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Contents11
  1. Consumer impact summary
  2. Incidents
  3. Minecraft account migration
  4. Minecraft post-purchase ownership rights changes
  5. Minecraft enforcing undisclosed server EULA terms
  6. Mojang shuts down community-run Minecraft servers
  7. Minecraft Beta pre-1.8's lack of authentication
  8. Mojang requires age verification in order to chat in the UK
  9. DMCA takedowns of competing games
  10. See also
  11. References
Minecraft
Basic Information
Release Year 2011
Product Type Video Games
In Production Yes
Official Website https://www.minecraft.net/en-us


Minecraft is a 2011 multiplayer sandbox game made by Mojang Studios. Once acquired by Microsoft, the game began to harvest telemetry data, force users to comply with an ever shifting EULA to keep access to the paid game, and hide various clauses in the EULA from the public.

Consumer impact summary

Under Microsoft's ownership, Minecraft has undergone multiple anti-consumer changes in order to acquire more user data and utilizing undisclosed and an ever changing EULA terms to censor user-generated content. These practices are especially concerning since a significant amount of Minecraft players are children.[1]

Incidents

This is a list of all consumer protection incidents related to this product. Any incidents not mentioned here can be found in the Minecraft category.

Minecraft account migration

Main article: Minecraft account migration

On October 21st, 2020, Mojang announced that all Minecraft Java Edition users must migrate their Mojang accounts to Microsoft accounts to retain access to the game. On December 18th, 2023, consumers who did not do so lost access and needed to re-purchase the game to regain it. Any game progress, including purchased first and third party in-game items were lost.

Minecraft post-purchase ownership rights changes

Main article: Minecraft post-purchase ownership rights changes

Before Microsoft's acquisition of Mojang, the sole developer of Minecraft, Markus Persson, advocating for consumer ownership, promised DRM-free, free optional software updates, and a free copy of the fully released version for every earlier buyer.[2]

Post acquisition of Mojang, all the previous buyers of Minecraft who failed to stop accepting updates in time, had to choose between forfeiting ownership or losing the option to use the software offline. Microsoft enacted several EULA changes which turned the game into a license with DRM that can be terminated by the company anytime.[3]

Minecraft enforcing undisclosed server EULA terms

Main article: Minecraft enforcing undisclosed server EULA terms

Minecraft began taking action against mod developers and servers in 2023 for using firearms, which was deemed 'adult' by their EULA. When asked for clarification of the changes made to their EULA, Mojang gave little response, and eventually pointed them to a new EULA which had been changed without either informing consumers about the change or asking for permission to change the contract. This information was available only internally, and was later revealed by whistleblowers, since the documents holding the internal changes to their EULA was held under NDA.

In addition they selectively ignore their own EULA rules on "gambling" (loot boxes and literally gambling) servers, and even made contract with Nerf to create Minecraft inspired weapons and in game items, while still refusing to allow weapon mods.[4]

Mojang shuts down community-run Minecraft servers

Main article: Mojang shuts down community-run Minecraft servers

For the past 5-8 years, Mojang have enforced countless server shutdowns citing violations of the Minecraft End User License Agreement (EULA). However, said enforcements have been unfairly biased against operators of smaller Minecraft Java Edition servers, abusing vague and often inaccessible community guidelines to shut down these servers.[5][6][7]

An example of this occurred in late 2024 involving the Minecraft server 'McWar', wherein Mojang contacted the developer of the server to shut it down.[5][6][7]

Mods that bypass the IP Address blocklist that enforce these shutdowns have received takedowns by Tracer on the behalf of Microsoft under §1201 of the DMCA.[8]

Minecraft Beta pre-1.8's lack of authentication

Main article: Minecraft Beta pre-1.8's lack of authentication

In version Beta 1.8, Mojang has changed the endpoint used for authentication on Minecraft servers from "www.minecraft.net" to "session.minecraft.net". Unknown amount of time later the original endpoint used for the authentication was shut down, breaking authentication support for several old Minecraft versions, despite no actual changes in the behavior of the endpoint. The latter endpoint still works, despite being insecure (supports HTTP requests, with token being within the URL parameters) - this means that the shutdown is likely not a security concern.

Lack of authentication has caused several Minecraft servers to:

  • lose part of the playerbase due to a need of modding the game client (and server) to fix the authentication issue,
  • become completely insecure by allowing non-premium Minecraft users to join (e.g. opens the risk of botting the server, or brute-forcing user login passwords),
  • break the EULA of the game due to allowing non-premium Minecraft users to join their server.

Mojang requires age verification in order to chat in the UK

This section is incomplete. This notice can be deleted once all the placeholder text has been replaced.

Main article: Minecraft Chat Reporting and Restriction

In February 2026, Mojang has decided to implement mandatory age verification in the United Kingdom to access some features.[citation needed] Although players still have access to play the game, they miss out on social features.[citation needed] The big issue is players will now be locked out of the chat feature in the game which is essentially what keeps the online connection alive in the many servers players have access to.[citation needed] In order to get this feature that has always been included automatically (regardless of age) UK residents must now verify their identity by using Yoti (a third-party service).[citation needed] This is a huge blow to the Minecraft community as many of the games players are children.[citation needed] Famous players such as TommyInnit (who's career took off due to his Minecraft streams and VODS later posted on YouTube) were under the age of 18 when they started to gain popularity.[citation needed] Although these players had access to outside game voice chats with other players, many don't have access to the proper equipment required to do so, solely relying on the in-game chat. This mass majority of players in the UK will now have to verify their age and sell their data to a third-party service in order to get one of the most essential features in the game.[9]

DMCA takedowns of competing games

There has been a documented history of Microsoft submitting DMCA takedown notices to various voxel-based sandbox games which act as competition to Minecraft. As of February 10th, 2026, the latest takedown was the project Allumeria,[10] which existed as a wholly original project that was unreasonably delisted from Steam. The following is a complete list of competing games taken down by Microsoft.

