Edit: Title changed from Microsoft to Mojang to reflect the story more accurately. Mojang is part of Microsoft and the developers of Minecraft.
Mojang doesn’t seem to like NFTs and blockchain, as the giant is banning the use of NFTs and derivative NFT projects that use the game’s assets.
Minecraft is one of the most played video games ever, and since its launch in 2009, it has only grown. The game features custom servers as well, however, but developer Mojang isn’t keen that people use NFTs projects in the game. They served a public notice that the game will ban any NFTs that use the game’s assets.
Minecraft shared an article on upcoming guidelines stating, “Integration of NFTs with Minecraft is generally not something we will support or allow.”
Microsoft also made it clear that the game should have equal features and access to everyone as it’s always been. Using NFTs in the game goes against the game’s policy as they add models of exclusion and scarcity – Minecraft isn’t about that.
NFT World’s stock was down less than a third of its original price an hour before the announcement happened. NFT Worlds used Minecraft to build metaverses on the Ethereum blockchain. With 64000 active players and more than 960,000 worlds, its price fell, and it’s now worth only $~0.014.
NFT Worlds NFTs also dropped in price and saw one-third of its price in just an hour.
The users could earn NFTs and other scarce digital assets as they complete particular activities on a server. They could also earn Minecraft NFTs by completing activities outside the game. Minecraft said that blockchain technologies and NFTs create a sense of exclusion and scarcity that conflicts with Minecraft’s values of creative inclusion.
Minecraft also shared concerns about third-party NFTs and their dangers. We see many projects disappear and get rug-pulled. Minecraft doesn’t want that for its users.
“Blockchain technologies are not permitted to be integrated inside our Minecraft client and server applications, nor may they be utilized to create NFTs associated with any in-game content, including worlds, skins, persona items, or other mods,” stated Minecraft.
Microsoft and Minecraft have received a huge backlash from the community as well as notable crypto firms. Chris Dixon (General Partner at VC firm Andreessen Horowitz) has come out and tweeted, “Good reminder of why you shouldn’t build on corporate-owned (Web2) networks. They change the rules on developers on a whim.”
Mojang’s decision to ban NFTs is terrible news for many NFT-based Minecraft projects such as NFT Worlds, MyMetaverse, and many others. NFT Worlds saw its token lose 70% of its value within 40 minutes from the Mojang announcement, causing panic selling and bringing down further the value of NFTs.
We can not predict what is going on to happen with all the crypto Minecraft server but its most likely some will go underground while other will stop development.