Apple now allows NFTs to exist in the App Store
App Store developers can now sell NFTs on iOS, thanks to updates to Apple’s App Store guidelines. First reported by MobileGamer, the tech giant’s changes have been made to meet the desire for web3 developers to profit on the storefront.
“Apps may use in-app purchases to sell and sell services related to non-fungible tokens (NFTs), such as minting, listing and transfer,” the guidelines state.
With the new guidelines, web3 developers who sell NFTs on the App Store must do so via in-app purchases, and then Apple will get a 30 percent cut of the sale. Users can view their NFTs in apps and this ownership cannot unlock additional functionality or features in that specific app.
It is also possible for users to view the NFT collections of others. However, Apple emphasized that the apps used to view these collections cannot “include buttons, external links, or other calls to action that direct customers to purchase mechanisms other than in-app purchases.”
Speaking about cryptocurrency more generally, Apple wrote that apps that have the technology “cannot use their own mechanisms to unlock content or functionality, such as license keys, augmented reality markers, QR codes, cryptocurrencies and cryptocurrency wallets, etc .”
NFTs will become mainstream only on the gaming industry’s terms
Since NFTs have come to prominence, different digital storefronts have had different attitudes towards their existence.
Last year, Valve banned NFTs and cryptocurrency from Steam. Earlier this year, Microsoft did the same for Minecraft, says it wants the game to “remain a community where everyone has access to the same content.”
Conversely, Epic Games has been more open to the idea of them. Earlier this year it allowed the web3 game Blanko’s Block Party is sold in the Epic Games Store, and it will soon be joined Gravel from Gala Games.
Outside of marketplaces, various game developers have recently announced plans to get into NFTs and blockchain for their titles. Last week, Konami posted a job ad related to building out a metaverse.
In September, Square Enix announced a partnership with blockchain company Oasys to “bring blockchain gaming to the masses.”
But all this effort may mean nothing if developers continue to be unenthusiastic about the technology. Earlier this year, a study showed that almost 50 percent of game developers do not feel that NFTs and crypto have a large place in the industry.
One anonymous developer specifically called NFTs “a niche item for a niche market.”
