RIP advertisers on “Minecraft.” Mojang has just come out with a statement that they are revising their rules on how and what can be done within the massive worlds of “Minecraft.” In a nutshell, they want to boot out unrelated products that people get paid to make using “Minecraft” blocks.
The Mojang site came out with a post entitled “Let’s Talk Promotions Built Into Minecraft” and it singled out advertisers, politicians, non-profits and corporations. The post made it clear that they would like to “empower [the Minecraft] community to make money from their creativity, but we’re not too happy when the selling of an unrelated product becomes the sole purpose of a Minecraft mod or server.”
Kotaku reported that there are a couple of situations that come to mind, which will surely be affected by this new rule. The first is that companies can no longer promote products in a playable form. For example, a restaurant owner can no longer release a mod that has the restaurant built using “Minecraft” blocks.
The second is that “Minecraft” maps or mods used to market movies, TV shows, etc are also now banned. Entire fictional worlds that could be created using “Minecraft” blocks, which used to be possible, can no longer be done. Movie and television trailers using gameplay footage from that map or mod are also now banned.
Just how this will affect individuals who make a living creating worlds for clients is apparent. For instance, Dragnoz, who is a popular “Minecraft” world builder with many collaborative works with BlockWorks, can no longer do their business within “Minecraft.”
Here is the summary of things companies can no longer do within “Minecraft” from Mojang themselves:
• Build a Minecraft mod or server that promotes unrelated products in playable form; e.g., if you are a restaurant chain, you can’t market your restaurant by releasing a mod that includes your restaurant built out of Minecraft blocks.
• Build a Minecraft map or mod that markets a movie or TV show; e.g., if you’re a movie studio, you can’t make a map that uses Minecraft blocks to build out the fictional world of the movie or its characters, and you can’t make an official movie trailer out of gameplay footage from that map or mod.
• It’s worth mentioning that fans of a particular restaurant, movie, or some other thing are still free to build things in Minecraft that represent or celebrate it so long as the goal or focus is not to promote or sell that stuff. The new rules only apply to companies or organisations that are using Minecraft to sell their products or promote their causes.
