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Epic founder Tim Sweeney has confirmed that Epic Games store will not ban non-fungible tokens (NFTs) from the games it sells on its PC storefront.
Responding to developer Mojang's recent decision to ban NFT and blockchain from its Minecraft, Sweeney said that Epic did not want to follow suit and "forc[e] their views onto others" by banning the new tech.
"Developers should be free to decide how to build their games, and you are free to decide whether to play them," he tweeted. "I believe stores and operating system makers shouldn’t interfere by forcing their views onto others. We definitely won’t."
Developers should be free to decide how to build their games, and you are free to decide whether to play them. I believe stores and operating system makers shouldn’t interfere by forcing their views onto others. We definitely won’t.July 21, 2022
"This is antithetical to individual freedom and decision making, so we don’t take it," he added in a subsequent reply when challenged by Blizzard senior software engineer, Joseph Bleau, about whether appearing "neutral" about NFTs and permitting developers to sell them on EGS could be seen as "tacit endorsement".
"Crypto is complicated," he said (thanks, NME). "There’s some promising stuff, there’s some bad stuff, and everyone should make their own decisions about it."
Last September, however, Sweeney stated on social media that Epic Games "aren’t touching NFTs as the whole field is currently tangled up with an intractable mix of scams, interesting decentralized tech foundations, and scams".
As we reported earlier this week, Minecraft developer Mojang has explicitly banned all NFT technologies from anything to do with its game, confirming that "integrations of NFTs with Minecraft are generally not something [it] will support or allow".
NFT Worlds, a company that sells Minecraft seeds - the codes used to generate the worlds you play within - as NFTs has responded by saying it is developing "a new game and platform based on many of the core mechanics of Minecraft, but with the modernization and active development Minecraft has been missing for years".
Square Enix has also recently hit NFT headlines after fans discovered it is releasing a retro-inspired action figure of Cloud that comes with an NFT if you fancy forking out some extra dosh.
Whilst disappointing to some - NFTs come with heaps of environmental concerns - it shouldn't be entirely surprising news. Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda kicked off the year by expressing hope that NFTs and blockchain technology would become a "major trend" in the industry, and whilst he's held firm on his views, he did recently acquiesce that it was "too early" to make Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy-based blockchain games.
That said, Final Fantasy 14 producer Naoki Yoshida has assured fans that there are no plans to introduce NFTs into the MMO any time soon.
Fortnite developer Epic Games recently announced it is teaming up with toy company Lego to create a safe place for kids to play and create in the "Metaverse".
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