- Microsoft took measures last summer to prevent Web3 features.
- Rockstar Games changed its website last week to explicitly forbid the use.
Popular games like Minecraft and Grand Theft Auto V have seen fan-driven efforts to include NFTs and crypto tokens alongside completely Web3-native games built around NFTs. In contrast, Microsoft took measures last summer to prevent Web3 features from appearing in Minecraft, and now Rockstar Games has done the same with its successful action game.
Rockstar Games changed its website last week to explicitly forbid the use of cryptocurrencies or crypto assets, in particular NFTs, by player-run Grand Theft Auto V servers. Fans have been running so-called “role-playing servers” for Grand Theft Auto V for years, and they’re popular on streaming networks such as Twitch.
When players join role-playing servers, they assume the personas of NPCs (non-player characters) in the game and engage in online interactions with other players.
Servers Being Shut Down
Some of these servers use NFTs and crypto tokens to allow users to possess special items in a persistent world or to have access to premium features that aren’t available to casual gamers. There have been instances of NFT-represented special vehicles and weaponry being made available via Grand Theft Auto V servers.
Trenches, the Grand Theft Auto role-playing server created by popular rapper Durk “Lil Durk” Banks, accepts NFT assets. After being contacted by legal counsel from Rockstar’s parent business, Take-Two Interactive, Lil Durk’s Only the Family Gaming group announced on Saturday that it will shut down the server.
In July, Microsoft and developer Mojang stated that they will prevent non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and cryptocurrency tokens from being used on fan-run Minecraft servers and in unauthorized Web3 derivative projects that make use of Minecraft assets. In a post, the businesses argued that NFT scarcity models that restrict access or capabilities to asset owners go against the “spirit of Minecraft.”
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