Mojang receives backlash for controversial Minecraft EULA changes

Minecraft developer Mojang is famous for actively engaging with the game's community. However, on August 2, 2023, it discreetly updated the popular sandbox game's end-user license agreement. The implementation of numerous significant changes and new rules has led to an outcry from the player base against the Swedish video game development company.

This article discusses the recent changes and touches on possible reasons behind some of them.

---

Controversial changes made to Minecraft EULA

For those who might not know, an EULA is a document that explains the rules for playing a game. It talks about how players can use the game, what kinds of modifications are allowed, and how game servers work.

The big issues with the new EULA are the changes pertaining to the usage of the word "Minecraft" in user videos or any online content and the rule against giving special treatment to some players in server queues.

With the new rules, people can't use the game's title as the main word in their videos or other online content, but they can still use it in their descriptions and secondary titles. For what it's worth, Mojang is likely to only go after content that copies other people's work or promotes malicious software or misconduct.

Servers like 2b2t don't follow the new EULA because they control who gets on their server. A few popular servers like it always have many players waiting to join, so the server owners tend to create special subscriptions that allow for prioritized access.

Comment by u/MoiMagnus from discussion Why is no one talking about Mojang's latest EULA changes? This sounds potentially worse than the chat fiasco. Or, maybe not? in MinecraftUnlimited

Since this gives an advantage to certain players and controls who can join, these servers are now non-EULA compliant.

Possibly the biggest new rule is that all servers have to say "NOT AN OFFICIAL MINECRAFT PRODUCT" the first time a player joins. This is to clarify that is not an official server run by the developer and they should be held accountable for any misconduct on the server.

Even though these EULA changes might sound scary, it's not very likely that Mojang will use them maliciously. The players are what make the game fun, after all, and making changes that they don't like could hurt the game's popularity.