Epic Games welcomes blockchain developers

Epic Games, the gaming studio behind Fortnite, announced it would allow developers to build blockchain games on its platform. Epic announced this on the heels of its biggest rival, Valve, banning crypto and NFT-related games on its game distribution platform Steam. Steam is one of the largest game distribution platforms in the world, with 26 million concurrent users.

Steam's point of view is that items have value and they don't allow items that can have real-world value on their platform. While I respect their choice, I fundamentally believe that NFTs and blockchain games are the future. It's why I started this journey with all of you.
3/4

— Age of Rust (@SpacePirate_io) October 14, 2021

The reason? Steam doesn't want to allow the sale of items that encourage real money gaming. This move could be financially disadvantageous to Valve as blockchain-based games are growing in popularity.

Epic Games Store will welcome games that make use of blockchain tech provided they follow the relevant laws, disclose their terms, and are age-rated by an appropriate group. Though Epic's not using crypto in our games, we welcome innovation in the areas of technology and finance. https://t.co/6W7hb8zJBw

— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) October 15, 2021

Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, said they were excited to work with early developers in this field under some limitations as a platform provider. However, he made it clear that Epic Games, as a game developer, is not planning to use NFTs in its products like Fortnite.

Epic and Steam's approaches highlight the fact that any platform that moderates content will have to decide whether it wants to allow apps or games to sell NFTs. It will be interesting to see what Apple does once Opensea and Coinbase launch the ability to buy NFTs on iOS - these could be deemed digital goods and subject to 30% commissions!