How NFTs are creating a generational divide between platforms

Steam, if you’re not familiar, is the largest distributor of PC gaming software in the world. With more than 120 million monthly users, it’s the default place for most PC gamers to buy digital downloads

Games that use blockchain technology or let users exchange NFTs or cryptocurrencies won’t be allowed on Steam.

Today let’s talk about a fault line that’s beginning to open up in the gaming world, but I suspect will soon be coming to most platforms and app stores. It’s a divide that begins with a simple question: will your platform allow NFTs? Crypto payments? You know … blockchain stuff?

But even for platforms inclined to support blockchain integrations, there remain a number of hurdles to clear on the policy and user experience side. How and where does the buying and selling take place? Does the platform get a cut of the sale? And if NFTs do affect how the game is played, rather than simply how it looks, how does the developer ens... See more

The questions are coming to gaming first, but it’s easy to imagine them cropping up elsewhere in the new economy. And when they do, platforms will be faced with a choice: shut it all down, as Steam did, and bet that the whole crypto craze will some day fall into the ocean; or be curious about it, the way Epic is, and see if there’s a way to channel... See more

The Epic Games Store, a Steam rival that the Fortnite maker introduced in 2018, quickly said that it is “open” to considering NFT-based games.

Maybe that will all fall into the ocean, too. But one way or another, I think digital scarcity is coming to platforms. And when it does, they’ll have a lot of re-thinking to do. For now, Valve loses nothing by leaving NFTs behind. But there may come a day soon when it’s companies like Valve getting left behind, and developers like SpacePirate laugh... See more