Minecraft bans NFTs because they “encourage profiteering” and stop “long-term enjoyment”
The developer behind Minecraft has banned NFTs in the game.
Mojang Studios, which is owned by Microsoft, wrote in a blog post that “integrations of NFTs with Minecraft are generally not something we would support or allow” because NFTs and other blockchain technology “can create models of scarcity and exclusion that conflict with our guidelines. and the spirit of Minecraft.”
A non-fungible token (NFT) is a digital commodity that belongs to the person who bought it, with the record of purchase kept in an immutable ledger called the blockchain.
Mojang says that the NFT implementations it has seen from companies on Minecraft, such as skin packs, or earning NFT rewards for activities in or on our side of the game, “create digital ownership based on scarcity and exclusion, which is inconsistent with The Minecraft values of creative inclusion and play together.”
The company continues: “The speculative pricing and investment mentality around NFTs takes the focus away from playing the game and encourages profit, which we believe is inconsistent with the long-term happiness and success of our players.”
Despite the hype surrounding the technology when it was launched, sales of NFTs have fallen 92 percent. The apparent decline was seen during an auction of an NFT of Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey’s first tweet, which was originally bought for $2.9 million but resold for just $280.
It’s possible that Mojang could integrate NFTs in the future, with the company saying it’s “closely watching how blockchain technology evolves over time” but concluding that there are “no plans to implement blockchain technology in Minecraft right now.”
Mojang isn’t the only gaming giant to crack down on NFTs. Last year, Valve announced that they would not allow NFTs or cryptocurrencies on their platform Steam. In an interview, Valve co-founder Gabe Newell explained that “people in [NFT] space … tends to be involved in a lot of criminal activity and a lot of sketchy behavior, adding that it’s “much more about the actors than the underlying technology.”
Epic Games has said it will “welcome games that use blockchain technology provided they comply with the relevant laws, disclose their terms and are age-rated by an appropriate group”, but will not use crypto technologies or NFTs themselves.
“We are not touching NFTs as the entire field is currently tangled with a difficult mix of scams, interesting decentralized technology underpinnings and scams,” CEO Tim Sweeney tweeted.
