The raging debate over NFTs and their place in video gaming doesn’t look like it’s going away anytime soon. And while some studios are looking for ways to profit over the controversial transactions, others in the industry are pushing back against NFTs as a whole — including Valve CEO Gabe Newell.
In an interview with Rock Paper Shotgun, Newell levied criticism against the people leveraging NFTs rather than the technology itself. “The people in the space, though, tend to be involved in a lot of criminal activity and a lot of sketchy behaviors,” he said. “So it’s much more about the actors than it is about the underlying technology, or the rationale for what we’re doing.”
Newell cautioned players against engaging with such people: “With the actors that are currently in this NFT space, they’re just not people you really are wanting to be doing business with. That doesn’t say anything about the underlying technology, it’s just a reflection of the people right now who are viewing it as an opportunity to rip customers off, or engage in money laundering, or other things like that.”
He also pointed to the “volatility” of NFTs as an issue, which he equated to the up-and-down nature of cryptocurrencies on Steam.
