NFTREGULATION

Steam removes blockchain game "Age of Rust," causing uproar; Epic Games: Welcome blockchain games to join

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Steam removes blockchain game "Age of Rust," causing uproar; Epic Games: Welcome blockchain games to join

After the developer Valve, behind the mainstream gaming platform Steam, updated its platform rules and guidelines, the NFT blockchain single-player sci-fi adventure game Age of Rust has been taken down. In response, developers of Epic Games and Axie Infinity have both criticized this decision, stating that Steam's decision is short-sighted.

Not Aligned with Real-World Assets

According to the updated rules on Steam's guidelines, the twelfth item under "Content that should not be published on Steam" states:

Applications built on blockchain technology that can issue or trade cryptocurrencies and NFTs are prohibited.

As a result, the blockchain game Age of Rust, which was delisted, stated on Twitter that Steam considers in-game items to have value, which is not allowed on the platform. The team still believes that NFTs and blockchain games are the future, which was the reason for early deployment on Steam, but they respect the platform's decision.

Age of Rust promises to continue investing in game development in the future, creating more NFTs and empowering the community.

Epic Games Extends an Olive Branch

Previously, Epic Games, the developer of Fortnite, which defeated Apple in a lawsuit, had its CEO Tim Sweeney tweet in support of blockchain games after the incident:

We welcome games based on blockchain technology, provided they comply with relevant regulations, disclosure terms, and have appropriate age ratings.

He also mentioned consensus mechanisms, believing that creating a trustworthy and decentralized computational foundation using cryptography and game theory is a great idea, but the early workload has proven to be too large and should be abandoned as soon as possible.

Enjin and Axie Show Support

The Ethereum-based gaming and digital collectibles trading platform Enjin also expressed disappointment in Steam's short-sighted decision, stating that it deeply affected Age of Rust, which adopts Enjin's blockchain technology. They also tagged Epic Games and CEO Tim Sweeney, seemingly hoping for further collaboration.

The developer behind the leading blockchain game Axie Infinity, Sky Mavis, showed confidence and promoted their game distribution platform:

Today, Steam banned all games built on blockchain and NFTs. However, our Mavis Hub presents a completely different path, a future where players control assets and economic freedom.