LogInHas it been given carte blanche because of Steam?
Nowadays, Valve is known for its Steam platform, which is almost impossible to avoid if you play on or make games for PC. However, its games are still highly popular, especially Counter-Strike 2, whose market cap dropped by billions of dollars thanks to a single update making it possible to craft rare items instead of only getting them from rare drops.
This is, no doubt, the same loot box stuff that is actively getting banned in many countries, and Dean Hall, the creator of DayZ and Icarus, is not a fan of Valve's monetization policies. In an interview with Eurogamer, he said, "It's something I think Valve does not get anywhere near enough criticism about. I'm honestly disgusted with gambling mechanics in video games at all – they have absolutely no place."
He then challenged the developers who don't see anything wrong with this to "make the data available to universities who are crying out to study this stuff."
Hall's own survival game Icarus has a different way to earn money. It was supposed to be free, but it's now operating by selling DLCs – something that his studio, RocketWerkz, had to do in order to survive.
"I'm not happy either," Hall said. "I agree with a lot of the people who get mad about the DLC approach. I don't really like the Icarus approach. We needed it to survive."
"I actually think a lot of gamers don't realise that 99 percent of devs out there are sitting there going, I don't like this. So who's winning? Because it's sure not us. There's a lot of game studios like mine that are just holding on and trying to keep making the games we want to make, but not necessarily happy with how they monetise."
He wants to find a different way with the upcoming Kitten Space Agency, a 3D space program simulation game. "We've got to try something. And if there's ever a game that deserves trying that, it's a KSP-style game. That's one game I think maybe we can try and do something different with. We say games can inspire, and inspiration should be free, which is kind of a tagline with KSA. I think the game deserves better, I really do - I think the game deserves to be free."
Let's see if he manages to change something in the industry. For now, subscribe to our Newsletter, join our 80 Level Talent platform and our new Discord server, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Telegram, TikTok, and Threads, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.