Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has ruled out banning NFTs on the Epic Games Store
Tim Sweeney clarified his stance on banning NFTs on his Epic Game Store: “Absolutely not”.
His response came in the wake of a dramatic 24 hours in the gaming world, where Mojang studio banned all NFT integration on its Minecraft platform.
Tim Sweeney subsequently came under pressure from a section of the gaming community, who were baying for NFT blood.
In response, Sweeney said: “Developers should be free to decide how to make their games and you should be free to decide whether to play them. I believe stores and operating system makers shouldn’t interfere by forcing their views on others. We certainly won’t.”
Tim Sweeney is the man who masterminded Epic Games, the legendary game ‘Fortnite’ and the Unreal Engine on which it and many other games are built.
After the Minecraft NFT ban, a section of gamers turned their focus to Sweeney, hoping that he would follow Mojang’s lead.
Mojang, the creator of the global sensation Minecraft, has banned all forms of NFT activity on their platform, citing their “price and investment mentality”.
Furthermore, Mojang claims that the mentality of NFTs “distracts from game play and encourages profiteering.”
Read Minecraft’s Twitter statement on July 21, 2022:
“To ensure that Minecraft players have a safe and inclusive experience, blockchain technologies are not permitted to be integrated into our Minecraft client and server applications and may not be used to generate NFTs associated with any in-game content…”
Actually, to put all of this in context – Minecraft has open-source servers that allow developers to use its infrastructure to create their own gaming experiences.
One such developer is NFT Worlds, who built a very successful platform on Minecraft, integrating NFT and crypto into its ecosystem.
The NFT Worlds project has achieved $80 million in NFT trading volume and claims to have 100,000 players.
Now, as per Mojang’s new policy, the game will be canceled and disabled.
A wounded NFT Worlds responded with caution to their community and released a lengthy statement, in which it outlined their future options.
Option one, they said, would hopefully see a resolution made with Minecraft and a return to business as usual.
For option two, they said they could create a game of their own, using a Minecraft-like game engine.
Finally, for all three options, they said they could “pivot to a GameFi platform” with their own, proven formula for success.
You can read the full statement here:
Mojang Studio’s ban was a highly controversial and sudden stance taken, essentially banning a minority of the Minecraft community.
For Sweeney, a man of strong principles, as exemplified by his court battle with Apple, he continues to make his position clear.
In response to a post, which suggested that Epic Games’ policy “could be similar to banning hateful/discriminatory content NFTs,” he said:
“A store can choose to make no such judgment and host something legal, or choose to draw the line at mainstream acceptable rules like ours, or only accept games that conform to the owner’s personal beliefs.”
Sweeney’s voice would be a wet blanket for the wildfires raging in some parts of the traditional gaming community.
NFT has become a very divisive topic in gaming, with some gamers wanting to explore this new technology and others vehemently against it.
Opponents use recent rage tans and heists as examples of what they don’t want to bring to the gaming world.
Still, NFTs remain attractive to some gamers, who perhaps like the idea of owning their in-game items and being able to trade them in an open marketplace.
NFT Worlds ended their statement on a poignant note, declaring: “We are fighting for a future with a player-owned and operated economy, where all participants benefit from their contribution to the ecosystem. We recognize this is a huge task.”
The debate is ongoing and likely will be for some time.
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