Minecraft developers quit Reddit after its controversial API changes

In the most recent blow to Reddit after its controversial billing changes, the makers of Minecraft – considered one of the best-selling video games of all time – have quit the platform. 

“Reddit management introduced changes recently which have led to rule and moderation changes across many subreddits,” a tech lead at Mojang Studios, the Microsoft-owned company behind Minecraft, posted on the r/Minecraft Reddit community Tuesday. “Due to these changes, we now not feel that Reddit is an appropriate place to post official content or refer our players to.” 

In accordance with the post, the Java tech team at Mojang will now not post changelogs, or details of changes to Minecraft game versions, on the subreddit. An update to the post clarified that it will not be an official policy for all of Mojang Studios, Xbox or Microsoft. 

In response to an issue about whether the developers would return to posting on Reddit if the corporate modified its API policy, the user “sliced_lime,” whose bio says they’re a Minecraft developer at Mojang, wrote, “The choice is predicated on the present situation, if the situation was to alter we would must discuss that then.”

With greater than 230 million copies sold, Minecraft is taken into account by Guinness World Records to be the world’s best-selling video game, and its official subreddit has greater than 7.4 million members. Although the subreddit will live to tell the tale without official updates from Mojang Studios, day-to-day use could look significantly different for members. 

The Minecraft makers’ decision is the most recent in a string of large-scale protests in recent weeks against Reddit, considered one of the web’s most-trafficked sites. Earlier this month, the corporate announced a business change that may dramatically increase the value for third-party developers to make use of the corporate’s application programming interface, or API. Reddit’s third-party apps are popular with users, who use them to browse the positioning and help address accessibility challenges, and with moderators, who use them to arrange their subreddits, block spam accounts, flag unsafe posts and find patterns of harassment and abuse. 

Ahead of the changes, that are slated to enter effect on Saturday, greater than 8,000 Reddit communities participated in a “blackout,” changing their subreddit settings to totally or partially private. The protests included the wildly popular r/Funny, with over 40 million members, together with r/Music and r/Science, each boasting over 30 million users. 

“Reddit not only has all of its content generated by users, but all of its moderation is completed by volunteers,” Dac Croach, considered one of the moderators of r/Gaming, which has greater than 37 million members, told CNBC in a recent interview. “We’re talking a whole lot of hundreds of volunteers putting in hours a day to maintain the positioning protected, entertaining and enjoyable for community members. And it’s tough to see that those people, when their voices are loud like this, are being ostensibly ignored.” 

A Reddit spokesperson wasn’t immediately available for comment.