The creator of the zombie game DayZ on Steam criticized the loot box practices on Steam in an interview and even pointed the finger at himself.
What did the DayZ creator say? In an interview with Eurogamer, Dean Hall, the creator of DayZ and Icarus, commented on the loot box practices of Steam or Valve. Specifically, he says that Valve does not receive enough criticism: This is something that Valve, in my opinion, gets far too little criticism for. I honestly find gambling mechanics in video games to be totally disgusting – they have absolutely no place there.
What exactly does he criticize about Valve? Specifically, it concerns the fact that Steam or Valve evades loot box bans, such as those recently imposed in Brazil. According to official guidelines, the third-party sale of cosmetic items in Valve’s games is prohibited.
At the same time, there is a huge ecosystem in games like Counter-Strike 2, where players speculate with loot boxes. Due to some policy changes, there was recently a big crash here: Steam destroys one billion euros in Counter-Strike 2, fans lose a fortune overnight
Valve also seems to circumvent specific loot box laws, for instance, laws regulating the sale of loot boxes to children: They do not sell the loot box itself but the contents of the box (via TheGamer). Dean Hall finds this absurd.
Dean Hall criticizes Valve and points the finger at himself
How did Hall come to the loot box policy of Valve? In the interview, Dean Hall brings up Valve when he talks about his own survival game Icarus. The game was originally free-to-play, but now costs €33.99 on Steam. Currently, five DLCs are offered, with the latest one priced at €24.50. The most expensive expansion is priced at €28.99, just five euros below the base game price.
The DLC model is controversial. According to Dean Hall, the studio had to make that decision. He specifically states that he is also not happy with the model: I agree with the many people who are angry about the approach with the DLCs. I do not like the approach of Icarus. But we had to survive.
This points to potentially missing investments in the game or the company behind it. Usually, several developers work on a game, who have to be paid for their work. There are also expenses such as office rents, equipment, software, IT infrastructure, and so on that need to be financed. A pure free-to-play model, where no money flows to the developer, can usually not support a development team.
In the future, Dean Hall wants to act differently. Accordingly, he plans to approach monetization differently for his upcoming game Kitten Space Agency (KSA): We say that games can inspire and inspiration should be free, which is our slogan for KSA. I think the game deserves better, I truly believe that. I think the game should be free.
Who is Dean Hall? Dean Hall is a New Zealand video game developer. His previous projects include DayZ, which started as a mod for the shooter Arma 2. In 2014, he founded his own game studio, RocketWerkz. The developers have released, among other things, the VR game Out of Ammo and Out of Ammo: Death Drive. The survival game Icarus went live at the end of 2021.
Currently, the team is working on Kitten Space Agency and Art of Rail, among other projects. No release dates for either game have been announced yet, and there are still no Steam pages. Despite all the criticism, Valve and Steam continually delight players with goodies and feel-good stories. Currently, for example, the platform is giving away a game: Steam is giving away a game to keep, allowing you to arrest criminals and rescue cats from trees
