Gaming dominated the conversation around NFTs over the past week, as Epic Games, Minecraft and Square Enix all took some sort of stance on non-fungible tokens this week. Meanwhile, a LinkedIn co-founder is minting a new project, and there’s a beer brand who is reportedly exploring loyalty programs through your favorite jpegs.

It’s all of the action from the past week of NFTs – let’s review.

This Week’s Non-Fungible Token News

Minecraft Bans NFTs, Epic Games Remains Open To The Idea

When one door closes, another opens. That seems to at least be the case when it comes to gaming companies and blockchain technology over the past week; Minecraft’s staff posted a new blog that detailed a strong anti-NFT stance, effectively banning them from the legacy video game.

Is scarcity inherently tied to lack of access? Minecraft creators argue that the answer is a firm yes, and that they would prefer to take a stance that emphasizes accessibility and a level playing field of access for players across the board.

Meanwhile, Epic Games Tim Sweeney took the opportunity to reiterate his perspective, stating in a Twitter reply that “developers should be free to decide how to build their games, and you are free to decide whether to play them… I believe stores and operating system makers shouldn’t interfere by forcing their views onto others. We definitely won’t.”

Square Enix And Enjin To Launch Final Fantasy NFTs

Video game firms with an NFT perspective weren’t limited to Majong’s Minecraft and Epic Games this past week, as Square Enix got in on the action, too. The major Japanese video game firm has paired up with the Enjin blockchain to announce upcoming NFTs around Final Fantasy VII, celebrating the game’s 25th anniversary. Designs, price tags and mint counts are all yet to be disclosed.

Budweiser To Explore Loyalty Programs?

Utility, utility, utility. It’s the word we constantly hear around NFTs, from critics to fanatics alike. Budweiser was one of the first beer brands to take a dive into NFTs, as we started covering the brand’s engagement in the space over a year ago.

This past week, the brand signed a deal with B2B start-up Hang, which aims to help brands build loyalty programs around NFTs. Loyalty programs have been cited by many Web3 advocates as one of the most clear-cut, straightforward opportunities for substantial potential for NFTs to integrate at a larger scale.

LinkedIn Co-Founder Takes To Minting

Apparently innovation in non-fungible tokens is as easy as taking outputs from AI tool DALL-E and sending them straight to mint – at least according to LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman. Hoffman is taking to Solana to mint new NFTs produced straight from DALL-E, titled “Untranslatable Words.”

DALL-E has been a point of contention in the NFT community, as the AI project was first cited as not being available for commercial use – a topic that has seemingly been flipped on it’s head.

The bottom line: DALL-E is built to be an open-source tool, and selling NFTs from an open-source tool is far from innovative, and is not emblematic of what Hoffman has described as being “inspired by the potential of DALL•E and NFTs” – but rather simply taking advantage of both.

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Microsoft, the parent company of Majong - the original creators of Minecraft - is seemingly aligning with an anti-NFT perspective, while competitors such as Epic Games remain open to having developers make their individual decisions on the matter. | Source: NASDAQ: MSFT on TradingView.com

OpenSea Volume Shows Dismal Performance Among Top Sets

Some of the biggest projects in the marketplace have collectively recorded dismal volumes over the weekend, according to reports. Take a look at some of the data quickly provided below, courtesy of Flipside Crypto and presented from NFTstatistics.

While some have replied and noted that X2Y2’s launch could result in missed data, NFTstatistics states a belief that X2Y2 is primarily seeing wash trading – and regardless, OpenSea remains the dominant marketplace and emblematic of NFT market movement at large.

OpenSea volume collapsed among top sets yesterday.

Just 1800 ETH between these sets:

BAYC, MAYC, BAKC, Otherdeed, Doodles, Azuki, CloneX, Punks, Meebits, Moonbirds, WoW, CoolCats, VeeFriends

Last time this metric was so low was November, when many of these sets didn’t exist pic.twitter.com/6lT5NlDa35

— NFTstatistics.eth (@punk9059) July 24, 2022

After One Year, Tencent Shuts Down NFT Marketplace

Reports from the past week have emerged to reveal that less than one year since inception, Chinese powerhouse Tencent is shuttering the doors on it’s NFT platform following a government ban. Chinese media reports stated that Huanhe – a firm that mints and distributes NFTs for the platform – is closing down. The move comes just weeks after a variety of Chinese tech firms, Tencent included, advocated for a development proposal to further the digital collectible industry.

Related Reading | Sports Fans Ready To Move Beyond The Hype And Make NFT Investments: Survey Report

Featured image from Pexels, Charts from TradingView.com

The writer of this content is not associated or affiliated with any of the parties mentioned in this article. This is not financial advice.