NFT Games Continue Strong Listing on Steam

PC marketplace Steam banned blockchain games in 2021, yet game developers persistently explore avenues to introduce blockchain games on Steam, complying with Steam’s stipulated rules.

Steam’s 2021 Blockchain Ban

Steam initially imposed restrictions in 2021, banning games "built on blockchain technology for issuing or exchanging cryptocurrencies or NFTs." While some developers simply removed cryptocurrency and NFT aspects for their Steam-friendly versions, others redirected players to third-party websites to purchase NFTs or required players to link crypto wallets.

The use of cryptocurrencies and NFTs in electronic gaming remains a contentious, divisive topic among game studios and gamers alike. Fortnite publisher Epic Games allows blockchain games publicly on its store, albeit with a disclaimer. Google's Play Store recently adopted a similar open approach, yet managed.

Challenges on Platforms like Steam and Apple’s iOS App Store

Platforms like Steam and Apple's iOS App Store set restrictions, posing challenges for game developers seeking to incorporate NFTs into their games. However, at least with Steam, it appears some developers are finding ways to navigate or surpass these restrictions by adhering to the platforms.

Some Blockchain Games Now on Steam

Games like Champions Ascension and The Bornless, currently in development, sold NFTs to fans and were recently added to Steam. Representatives of these games emphasize that their planned releases adhere to Steam's rules.

No NFT or Cryptocurrency Exchange on Steam

Games will not exchange NFTs or cryptocurrency on Steam; these features will be disabled, respecting Steam's terms of service. If players desire these elements, they must access the game's official website.

Players purchasing items as NFTs can still utilize them in-game, effectively managing them through an external portal as an alternative solution. In essence, they cannot interact with NFTs via Steam but can acquire NFT items and manage them through an external gateway, ultimately making them available within the Steam version of the game.

Unified Gaming World for NFT Buyers and Steam Gamers

NFT buyers and Steam players will inhabit the same shared world, but Steam players will experience a "limited" version of the game; they won't transact tokens or NFTs on Steam (they would need to do so on the game’s web platform). Game studios view listing on Steam as part of their outreach marketing to the largest possible player base and part of their development campaigns.

This is a compromise by game studios to Steam as they need it to reach up to 20-30 million gamers on this platform. However, a larger number of games on Steam has about 85,000 games, yet only about 1000 games are played by the majority of users, clearly web3 studio games need to compete harder than web2 games.

Expansion

A series of various approaches to distribute games on Steam has arisen as developers seek a wider audience for their games. Some publishers simply released their games without any NFTs — such as the shooting game Superior by Gala Games, which is about to be released.

Blockchain Chairman of Gala Games, Jason Brink has plans to release a "SKU not NFT" of Superior on Steam, meaning this version of the game on Steam won’t contain any items purchased with cryptocurrency.

Angelic is a fictional role-playing game developed by Metaverse Game Studios, which has received a $10 million investment from Animoca Brands and Pantera Capital earlier this year and is currently implementing a similar approach as Gala.

Metaverse Game Studios CEO Erkan Bayol said Angelic's Steam version would be "completely without cryptocurrency."

"All blockchain features will be disabled," Bayol said, adding that even the Epic Games Store version of Angelic would initially not include any blockchain elements because the team wanted to focus on "gameplay and fun" before integrating blockchain features.

But Bayol is optimistic that Angelic's Steam version could incorporate some Web3 components over time. Developers may release non-cryptocurrency versions of games on Steam with the hope that eventually they will remove blockchain restrictions in the future.

The Steam team may allow us to integrate some blockchain features, especially the DAO mechanism addressing decentralized voting, where the community can use NFTs or tokens to vote on game issues.

Blockchain games like Shardbound and Infinite Victory both built on the Immutable X game platform are also planning to launch on Steam.

Will Steam Change?

Last year, Valve co-founder and President Gabe Newell provided more detailed information on the broader reason for banning NFT and cryptocurrency games on Steam in an interview with Eurogamer.

While Newell acknowledged that blockchain is a "great technology" in general, he said the price volatility of cryptocurrency is a concern and the ways it has been implemented so far "all have been pretty primitive."

Newell said, "There are things happening that are pretty crude and there are some illegal things going on behind the scenes, which is really bad."

Also recently, users on the Steam platform expressed dissatisfaction with games containing blockchain, NFT elements like Kingdom Under Fire: War of Heroes Gold Edition (KUF), MagicCraft, with primary reasons like difficult gameplay, draining players and not bringing real joy.

Perhaps the developers of Steam understand that blockchain games are still too new to get truly refined products that meet market needs, banning blockchain games is just the first step in control to prevent situations with users and waiting for blockchain games to improve will be a continued move