Following the Minecraft NFT ban announcement earlier this week, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has confirmed that Epic Games won’t interfere with any game developers’ plans to utilize NFTs or the blockchain on the Epic Games Store.

At the time, the developer stated that it wanted to create an equal and even space for players that focus on “play rather than profiteering” stating: “To ensure that Minecraft players have a safe and inclusive experience, blockchain technologies are not permitted to be integrated inside our Minecraft client and server applications nor may they be utilized to create NFTs associated with any in-game content, including worlds, skins, persona items, or other mods.”

Despite public outcry and demands for Epic Games to follow in Minecraft’s footsteps, Sweeney specifically noted that he doesn’t believe storefronts should force their views on others, stating in a tweet: “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.”

As of right now, the Epic Games Store has a store page for Grit, a wild west-themed battle royale that will use blockchain technology and NFT integration. In addition, Epic Games also announced their plans to list popular web3 gaming title Blankos Block Party – which would be a huge step for web3 games in general as the store currently boasts over 180M+ gamers, which is miles ahead of the entirety of gamers in the current web3 ecosystem.

Only time can tell how long it takes traditional gaming publishers, developers, and brands to accept and integrate web3 technology, but it appears that there’s still plenty of work yet to be done to change negative perceptions and “profit-centric” ideals around blockchain integration in games, which we’ll strive to do through our platform and social channels moving forward.

Join the PGG family today!

Website | Discord | Twitter | Twitch | YouTube