Posted on July 22, 2022, 2:49 PMUpdated on July 25, 2022 at 2:42 PM
Microsoft, against the market, in NFTs? While the big tech players are making more announcements (Twitter, Spotify, Instagram, Snapchat) in this area, the Redmond giant says no to non-fungible tokens. In a blog post, Microsoft-owned publisher Mojang said it would no longer accept it in its Minecraft game.
Some players use NFTs to trade the goods produced on the platform. These include “skins” (skins), which allow, among other things, to change the appearance of his avatar, his body, but also his clothes and the accessories he wears. These creatures can be bought on the platform, through Minecoins, the virtual currency of Minecraft. Minecoin is earned in exchange for traditional currencies, such as the dollar. A similar operation, here, in new metaverse platforms linked to a blockchain like The Sandbox. But Minecraft is not from this world.
A game, not a business
For those responsible for the famous game, published by the Swedish company Mojang Studios, bought by Microsoft in 2014 for 2.5 billion dollars, NFTs “can create a model of scarcity and separation that goes against the rules and ‘ spirit’ of the game. NFTs, or Non-Fungible Tokens, associate a digital object with a certificate of authenticity that guarantees official ownership to its sole holder.
The use of NFT, which can only be with one owner, thus contradicts, according to the publisher, the “spirit” of Minecraft, which is “a community where everyone has access to the same content”. . Officials are also concerned that the emergence of an NFT market in Minecraft will “encourage profit” and “distract users from the game.” They also point to the risk of manipulation and fraud, already observed in some NFTs, whose price is artificially inflated.
Mojang also indicated that it does not plan, at least in the short term, to allow the use of the blockchain on which NFTs are based in particular… Fountain, I will not drink your water? Maybe the editor will change his mind when the crypto market recovers from the crash?
Minecraft is the best-selling game in history, with over 200 million units sold. Now described as a metaverse, it seems good for receiving NFTs, which claim to organize exchanges and guarantee their rarity in these universes.
No synergy with MetaMask
Many players in the world of video games have put themselves against the use of NFTs, which is in line with many players, who see it as a business venture. On the contrary, others such as EA, Konami or Ubisoft have accepted – with varying degrees of success – this trend. Recently, Square Enix announced that the character Cloud, from the Final Fantasy VII franchise, is being sold as an NFT.
In the case of Minecraft, this failure also prevents a serious prognosis that has been running since the spring. In March, parent company Microsoft got its first foot in the Web3 sector (combining blockchain, crypto and NFT technologies), by participating in a $450 million seed round with New York start-up ConsenSys. It is known for publishing the MetaMask wallet, one of the most popular for buying NFTs. From there to imagining a bridge with the famous sandbox game, there is only one step.