Epic Welcomes Games With Blockchain, Cryptocurrencies And NFTs, While Steam Bans Them

When it comes to business, an abandoned market will be snatched by competitors. As long as there is money to be made, businesses will do anything to be there to supply.

And this time, Epic Games is opening itself to "games that support cryptocurrency or blockchain-based assets."

According to CEO Tim Sweeney, his company is letting games of those types onto its PC store, even as NFTs continue to be criticized for being the giant scam that pollute the planet.

But that on one condition: provided that the games follow the relevant laws, disclose their terms, and are age-rated by an appropriate group.

Though Epic's not using cryptocurrency in its games, according to Sweeney, "we welcome innovation in the areas of technology and finance."

The news followed Valve that said it won't allow games featuring NFTs or cryptocurrency on its digital storefront, Steam.

As Epic Games Store is fighting for the huge market share against Steam, that dominates the industry primarily through exclusives and free giveaways, Sweeney is making a bold move to embrace the market its rival is ditching.

To do this, Epic is playing it slowly, saying that there would be limitations in this "new field".

The company is willing to work with developers who wish to use blockchain technology, NFT or and cryptocurrencies in games that could appear on the its digital storefront.

However, Epic's move quickly garnered criticisms, as it contradicts Sweeney's earlier statements.

The CEO previously said that Epic wouldn’t touch NFTs because “the whole field is currently tangled up with an intractable mix of scams, interesting decentralized tech foundations, and scams.”

But regardless, allowing games that Steam bans is another way that Epic could compete with Valve.

Epic and Valve have been in a war in the video game industry.

Steam, the longtime leading digital distributor for games for the PC platform, started facing Epic, the Fortnite-maker in 2018. Epic launched its own PC games store, and challenged Valve in a console-war-like battle for supremacy in the eyes of modern generation players who grew up unhindered by the dominance of Steam.

Valve has enjoyed success, thanks to popular titles like Half-Life and Dota 2. And with Steam, the company's store has been monopolizing the market for years.

While many games rely on Steam, only a number of games that dared to defy Valve's monopoly.

Some include Activision Blizzard and Electronic Arts, for example, that have the capacity to successfully distribute their games outside of Valve's store.

Conquering the market, Steam's dominance in unmatched, due to lacking any direct rival.

That, until Epic Games stepped in.

Thanks to the meteoric rise of Fortnite as one of the most popular games in the world, Epic has quickly earned the brand name, and the financial status to compete directly against Valve.

And this time, Sweeney is snatching a market Steam is ditching, which should help it improve its business.