On Wednesday, Minecraft’s developer Mojang Studios said that it would be excluding the integration of nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, alongside blockchain technology as a whole, in its popular namesake game. In explaining the decision, Mojang wrote:

“Like any digital file, NFTs can be copied, moved, or even deleted. Additionally, NFTs and blockchain have also been associated with price speculation. These uses of NFTs and other blockchain technologies create digital ownership based on scarcity and exclusion, which does not align with Minecraft’s values of creative inclusion and playing together.”

As told by Mojang: “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.”

The company also criticized the “speculative pricing” and “investment mentality” around NFTs that take away from the game experience and encourage profiteering to the detriment of long-term game playability. Furthermore, it pointed to rug-pulls surrounding certain third-party NFT integrations, as well as NFT wash trading, or fraudulent price manipulation to support the ban.

Under the new rules, third-party blockchain technologies cannot be integrated with client and server applications within Minecraft. Nor may they be utilized to create NFTs associated with any in-game content, including worlds, skins, persona items, or other mods. Although the changes do not affect most Minecraft gamers, it is likely to have significant consequences for a small subset of such gamers who are also profiting from in-game NFTs. Third-party for-sale NFT collections digitizing Minecraft in-game assets may therefore be in violation of such terms and could potentially face legal consequences.

Rip NFT worlds? pic.twitter.com/5bEy5oqtjm

— DeeZe (@DeezeFi) July 20, 2022