Steam has banned all crypto-based games from their online store following an update to their rules and guidelines.
Founded in 2003, Steam has maintained its position as one of the largest digital game distribution platforms on Windows, with recent expansions to Mac OS and Linux. It currently handles over 125m active users and over 50k games are uploaded to the store.
With tens of thousands of games available for purchase at any time, they’ve curated their content on the platform by providing a set of rules that developers much abide by when uploading their creations.
On October 14, Steam adjusted the onboarding rules with specific mentions of “applications built on blockchain technology,” effectively banning all crypto-based games from its online store.
Steam bans crypto games
It appears that Steam is officially removing existing blockchain games from the store. The developers of the NFT based game ‘Age of Rust’ have taken to Twitter to express their thoughts and concerns on the matter:
“A few minutes ago, we were notified that @Steam will be kicking *all blockchain games* off the platform, including Age of Rust, because NFTs have value. Behind the scenes, we’ve had good communication and have been upfront with Steam.”
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Community: A few minutes ago, we were notified that @Steam will be kicking *all blockchain games* off the platform, including Age of Rust, because NFTs have value. Behind the scenes, we've had good communication and have been upfront with Steam. #blockchaingames #NFT 1/4 pic.twitter.com/W4pR3Xl63q
— Age of Rust (@AgeofRust) October 14, 2021
The dev went on to explain why the change is being made: “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.”
There have been numerous games on the platform with blockchain integration, with Mir4 being one of them. Mir4 has gained popularity despite increasingly negative views, allegedly because according to the website, you can earn DRACO, which is its own custom cryptocurrency.
At the time of writing, Valve (the company behind Steam), has yet to make a comment on the guideline change. We’ll update this article once we know more.