NFT Worlds Announces Plan to Develop Own Game After Split with Minecraft

Web3 gaming platform NFT Worlds is looking to create its own game following Minecraft’s decision to go against blockchain technology. Over the past week, Minecraft developer Mojang Studios announced its stance regarding NFTs. On its official website, the developer affirmed that it will not allow the integration of tokens and other similar technologies into Minecraft.

NFT Worlds suffered the most from this recent announcement, particularly since it had already built a crypto-economy within Minecraft’s custom servers by selling virtual land. Since then, the metaverse gaming platform has unveiled its plans to introduce a new game. It noted that this will be “based on many of the core mechanics of Minecraft.” However, it will also be “completely untethered from the policy enforcement Microsoft and Mojang have over Minecraft.”

The gaming platform furthered that the game will come with “the modernization and active development Minecraft has been missing for years.” According to the team, NFT Worlds’ new game will be free-to-play. The team also hopes to introduce additional content down the line. Users will be able to purchase these using the NFT Worlds token ($WRLD).

Microsoft — which owns Mojang — implemented new rules after the announcement was published. Among these, NFT Worlds can no longer utilize Minecraft’s application programming interface (API). Moreover, players who own tokens by NFT Worlds can no longer make transactions in-game using the $WRLD token as well. However, a Microsoft spokesperson earlier explained that NFT Worlds maps in Minecraft will still be playable.

The NFT Worlds team elaborated that its upcoming title will prioritize “backwards compatibility with existing Minecraft server development plugins and practices.” This will allow creators to transfer their worlds to the new game once it launches. Hence, the team is urging creators to “continue building NFT Worlds content” on Minecraft while the game is still in development.

The metaverse gaming platform views this recent divergence as “a web2 vs web3 battle … between two different visions of the future of the web.” It’s “a technological struggle over who will have ownership of digital assets,” NFT Worlds added. Minecraft went against NFTs because it did not align with its values of “creative inclusion and playing together.” Mojang was adamant about having a “community where everyone has access to the same content.”

Meanwhile, the new NFT Worlds game boasts “innovation” that offers “open, free, and evolved” gameplay as well as a “player owned and operated economy.” But, how it will set itself apart from the popular game Minecraft is still largely ambiguous. The number of players is also important to note. NFT Worlds only has around 100,000 registered users compared to Minecraft’s approximately 141 million active players. The gaming platform has to take this into consideration to determine whether there truly is a demand for its version of “Minecraft, but with NFTs.”

Source: Wired