Minecraft still hasn’t officially banned NFTs – but it’s coming
The July 2022 announcement that Minecraft planned to ban the use of NFTs on player-run servers sent a shock wave through Web3 world.
Almost a year later, however, the planned action has yet to come into effect – but it’s still coming.
Microsoft-owned game developer Mojang sent out a news post last summer said it would update the game’s guidelines for use to clarify specific restrictions regarding the use of NFTs, or unique assets tokenized on the blockchain. Roughly speaking, Mojang wrote that “integrations of NFTs with Minecraft are generally not something we will support or allow.”
Since then, however, Minecraft’s guidelines have still not been updated, and there has been no follow-up announcement.
But a Microsoft representative confirmed it Decrypt this week that “the update of the official guidelines is still in progress and the guidelines have not changed.”
Minecraft’s expected ban announcement last year came in the wake of unofficial and community-driven Web3 projects built around Mojang’s long-running game, which Microsoft said had 141 million monthly active players on all devices starting in 2021.
Aims for token gating
Mojang specifically said it would prohibit the use of NFT resources in ways such as “gating” or restricting access to certain content or features on fan-operated game servers.
Mojang allows players to charge for access to servers, but such features must be available for anyone to purchase. With NFTs, functions may be limited to a small set of assets.
“Each of these uses of NFTs and other blockchain technologies creates digital ownership based on scarcity and exclusion, inconsistent with the Minecraft values of creative inclusion and playing together,” Mojang wrote after citing examples of use. “NFTs do not include our entire society and create a scenario of haves and have-nots.”
“The speculative pricing and investment mentality surrounding NFTs takes the focus away from playing the game and encourages profit, which we believe is inconsistent with the long-term enjoyment and success of our players,” Mojang added.
Furthermore, the post said that Minecraft would prohibit the creation of third-party NFT assets that are based on official game assets. The planned moves affected third-party Web3 projects built around Minecraft servers.
Most notable among them was NFT Worldsa project on Ethereum scaling network Polygon who sold customizable plots as NFTs, with plans to build out a dedicated Minecraft server that used them. The project’s creators turned around and changed the project to Topiaan original game still visibly inspired by Minecraft, but seemingly “built from scratch.”
Interestingly, Microsoft itself released NFTs related to Minecraft in February 2021, is launching a series of digital collectibles to celebrate the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. These NFTs were launched in conjunction with crypto game startup Enjin, and could be used in the game via an Enjin-created plugin.
