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Valve bans blockchain games and NFTs on Steam, Epic will try to make it work

Games that use blockchain technology or let users exchange NFTs or cryptocurrencies won’t be allowed on Steam, according to a rule added to Valve’s “What you shouldn’t publish on Steam” list. The change was pointed out by SpacePirate, a developer working on an NFT-based game, who said that the change was because the company doesn’t allow game items that could have real-world value. But Steam could also be avoiding controversy with the move.

Steam is one of the most well-known PC game stores, but it’s not the only one. While Epic’s 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: Epic told The Verge that it’s “open” to the idea of games that use NFTs or cryptocurrencies in an email on Friday.

Looking at a Wayback Machine capture of Steam’s rule page from late August, there are only 12 rules and no mention of cryptocurrencies or NFTs. The new rule is also missing from other documents — it currently doesn’t show up on the Joining the Steamworks Distribution Program page.

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.

3/4

— Age of Rust (@SpacePirate_io) October 14, 2021

Steam has a history of making controversial moderation decisions, especially when it comes to games with sexual content. In this case, though, it doesn’t seem like people are pressing F to pay respects to NFT games — a majority of the replies and quote tweets to SpacePirate’s tweets are praising Valve for the move (or mocking those that are upset about it).

Valve didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

It’s perhaps understandable why Steam would want to avoid having NFTs on its platform. Besides the justification cited by SpacePirate that they could have real-world value (which seems a bit weak, given the massive commercial communities around things like CS:GO skins and Team Fortress 2 hats), NFT and crypto-based games don’t have the best reputations. There’s the infamous Evolved Apes saga where a developer sold NFTs with the promise that they’d be included in a fighting game but then seemingly took the money and ran. There are some potentially interesting game concepts that use NFTs, but it’s hard to say how many of them would’ve been a good fit for Steam even if they were allowed.

Steam and Epic’s different approaches highlight the fact that any platform or store that moderates content will likely have to make a decision about whether it wants to allow apps or games to sell NFTs — one of the biggest question marks right now may be Apple and how it handles apps like OpenSea and Coinbase should they decide to start letting users buy the digital tokens.

Updated October 15th, 6: 20PM ET: Updated with information from Epic that it’s open to blockchain-based games on its store.

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Florida Teens Charged in $4M Las Vegas Crypto Kidnapping

Florida teenagers are facing charges of kidnapping and stealing $4 million in cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens. Teenagers to Be Tried As Adults Three Florida teenagers are reportedly facing charges of kidnapping and stealing $4 million in cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) from a Las Vegas-based man…
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Nike is facing a lawsuit from people who bought its NFTs

Wes Davis

Wes Davis is a weekend editor who covers the latest in tech and entertainment. He has written news, reviews, and more as a tech journalist since 2020.

A group of people sued Nike this week over its decision to wind down its virtual show project RTFKT last year. The buyers of the digital assets accuse Nike of causing “the rug to be pulled out from under them,” and say they wouldn’t have bought its NFTs if they’d known they were “unregistered securities,” reports Reuters.

Filed in New York’s Eastern District, the proposed class action lawsuit seeks “unspecified damages of more than $5 million for alleged violations of New York, California, Florida and Oregon consumer protection laws.”

Nike tried to jump into the NFT game by buying RTFKT in 2021. But, like Starbucks Odyssey, it never quite worked out and the company abandoned the idea, announcing in December via the RTFKT X account that it planned to “wind down RTFKT operations” by the end of January this year.

Since then, RTFKT has seemingly been maintained by a single person named Samuel Cardillo, who spent Thursday posting through the sudden disappearance (and later reappearance) of artwork for its CloneX NFTs project.

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Report: SEC Concludes Opensea Probe, Drops Enforcement Threat Over NFTs

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has reportedly ended its investigation into Opensea and will not pursue enforcement action against the non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace over allegations that its NFTs constituted unregistered securities, the company confirmed to Bloomberg this week. Following Coinbase, SEC Ends OpenSea Investigation Under Trump’s Regulatory Climate Opensea…
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