The developers behind Minecraft, one of the world’s biggest video games, said they are not looking to support integration with non-fungible tokens (NFTs) or blockchain technology, arguing that they “encourage profiteering”.
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Quick Facts
- In a recent blog post, developer Mojang Studios said the technology encourages digital scarcity and exclusion that conflicts with “the spirit of Minecraft.”
- They also expressed concern about the authenticity and viability of third-party NFT implementations, highlighting the difficulty in preventing fraud or projects with excessively inflated prices.
- “NFTs are not inclusive of our entire community and create an arena of haves and have-nots,” the developers wrote.[which] is incompatible with the joy and long-term success of our players.”
- Mojang did not say that they will ever integrate with the technology, however, concluding that they have no plans to implement blockchain technology right now.
- With over 200 million global sales and a game model based on building and collecting items, Minecraft’s position would be a blow to NFT advocates’ attempts to integrate with industry and mainstream gaming community.
- The mainstream gaming community is widely antagonistic towards NFTs; Discord, a social networking platform popular with gamers, had to quickly backtrack late last year after community backlash for floating an Ethereum integration.
See related article: Discord Rejects ETH Integration Amid Community Backlash