Gabe Newell, co-founder and president of Valve Corporation, recently reiterated his doubts about NFT and blockchain within the gaming world. Speaking on the occasion of the launch of Steam Deck, the portable console based on a PC architecture and compatible with Steam, he confirmed that for the moment the platform will not allow to run games based on the purchase or sale of cryptocurrencies, a field in the which instead the rival Epic Games (and not only) has shown itself more open. In an interview granted to Eurogamer, Newell used his usual tone between joking and irreverent to describe his position also towards the metaverse and the hype generated around this evolving technology.
“What is being done in terms of blockchain is still too sketchy,” Newell said. “And there are too many borderline things happening in this area that immediately make you think that don’t go well this way. Blockchains are a great thing as a technology in their own right, but it’s the way they’re used at the moment that’s too crude. It makes you want to stay away from it. The people who are active in that field right now are generally very good at lying. “And speaking of the metaverse:” There are too many get-rich-quick schemes around the metaverse, “continued the president of Valve.” Most of them. people talking about the metaverse he has no idea what he is saying. And it looks like they’ve never played an MMO. It’s all an ‘oh, you can make your own avatar’, and what I think is well, go to La Noscea in Final Fantasy XIV and tell me if it’s not something that’s been around for ten years. “