Mojang has announced new guidelines for its sandbox game Minecraft, banning the use of the game by outside companies, non-profits and politicians to help promote or sell their products or services in playable form.
In a blog post, Mojang stated
We want to empower our community to make money from their creativity, but we're not happy when the selling of an unrelated product becomes the purpose of a Minecraft mod or server. That doesn't feel right, or more importantly, fun. The new rules are an attempt to stop these things from happening.
Here's what is now banned from Minecraft mods and servers:
- 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.
Mojang is still allowing individuals who are fans of a movie, TV show or product from building things in Minecraft that celebrate them but don't actively serve as an official promotion.
