Mojang Studios: NFTs and blockchain are not coming to Minecraft

NFTs and blockchain are still controversial up until today, and their combination doesn’t have a good reputation. And while other studios, companies, and individuals in the gaming community patronize them, some are repulsed by their nature and obvious dangers. One of them is Mojang Studios which recently issued a statement clarifying its stand regarding the possible entrance of NFTs and blockchain in its famous game, Minecraft.

“While we are in the process of updating our Minecraft Usage Guidelines to offer more precise guidance on new technologies, we wanted to take the opportunity to share our view that integrations of NFTs with Minecraft are generally not something we will support or allow,” the studio directly stresses in its statement.

Mojang Studios provides a brief background about NFTs and blockchain in the statement, specifically tackling speculations about them, “where prices are driven up rapidly and as we have recently seen, may fall rapidly.”

Moreover, according to the studious, NFTs promote scarcity and exclusion, which unfortunately contradicts Minecraft values. 

“… We have these rules to ensure that Minecraft remains a community where everyone has access to the same content. NFTs, however, can create models of scarcity and exclusion that conflict with our Guidelines and the spirit of Minecraft.

“To ensure that Minecraft players have a safe and inclusive experience, blockchain technologies are not permitted to be integrated inside our client and server applications, nor may Minecraft in-game content such as worlds, skins, persona items, or other mods, be utilized by blockchain technology to create a scarce digital asset …

“…NFTs are not inclusive of all our community and create a scenario of the haves and the have-nots. The speculative pricing and investment mentality around NFTs takes the focus away from playing the game and encourages profiteering, which we think is inconsistent with the long-term joy and success of our players.”

Mojang Studios further tackles the dangers of patronizing the technology, specifically third-party NFTs, in which possibilities of deceiving acts could occur, like artificial selling of NFTs and having them at ridiculously high prices. It notes that asset managers needed in some third-party NFT implementations relying on the blockchain might vanish without notice. With this, the studio underlines that it prioritizes a “safe and inclusive experience” within the Minecraft world, saying it has no plans of injecting the blockchain tech into the game “right now.”