Mojang Studios wants to ban NFTs from Minecraft

Some NFTs have been available in the classic Minecraft game for quite some time. This should end soon. An official blog post from the iconic sandbox game reveals that it is looking to ditch NFTs on the platform.

The official rationale: “NFTs fail to include the entire community and create a haves and have-nots scenario.” The “speculative pricing” and “investment mentality” associated with NFTs distracts attention from the game and encourages “profit making”. It’s not “incompatible” with long-term player joy and success. He continues, “We are also concerned that some third-party NFTs are unreliable and may end up costing players money to purchase them.”

According to Statista, Minecraft is the most successful video game of all time with a total of 238 million sales. Developed by Swedish company Mojang Studios, the game has been owned by software giant Microsoft since 2014. With the move, the acclaimed game could touch the collective nerve of the gaming scene.

Square Enix with NFT push

Hardly any community is as polarized as the gaming scene when it comes to NFTs. While blockchain games such as Axie Infinity, Decentraland or The Sandbox dominate the gaming sector in terms of NFT, more and more classic game developers, unlike Microsoft, dare to go further in this direction.

In January this year, Square Enix CEO Yosuke Matsuda discussed the potential of NFTs in the gaming industry. A few months later, Square Enix acknowledged its projects in this area in a financial report. They even wanted to verify the implementation of their own token. So it’s no surprise that the Japanese game maker is taking its NFT plans seriously.

Together with the blockchain project Enjin, Square Enix wants to launch the corresponding NFTs on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the legendary game “Final Fantasy 7”. A press release also states that the non-fungible tokens should be tied to physical trading cards. Enjin sits atop Polkadot and aims to build the Metaverse in a decentralized way. The Final Fantasy collection is set to launch in 2023.

Where minds part

It’s still a mixed picture that emerges in the gaming industry when it comes to NFTs. French gaming giant Ubisoft has also attempted to implement NFTs in its games in the past and received some violent shit. On the other hand, there are more and more projects in this field which, like Square Enix, are immersing themselves in the world of crypto.

NFTs seem to remain on the list of most discussed topics in the gaming scene at the moment – even if opinions differ on this subject.