In an interview with Rock, Paper, Shotgun, co-founder and president of Valve Gabe Newell, explained that Steam banned NFTs because of sketchy and fraudulent behaviours observed by the company.
Newell said that he is firmly against integrating NFTs into Steam due to their volatile nature – much like what was observed with cryptocurrency.
“Like, why did I spend $497 one day to buy a game, and the next day I spent 47 cents, what’s going on here? Volatility is a bad thing in a medium of exchange.” Newell said. “That was one problem, that sort of volatility was creating more pain for our customers than the value of having the option of using cryptocurrencies.”
He said that he has no issue with digital ownership but is more concerned with the trend of those who use NFTs to engage in fraudulent behaviour.
“With the actors that are currently in this NFT space, they’re just not people you really are wanting to be doing business with. That doesn’t say anything about the underlying technology, it’s just a reflection of the people right now who are viewing it as an opportunity to rip customers off, or engage in money laundering, or other things like that.” Newell explained.
He added that this bad behaviour leads to a negative experience for other Steam users or players.
Steam banned NFTs in October 2021, and given the stance of Valve’s president, this isn’t going to change.
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