14 DAY TRIAL // Digital distribution service Steam has become one of the linchpins of the PC gaming market and recent changes have suggested that soon players will be able to trade games freely on the platform, although the company is still unsure about how it can implement such a system.
Speaking with Eurogamer Gabe Newell, who is leader of Valve, has said, “We need to hire an economist, because we keep bumping up into these issues. You’re starting to look at weird issues like currency and inflation and productivity and asset values and liquidity of asset categories. We just wish we were smarter about this stuff.”
The executive says that the company is trying to get the basic information about the economic underpinnings of a trade-in system.
He added, “We think we want to move in the direction where everything is an item of exchange. We just aren’t totally sure how to do that right. We’re sure there are economists out there who understand this really well. We feel like we’re this third-world developing country.”
It's likely that Gabe Newell is exaggerating the matter to some extent in order to convey the magnitude of the issue to gamers who are eager for Steam to allow them to trade their games without any sort of restriction.
He suggested that Valve might be ready to talk to the World Bank in order to see how it can proceed.
Steam recently announced that it would allow users to trade gifted games that they have not installed and a number of in-game items.
Any sort of game trading option on Steam will likely be introduced gradually and with a number of restrictions.
The digital distribution service has evolved from a simple way of delivering patches for Valve titles to a market leader that often dictates the way competitors like Impulse and Direct 2 Drive behave.