KEY POINTS

  • Epic Games welcomed NFT games in October following Steam's ban announcement
  • Sweeney was a video game programmer before he was CEO
  • He said, "developers should be free to decide how to build their games"

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has said that, unlike Mojang, the Microsoft-owned studio behind "Minecraft," which recently banned NFTs, Epic Games will not ban the sale of games that feature Non-Fungible Tokens.

With more than 194 million users at the end of last year, Epic Games is set to welcome a multitude of NFT-powered titles this year. And while some developers were alarmed by "Minecraft's" most recent decision, Sweeney held its ground about the emerging trend in the video game industry.

Tagged by a Twitter user who goes by the name Joe on a tweet about "Minecraft" deciding to ban NFTs on games, Sweeney shared what was on his mind about the issues. "Developers should be free to decide how to build their games, and you are free to decide whether to play them," said the Epic Games CEO.

Tim Sweeney - Epic Games
Tim Sweeney is awarded during the BAFTA Presents Special Award to Epic Games at The London on June 12, 2019 in West Hollywood, California. Rachel Luna/Getty Images

"I believe stores and operating system makers shouldn’t interfere by forcing their views onto others. We definitely won’t," he noted. Like "Minecraft," Steam, the largest PC gaming marketplace, announced its own ban on NFTs and blockchain technology in October.

Epic Games at the time pushed back and welcomed NFT games, with Sweeney supporting the storefront's position on the issue. "Epic Games Store will welcome games that make use of blockchain tech provided they follow the relevant laws, disclose their terms, and are age-rated by an appropriate group," the CEO said in October.

Sweeney also said that although Epic Games was "not using crypto in our games, we welcome innovation in the areas of technology and finance." Before he became a CEO, Sweeney was a video game programmer and his perspective on NFTs and NFT games may be rooted in that career.

Mojang Studios' NFT ban triggered a swift nosedive in the price of NFT Worlds' NFT and native token. The play-to-earn platform is now facing a major issue following the ban since it was built on one of the open source servers of "Minecraft."

As of 2:17 a.m. ET on Friday, NFT Worlds' native toke WRLD was trading up 13.07% at $0.01311, a 68.4% plummet from its $0.04151 Monday based on the latest data from CoinMarketCap. The floor price of its NFTs has also dropped by over 55%, from 3.33 ETH to 1.01 ETH, as per CoinGecko.

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