Whereas most companies are quick to jump on the cryptocurrency bandwagon, Valve is not one of them. Valve's stance against NFTs and cryptocurrency is clear after Steam banned all games featuring blockchain technology. According to Valve's president and co-founder, Gabe Newell, the company isn't against the technology behind NFTs. Rather, Valve's issues lie with the lack of regulation, volatility, and how cryptocurrency attracts nefarious uses.

In a Rock Paper Shotgun interview, Newell noted how the bad in NFTs outweighs the positives, for now. Specifically, Newell mentioned how "the people in the space" tend to be involved in "criminal activity" and "sketchy behaviors." Newell also added that Valve's problem is "more about the actors", explaining that Valve does not want to do business with such individuals.

The gist of Newell's recent interview is that he thinks people in the NFT space are only in it to launder money and scam people.

As to why Steam doesn't accept cryptocurrency as payment anymore, Newell elaborated by saying that "volatility is a bad thing in a medium of exchange," before circling back to his initial statement about fraud. Newell revealed that half of all crypto transactions on Steam were fraudulent, which is a huge number "that's just out of control."

Finally, in a PCGamer interview, Newell was a lot more straightforward when asked for his thoughts about the metaverse and digital ownership. Specifically, Newell used Square Enix's popular MMO, Final Fantasy, as an example. After saying that most people talking about the metaverse "have no idea what they're talking about," Newell explained that people can just go to "La Noscea in Final Fantasy 14" to say that the problem of customizable avatars have long been sold and isn't just "some fabulous thing" that people only recently invented.

In other news, Valve made true on its earlier promise to release the Steam Deck in late February. The highly anticipated portable PC landed to a handful of lucky buyers last February 25, which coincided with the release of Elden Ring. Coincidentally, Elden Ring appears to run reasonably well on the Steam Deck compared to more powerful gaming PCs resulting in FromSoftware's latest title being bombarded with negative reviews.