Mojang denies the benefits that NFTs could bring to
Minecraft
, its flagship video game that has sold more than 238 million copies.
The Swedish studio spoke in an official press release on July 20 in response to requests for clarification from its community about the multiple external projects wanting to associate blockchain and non-fungible tokens with the universe of this video game acquired by Microsoft in 2014. .
“
Minecraft NFT integrations are not something we are going to generally support or allow
,” Mojang clarifies.
It is therefore now prohibited to use "
Minecraft game content, such as worlds or skins
[clothes of a character]
, to make it a rare digital asset
" but also "
to integrate blockchain technologies into our applications customers and our servers.
»
Minecraft
game
allows internet users to create servers so that a defined community of players can play online together in personalized virtual worlds.
Mojang's new policy targets a drift of this feature.
The NFTWorlds project, for example, decided to use
Minecraft
technology to create decentralized online worlds where players can buy and resell virtual items in the form of NFTs.
Their prices vary according to their level of rarity.
"All Minecraft players should have access to the same features
(...)
and the same content"
, claims Mojang.
However,
“NFTs can be at the origin of models of scarcity and exclusion, which come into contradiction with the spirit of our game.”
The studio wants to be inclusive and wants to avoid creating a separation between players who can acquire NFTs and those who cannot.
NFT Worlds Collection Drop
The studio also expresses its discomfort with the logic of speculation that currently reigns in the universe of NFTs.
"It encourages the pursuit of profit at the expense of fun, which is incompatible with long-term enjoyment of the game
. "
Swedish developers are also concerned that NFT projects created by third parties are scams or lead players to purchase virtual items at artificially or fraudulently inflated prices.
Read alsoOpenSea, leader in NFT marketplaces, lays off 20% of its employees
The first consequences of Mojang's decision were quickly felt: the floor price of NFTWorlds' NFT collection fell by 63.88%.
Still, NFT Worlds spoke out in a tweet saying it wouldn't change anything about its trading in
Minecraft
worlds unless there was a risk of legal action.
No content had been removed this Thursday afternoon on the OpenSea sales platform.
The metaverse claims that it is ready to collaborate with other games reproducing the
Minecraft
model if Mojang forbids it to continue its activity.