Mojang are cracking down on corporations trying to piggyback on Minecraft’s success like so many chicken jockeys. These days big businesses are well aware that Minecraft is a platform with a huge audience, and they’re trying to take advantage of that. It’s become more of an issue lately, forcing Mojang to respond.
You won’t find any #brands seeking #engagement in our list of the best Minecraft seeds.
This change won’t affect fans, video creators or streamers who monetise their content, as it’s only aimed at creations or servers built with the purpose of selling an unrelated product.
For example, HBO wouldn’t be allowed to recreate Westeros in Minecraft to market Game of Thrones, and nor would they be allowed to recreate a trailer to promote the TV show. But if you’re a fan, you are free to recreate the world and trailers, if you so wish, unless you’ve been hired to do so.
It sounds like it could be a difficult one to police, but it seems like a step that needed to be taken if Mojang want to protect their creation from becoming a hellish dystopia overrun with marketing types.
The official word on what can and what can’t be done is below.
If you are one of these entities or someone who is hired by them, you MAY NOT exploit Minecraft or Minecraft assets to:
- build or commission others to build, a Minecraft mod, map or server that promotes or markets unrelated products or services in playable form; for example, you are NOT allowed to market or promote a branded automobile using a mod that depicts branded automobiles within Minecraft game play;
- build or commission others to build, a Minecraft mod/map/server that promotes or markets a company’s movie or TV show; for example, you are NOT allowed to build maps and/or videos using Minecraft blocks that build out the world or characters of a movie to promote and market your company’s or your client’s movie or TV program;
- offer Minecraft gameplay displayed or projected publicly within physical locations; for example, you are NOT allowed to promote or advertise big-screen Minecraft gameplay inside restaurants or other commercial venues; and you are NOT allowed to charge money for Minecraft gameplay, leagues, or competitions in theaters where gameplay is projected onto the movie screen;
- create or commission others to create promotional or marketing videos or movie trailers through Minecraft gameplay; for example, you are NOT allowed to create or produce movie trailers through Minecraft gameplay for promoting or marketing a movie;
- to promote your (or your client’s) corporate brands, products, or services.
However YOU MAY:
- Pay to advertise your business in an advertisement window within a Minecraft video; for example, by displaying a banner ad or by selling your ads on YouTube where they may be shown in connection with Minecraft videos uploaded independently by players;
- Pay for advertisements of your business to be served on websites or servers related to Minecraft, so long as you are not hiring the server operator to design or host a Minecraft mod/map/server that builds an in-world representation of your brand, products, or services.
- Build products or movie environments that you are a fan of into a Minecraft mod/map/server so long as you have not been asked to do so by the entity who makes the product or by someone they have hired to promote their brand or products; likewise, you can express your support for a political candidate in a map/mod/server, but not if you have been hired to promote them.