Minecraft says it will have nothing to do with NFTs, blockchain
While some industries are still hashing out their opinions on NFTs, the video game community is getting on with it clear: NFTs stand for “No F’n Thanks” in their industry.
The latest company to take a stand against non-fungible tokens: Mojang Studios, developer of the hugely popular video game Minecraft.
In a statement posted today on the official Minecraft website, titled “Minecraft and NFTs,” the company made it crystal clear that it would not allow any form of blockchain or NFT integration with its game.
Mojang Studios and Minecraft put forward some reasons why they are against NFTs. First, they made it clear that false scarcity plays a big part in it. NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are basically digital assets that are stored on a blockchain. A unique token is minted and linked to a media file to declare ownership of the portion that has turned NFTs into speculative assets.
The statement makes it clear that Minecraft is not against monetization, using the example of users charging for access to a Minecraft server as an approved use case. However, because NFTs would change game dynamics and give players with monetary assets an in-game upper hand, the developer is opposed to the technology.
“To ensure that Minecraft players have a safe and inclusive experience, blockchain technologies are not allowed to be integrated into our Minecraft client and server applications, nor can they be used to create NFTs associated with in-game content, including worlds, skins , persona items or other mods,” the statement declares.
The developer also raised concerns about the reliability of third parties making Minecraft-related NFTs, and their tendencies to abandon projects and fraudulently inflate prices on NFT aftermarkets.
“No blockchain for block game,” as Molly White on the site Web3 works fine concisely put it. The site tracks various frauds, scams and dramas going on in the Web3 world, which includes cryptocurrencies and NFT projects.
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As White points out, the value of existing (and unauthorized) Minecraft NFT projects the tank on the news of Mojang Studios’ statement. NFT Worlds, which also has a token attached to it, saw the value of both the token and the NFT floor price crater by more than 70 percent.
Minecraft’s Mojang Studios is far from the first video game company to run far away from NFTs. Players have made it clear that they hate the idea of buying NFTs on top of the video games they already buy. And their anti-NFT opinions have forced the industry to follow suit. Just earlier this month, Sony announced a loyalty program called Playstation Stars that will reward gamers with digital collectibles. The company stressed that these digital collectibles were not NFTs.
“It’s definitely not NFTs. Definitely not. You can’t trade them or sell them. It doesn’t leverage any blockchain technologies and definitely not NFTs,” Grace Chen, Sony VP of network advertising, loyalty and licensed merchandise, said in a interview with Washington Post.
Mojang Studios ended its statement by saying that it would monitor how blockchain technology develops for any future use cases, leaving the door slightly open based on currently non-existent possibilities. But, at least for the foreseeable future, get another win for players who absolutely hate NFTs.
