Mojang made waves yesterday when it said, in no uncertain terms, that NFTs are not welcome in Minecraft (opens in a new tab). Good news for players, perhaps, but not so much for anyone who has already committed to incorporating blockchain technology into the game – such as NFT Worlds.
“NFT Worlds is a fully decentralized, fully customizable, community driven, game to serve gaming platform where world owners can create their own limitless metaverse games or experiences for players or exclusive communities in their worlds,” their website. (opens in a new tab) says.
“Currently using Minecraft and its vast open source ecosystem, NFT Worlds builds on the backbone of decades of open source development in the Minecraft community and radically expands it to enable a whole new kind of 3D voxel-based, decentralized game metaverse supported of the Ethereum blockchain.”
What that basically means is that it supports custom Minecraft servers where players can buy plots of virtual land and earn (and spend) cryptocurrency – the kind of hybrid system that Mojang’s blockchain policy seems specifically aimed at shutting down. And it definitely had an impact: The price of $WRLD (opens in a new tab) thought badly immediately after the studio’s announcement.
In response to Mojang’s new policy, NFT Worlds has issued a statement (opens in a new tab) condemns Mojang and Minecraft as having “no regard for creators, builders and players,” and promises to create its own game to replace it.
“We are creating a new game and platform based on many of the core mechanics of Minecraft, but with the modernization and active development, Minecraft has been missing for years,” NFT Worlds said. “This is not a rewrite of some open source Minecraft clone, which would likely break the EULA or still risk legal action, this is completely from the ground up. This transition will also come with a public facing brand identity change that is more player friendly.”
The Future Of NFT Worlds 🌎Read our statement below through the attached Twitter thread, or here: thread 🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/Oy2T7oXQVg22 July 2022
The new game will have a “playstyle, look and feel” similar to Minecraft, NFT Worlds said, but will feature performance optimizations, graphical improvements and new mechanics that will provide “a more accessible, ownable and enjoyable gaming experience.” It will be free for all players, and “completely detached from the policies Microsoft and Mojang have over Minecraft.” At the same time, it will also be backwards compatible with existing Minecraft server plugins, so when the time comes to switch platforms, content creators will be able to make the leap with minimal fuss and fuss.
Making a better Minecraft than Minecraft (while maintaining compatibility with Minecraft) is an awfully big job, and one that I think will invite immediate and intense scrutiny from Microsoft, but NFT Worlds doesn’t have many options. Mojang has effectively closed the door on its business model, but a wholesale switch to a new game would leave existing users, and everything they’ve built so far, out in the cold. The only way to keep the wheels turning is to come up with something that is functionally Minecraft without actually being Minecraft. That’s a tall order.
In the more immediate future, NFT Worlds said it will be making changes to its launch and play pages to attract new players who aren’t interested in the cryptocurrency angle. It also laid out some very dramatic, high stakes for the future of NFT Worlds as a battle for both the philosophical and technological soul of the internet.
“Microsoft has made it clear that it will always act in the interests of its shareholders and balance sheet, to the detriment of innovation, player experience and creators,” NFT Worlds said. “We believe an open, free, developed version of what Minecraft brought to the world will be a better future for creators, developers and ultimately players.
“We are fighting for a future with a player-owned and driven economy, where all participants benefit from their contribution to the ecosystem. We recognize that this is a monumental task.”
I’ve reached out to Microsoft for comment on the NFT Worlds plan and will update if I hear back.