Game Takedown Date Summary Related Article (if applicable)
MC.JS Circa Aug. 2019 Microsoft issued a DMCA takedown notice to a developer who created MC.JS, a JavaScript-based browser version of Minecraft hosted on GitHub.[11] The notice cited copyright infringement, trademark violations, and unauthorized use of Minecraft's imagery and textures, resulting in the project being removed from GitHub. An archived snapshot of the page shows that the only infringing contents were referring to itself as a "Minecraft clone" and using a singular texture from the game,[12] both of which could have easily been requested to be removed.
Eaglercraft Circa Feb. 2023 Microsoft issued a DMCA takedown to 92 individual repositories hosting Eaglercraft, a decompilation of Minecraft. Microsoft claimed it was a violation of the EULA and Terms of Use of Minecraft.[13] Eaglercraft Takedows
Luanti Circa Mar. 2023 Luanti (formerly known as Minetest at the time), an open source voxel game platform had its Android app taken down from Google Play by a DMCA takedown from a company representing Mojang, claiming it was infringing of their copyright.[14] The app was later restored in May after filing a counter-notice with no response.
N/A Jan. 29, 2025 Mojang enforcement issued a DMCA takedown notice to Cloudflare over the chat service Revolt (now Stoat) supposedly being a Minecraft clone because of the platform hosting screenshots of an unknown Minecraft clone.[15] In a subsequent email, a different actor representing Microsoft, Tracer.ai, sent another takedown notice over the same assets.[15]
Allumeria Feb. 10, 2026 Microsoft submitted a DMCA notice to Valve via Tracer.ai over Allumeria after its systems detected that the game was supposedly using stolen assets from the game.[10] In an archived snapshot of Allumeria's Steam page, no assets were discernibly taken from Minecraft.[16] A day later, Microsoft withdrew the complaint and Allumeria was reinstated on Steam store page.[17][18]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Capel, Chris J (2019-09-25). "Believe it or not, the average age of a Minecraft player is 24". PCGamesN. Archived from the original on 2019-10-18. Retrieved 2025-08-30.
  2. ↑ ,"Minecraft - About the game". www.minecraft.net. 2011-09-23. Archived from the original on 2011-09-23.
  3. ↑ "Microsoft Services Agreement". microsoft.com. 2024-09-30. Archived from the original on 2024-09-30. Retrieved 2025-08-18.
  4. ↑ Anderca, Cristina (2023-10-02). "NERF World brings blasters into Minecraft". Minecraft. Archived from the original on 2023-10-02. Retrieved 2025-08-19.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Brose, Kian (Dec 3, 2024). "Hold Mojang Accountable For Their Unlawful Behaviour". GoFundMe. Archived from the original on 11 Feb 2026. Retrieved May 12, 2024.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Brose, Kian (Dec 3, 2024). "Suing Minecraft Because They Broke The Law & Pissed Me Off". YouTube. Archived from the original on 23 Feb 2026. Retrieved May 12, 2024.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Brose, Kian. "Lawsuit Video Accompanying Document". Google Docs. Archived from the original on 3 Feb 2026. Retrieved May 12, 2025.
  8. ↑ "dmca/2025/10/2025-10-23-minecraft-3.md at aad92ffb439b3a6b5f0666fe56c669a01f568052 · github/dmca". GitHub. 2025-10-23.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  9. ↑ Kabra, Akshat (2026-02-22). "Age verification in Minecraft: Everything you need to know". sportskeeda. Retrieved 2022-02-28.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Mazeriio (Feb 10, 2026). "Tweet from Mazeriio". X formerly Twitter. Archived from the original on 21 Mar 2026. Retrieved Feb 10, 2026.
  11. ↑ Maxwell, Andy (September 1, 2019). "Microsoft Puts Blocks On In-Browser Minecraft Clone". Torrent Freak. Archived from the original on 15 Feb 2026. Retrieved Feb 10, 2026.
  12. ↑ Tominous. "MC.JS Github page". GitHub. Archived from the original on Nov 25, 2020. Retrieved Feb 10, 2026.
  13. ↑ Van der Sar, Ernesto (February 24, 2023). "Mojang Targets Repositories of Browser-Based Minecraft Copy 'Eaglercraft'". Torrent Freak. Archived from the original on 13 Feb 2026. Retrieved Feb 10, 2026.
  14. ↑ https://github.com/luanti-org/luanti/issues/13363#issuecomment-1485528633 (Archived)
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 "2025-01-29 mojang copyright infringement complaint". Revolt Wiki. 2025-01-29. Archived from the original on 11 Feb 2026. Retrieved Feb 10, 2026.
  16. ↑ Unomelon. "Allumeria's Steam page". Steam. Archived from the original on Mar 8, 2025. Retrieved Feb 10, 2026.
  17. ↑ A screenshot from Allumeria Discord server announcing that game has been reinstated on Steam.
  18. ↑ Unomelon (2026-02-11). "Post by @unomelon.bsky.social". Bluesky. Archived from the original on 2026-02-11. Retrieved 2026-02-28.

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