Minecraft Bans NFTs
Arguably the most popular game in the world Minecraft has chosen to ban the use of NFTs on its platform. The move came after several projects were revealed to be working on creating the first metaverse within the already established game.
Mojang developers of Minecraft shared the news in a post detailing moves within the game usage guidelines, which are all aimed at NFTs.
Minecraft will be banning any blockchain technology being utilized on its servers and forbidding the use of the game's imagery within any and all NFT projects.
“To ensure that Minecraft players have a safe and inclusive experience, blockchain technologies are not permitted to be integrated inside our client and server applications, nor may Minecraft in-game content such as worlds, skins, persona items, or other mods, be utilized by blockchain technology to create a scarce digital asset,” the post reads.
The Microsoft-owned developer currently allows server managers to charge for their custom games experiences, but they see NFTs as being counterintuitive to the “spirit of Minecraft.” Mainly due to NFT's speculative nature, coupled with the built-in scarcity, leads to limitations with what content users can access on certain servers.
“The speculative pricing and investment mentality around NFTs takes the focus away from playing the game and encourages profiteering, which we think is inconsistent with the long-term joy and success of our players,” the post adds.
Mojang pointed out servers that allow the use of NFTs that represent in-game items or give players rewards in NFTs. Moreover, there are projects which seek to sell Minecraft-created items, which are represented as NFTs, within its severs such as Polygon-based NFT Worlds, which sell lots of digital lands, for the use of one's private server.
NFT Worlds is said to have garnered almost $163 million worth of NFT trading volume to date. In a tweet, NFT Worlds co-founder ArkDev noted that the company was in the midst of deciding how to go forward in light of the recent news.
“We are working to figure out to what extent this will [affect] us and also have potential pivots planned in the absolute worst case that keeps us going,” he wrote. “We're not leaving.”
Developers of NFT Worlds spoke on Discord, describing how in past speakings with Minecraft developers, the team indicated a "pivot" for the project was a possibility.
"We are as blindsided as you are," the message reads. "We have talked with Minecraft's IP department multiple times in the past. They have never clearly indicated that anything we were doing was going to be ruled on/restricted (other than existing EULA items, which we complied with for the entirety of the project, such as our stance on advertising/IP within the game)."
"I know this is extreme cause for concern in the community, and it is for us too," the NFT Worlds message continues. "But we're currently [considering] all options, and will do our best to figure out another option going forward, even if that's a pivot."
This story is a warning on how not to develop Web3 projects on top of Web 2 infrastructure, especially with NFTs, as the owners of a platform can easily pull the rug and change the rules.