Mojang No Longer Allowing Advertisements of Unrelated Products in Minecraft - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 June 2016 / 4,544 Views
Mojang, the Microsoft owned developer, has added a new section to the Commercial Usage Guidelines for Minecraft titled Building Promotions with Minecraft.
The game has become so popular that third-party companies have begun using it for advertising purposes.
The changes don't affect the usual server and video monetisation. Mojang wants the community to earn money from their creativity, however, it does not want a mod or sever based on an unrelated products for the sole purpose of advertisement.
An an ad agency, corporation, non-profit, or politician is not allowed to do the following or hire someone to do them:
- 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, certain actions are allowed:
- 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.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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That last point is very important here, because otherwise the 2nd bullet point puts a bullet in the head of creating awesome servers where cities such as midgar are recreated by fans of FF7 and such, was worried until I read the end point.
This is dumb... say square enix wanted to recreate ff7 in minecraft and release it, lots of people would enjoy it but their not allowed to do it now? Do mojang really have the legal right to tell people what they can and cant build on their private Minecraft servers?
Yes they do, you can't for example have a neo nazi hang out room on a server which people can get access to, there has to be some control, also why would Square do that? when you say "release it" do you mean for money? then of course they wouldn't be allowed to do so.
