocurrency integrated. That they would relook at their past failures of using it as a payment option and find a path forward.
It seems they have indicated they are just not into cryptocurrency at this time in any form. It has been brought to my attention buried in their partner documentation that at some point they have included blockchain games applications should not be published on their platform.
Instead of looking to embrace NFTs and the new era of gaming that is slowly unfolding. They want nothing to do with it. In the past, we have seen other platforms like Apple frown on games and dapps where they are not getting massive cuts of every sale. This makes me wonder if that is a contributing factor in them no longer looking to include a growing portion of the gaming world.
I’m only glad I have not gone through the process on any front as of yet to try and get my own game that is in development listed on the Steam store. It seems now I can save myself some money from paying a processing fee and time looking into all the requirements.
There are a lot of indie game developers out there looking to embrace new technologies and trends in gaming to set themselves apart. I feel in several years play to earn will not only grow to be a more common practice being embraced by the gaming industry as a whole for how much revenue it could bring in. It will also usher in a new era of wealth for individuals that are commonly looked down on by a society that tries to blame them for a lot of things that gaming has nothing to do with.
As a result, several blockchain games on Steam seem to be pulling themselves off the platform to avoid any future issues. With their store pages indicated by Steam that it was the developer's decision to be removed.
It’s not all bad news. Gaming Platforms and stores that make it public knowledge that they are open to blockchain games that issue cryptocurrency or assets like NFTS have an opportunity. They can help foster the next generation of gaming while Steam cuts itself off from what will be a growing source of revenue in the gaming industry.
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This will not work out well for them and I suspect @apshamilton and I might have a very close look at what they're doing.
Would be interesting to see what you guys find. I did not dig too deep into it. I just know some PC games are being developed here and while they all might not plan to have blockchain integration it could affect some people's distribution plans. Along with any features on Steam they integrated and how they even compile the project for Steam.
All I know is they seem seems to be turning quite anti-competitive. I run my own curation group on Steam so I can link my Hive content as part of my review on games on their marketplace. You are not permitted to link or promote stores other than Steam.
What are the biggest alternatives to Steam? Epic? What else? Have any of the others banned crypto?
There are rumors that Epic Games wants to create a path forward to getting blockchain games listed on their platform. I have not heard of any games as of yet being over there.
I do know in the Epic Games Unreal Engine Marketplace there is an ETH plugin being offered by a third-party developer. I also know the Enjin blockchain itself has been working on Unreal Engine support. There are no mentions of blockchain in the Unreal Engine marketplace guidelines for game developers.
GoG seems quite selective in what they are allowing in their store. I’m not aware of any blockchain games being listed there.
Itch.io has allowed blockchain games in the past and I’m not aware of any new rules that would stop anyone. The only limiting factor is if you need to enable fiat payment options on their site then you have to follow Paypal or Stripes policies to enable that kind of payment.
For the most part, PC blockchain games are still quite early. Steam was the place blockchain games were getting listed on with how easy it is to get onto the store. You just don’t see these kinds of games trying to get on Humblebundle or Amazon.
It's going to be interesting to see if anyone else copies Steam or decides that's a differentiation point.
From the Twitch leaks it seems like they are working on their own platform for game distribution and sales. Which I'm shocked Amazon has not done sooner. I don't feel they are going to be the ones with open arms to the blockchain gaming industry.
I really hope it some small company that takes off. We need more consumer choice and competition.
Crypto based projects don't need a Steam or other front end for monetization, but they do need them for self promotion. This is why we can look at bans like this when brought in by dominant parties through a reduction in competition lens.
They won't be getting a cut of blockchain games sales considering most of the trades is on chain. They don't want to deal with new upcoming regulations on crypto too. But there will be platforms that allow blockchain games, those will do fine longterm. Also it's funny that they allow porn games but blockchain is too extreme for steam.
Seems like Epic Games might be going after the crypto market. As if they have not eaten enough of Steams lunch already lol.
That is quite disappointing to read. Definitely seems like a defense against games that may just use crypto as payment without cutting Valve in. Starting to really see how greedy companies that centralized app and game acquisition really are. Epic is looking to be more and more of a hero every day. Who knows what their stance will be or how long it'll last though. Maybe something like itch.io can take off instead! Though.. not sure where they stand on it either I guess.
Maybe going through portals will end up not being a thing anymore and people will go back to hosting stand-alone games either for download or browser play. Seems like Splinterlands and Axie are growing pretty well without Steam after all.
Some blockchain games have used Itchio in the past for distribution. I don't see that changing. It is in part why I'm using them.
People are saying Epic Games wants in blockchain games being on their platform. How or what the looks like is not real clear yet.
Personally, I prefer Epic Games as a company, but the Epic Games Store have the slowest development amongst the most popular ones. But if there will be someone to implement crypto payment, I think they will be much more open to the idea.
I'm starting to like them more and more. Even more so since I've been developing using UE4.
While I have not been the biggest fan of them locking in 1-year exclusive deals with game developers. It's not like Steam is doing anything to stay competitive in this market. They seem to just be going downhill.
At this very moment, Steam is siting on a mountain of money, for the past years the devs have had a free for all kind of working mode, meaning that they weren't assigned to any project, working on what they wanted in the company. This seems great, but it was on the period that Valve didn't launch anything for years. Half Life: Alyx launched because they gave up on that way of working. This is showing that they can afford to sit there and collect money from Steam without actually doing anything.
Wow. They're missing out on big opportunities. Is the blockchain rule new?
It's new enough it has caught a few developers off guard and I'm sure many more as the word gets out. Not sure when it was added.
I said it once and I will say it always, this was one of the worst decisions a modern company could have made.
It's like when edison rejected tesla because his work was no good, but now we all depend on what tesla did, in this case blockchain and NFTs are tesla.
At some point, there is just going be to much money for them to not want a piece of the action.
It's strange how far along things are that they are taking this action. It’s like they were on the edge of a bunch of blockchain games showing up and they cut them off right before it happened.
well I play using hive so no problem for me
Hopefully one day we will have such a huge ecosystem of games most will never have to go elsewhere to play any!
I'm looking forward to that day
This makes total sense, It would cut funds from the internal steam market.
Or they plan to bring NFTs to steam and its own blockchain for games like Dota and csgo 🤔
Maybe one day they have plans to have their own.
As far as their internal markets. I don't see it having much of an effect there since everything would be external from their own system.
I think they will, But who knows. If they have games using external market they lose money, If a game uses the centralized market they control funds and items that can be used.
Steam is a very greedy company, They ban you If they find you sell items outside the steam market.
Gäbe ngmi
It's like they are not even trying anymore.
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