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Devs and advocacy groups urge Valve to allow blockchain games on Steam

Devs and advocacy groups urge Valve to allow blockchain games on Steam

Three blockchain advocacy groups and 26 game developers have petitioned Valve to unban games using the technology on Steam.

In a post on the website of digital rights group Fight For the Future, that organisation, NFT firm Enjin and The Blockchain Game Alliance – along with 26 game developers working in the blockchain space – said that Valve should allow titles featuring blockchain tech and NFTs on its platform.

The petition argues that the use of this new technology will be a positive for players and will result in "new economic opportunities for users and players." The collective also plays on Valve's reputation as an experimental and innovative company in its strive to allow blockchain games on Steam.

This comes in the wake of Valve more-or-less banning blockchain titles and NFTs in games on Steam earlier in October.

“Blockchain games are pioneering a number of new concepts that will invigorate the gaming industry for players and publishers alike," Blockchain Game Alliance president Sebastien Borget said.

"To cut-off this burgeoning sector at such a crucial stage of development is to ignore the remarkable progress we have achieved this year, while creating unfair access to market for incumbents. We wish to invite an open dialogue with the people at Valve, as well as the broader mainstream gaming industry, to better understand their perspectives on the challenges ahead, and to determine how we can collaborate more effectively in future.”


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.