Gabe Newell’s Problem Isn’t With NFTs Or Metaverse, But The ‘Bad Actors’ Behind Them

Valve co-founder and president Gabe Newell put his two cents into the gaming world’s interest in NFTs and the metaverse.

Gabin is actively supporting the media in support of Valve’s new Steam Deck hardware. This gave him many opportunities to express his passionate opinion on the state of the industry. His comments appear after banning NFT and all blockchain games from the Steam platform. This move was well received by the company. Community, but has been criticized by developers creating blockchain games. This led to a wider conversation between developers and publishers about the concept of a “metaverse.”

In an interview with EurogamerNewell explained that Valve made its decision after finding that NFT and blockchain activity in some of these games was “very sketchy.” While he says blockchains are great as a form of technology, the way they are currently used is not.

He goes on to elaborate that the same problem arose with the use of cryptocurrencies. Newell notes that “50% of the cryptocurrencies paid for transactions were fraudulent,” and the currency’s volatility meant people didn’t know how much they were paying for things on Steam. “You paid 99 cents for it today,” Newell explains. “Tomorrow, you will pay $498 for it, and this is very annoying for people. So it just wasn’t a good method. The people who are currently active in this space are usually not good actors.”

In another interview, this time with a PC gamer, Newell talks about his feelings for the “Metaverse.” He noticed that there are many “get rich quick” schemes on this topic. He’s saying what we’ve mostly thought about: what a lot of people are doing with the metaverse is nothing new. “Looks like they never played an MMO. They’re like, “Oh, you’re going to have this custom avatar.” And it’s like, well… go into La Noscea in Final Fantasy XIV and tell me it’s not a ten-year-old problem solved, not some incredible thing that you, you know, invent.”

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So, in essence, Gaben repeats what the gaming community has been screaming about lately. Of course, this is nothing new, but it’s good to know that even some of the biggest names in the industry feel that the current approaches to this technology are basically financially predatory delusions.