Vanilla Minecraft News Discussion

[FlowerChild]

I think minecraft kinda ruined his life. Making him a millionaire aside.

IMO, that can ruin someone's life faster than almost anything :)

[devak]

I respect that man to hell and back. I also feel kinda sorry for him. I think minecraft kinda ruined his life. Making him a millionaire aside. He seems like a very down to earth guy that really loves doing what he loves doing. And he had to find out the hard way what big groups of people can do.

That html game of his we were discussing in this forum a while back is a sure sign of what he has been going through.

I do not know what ms will do to minecraft, but I hope they treat scrolls with the respect it deserves. It might even be good news if it gets some solid promotion, god knows we need more players.

I don´t think they did it per se for money. I think they did it for image. Microsoft´s seen as a grey people company. Minecraft is loved by children. And no demographic is more powerful to own than kids

[johnt]

Microsoft´s seen as a grey people company. Minecraft is loved by children.

There's a MS store at the mall near me. It's always full of kids playing dance central and xbox games. The apple store is filled with older people.

[BinoAl]

Feeling somewhat in shock. The rumors of it happening seemed so counter to what I know of both Notch and Microsoft that I was under the impression the journalists involved were likely pulling this stuff out of their asses.

That's pretty much where I'm at with it too, honestly. I figured it was just going to blow over. Now that it's confirmed, I'm not actually sure what to think. I am curious to see what MS is going to do with it, for better or worse (Likely worse).

[Azdoine]

You know, there's a lot of doom and gloom being passed around about how MS is going to ruin Minecraft forever by coming down on the modding community, and a few devs seem to be preemptively throwing up their hats (1, 2).

How do you guys think having MS in charge will effect modding and BTW specifically?

[Elusivehawk]

So long as Microsoft hires some real game designers to work on Minecraft (Preferably also replacing the current ones), in some ways I couldn't care less what happens to the game itself after this; If MS ruins Minecraft, then we can just move on to another game. If they improve it, great. If they franchise it, oh well.

As for modding, we'll just have to wait and see; Anything's possible at this stage.

[FlowerChild]

How do you guys think having MS in charge will effect modding and BTW specifically?

Besides my personal feelings on Microsoft (short version: not good), I think the chances of me getting a "cease and desist" letter at some point just shot up dramatically.

Beyond that, I'm not really ready to get into it as I'm still thinking it all through.

[Azdoine]

Besides my personal feelings on Microsoft (short version: not good), I think the chances of me getting a "cease and desist" letter at some point just shot up dramatically.

Beyond that, I'm not really ready to get into it as I'm still thinking it all through.

Haha, that's fair enough. I can barely wrap my head around it and I'm just an end user :P

[Wafflewaffle]

Ok MS told their investors they are going to make their money back by next year's second quarter. Something is very weird about a statement like this. It is normal for companies to tell only the best possible outcome of any investment to shareholders but Mojang has no other major plataform releases and MS cant possible build something out of thin air in less then a year. This makes me believe Notch did not sold just his company, he sold a product, something that probably was already on the works and that MS could make use of fast. That would explain MS real interest in the company.

I always had the impression Jeb and the others didnt really shown any progress in development. Their content release has slowed quite a lot, but they kept hiring more people,. I never found porting was enough of a time sink to justify this and Scrolls has their own developing team (which has pretty fast content releases) so wtf were they doing all this time? What was Notch doing after he canned his space game?

IT IS A CONSPIRACY! #Illuminati and all that shit *puts tinfoil hat*
I predict Minecraft 2 to be announced by the end of the year.

[FlowerChild]

I always had the impression Jeb and the others didnt really shown any progress in development. Their content release has slowed quite a lot, but they kept hiring more people,. I never found porting was enough of a time sink to justify this and Scrolls has their own developing team (which has pretty fast content releases) so wtf were they doing all this time? What was Notch doing after he canned his space game?

It's not really a mystery man: Jeb was only part time on MC, while Dinnerbone and Grum had no previous game development experience (to my knowledge). They also took it upon themselves to rearchitect the game, and you'll notice that's when many indie game efforts fall completely off the face of the earth.

So basically, you're talking two junior programmers that decided to rewrite a large chunk of the game. Why would you expect any additional progress?

I predict Minecraft 2 to be announced by the end of the year.

That wouldn't surprise me. With MS's resources they could probably have a sequel ready to launch in six months or so.

[TheGreatIntelligence]

-snip-

I predict Minecraft 2 to be announced by the end of the year.

That wouldn't surprise me. With MS's resources they could probably have a sequel ready to launch in six months or so.

I would think they would wait a bit and go ahead and create MC 1.9 before doing MC 2.0 so they have an actual reason for doing 2.0

[DaveYanakov]

The only reason needed for doing a sequel would be the desire to sell a sequel. It's not an incrementation of vanilla. More likely development on Minecraft aside from ports will cease and people who know how to make a game will be given the task of producing it.

Setting things up as an expansion pack rather than a different game entirely throws a lot of income out the window since At least a million people signed a contract stipulating free access to future expansions before that particular part of the sales pitch was removed.

[FlowerChild]

Yup, I think doing up a quick voxel game with new graphics and Microsoft's marketing clout would all the justification required there, and it would allow them to "gracefully" distance themselves from the issues of supporting MC1 such as it being cross-platform and open to modding.

I do not see them making more than a token effort to support MC 1 to appease the existing fans and keep the franchise alive while they work on a sequel. My guess would be they'd leave the existing Mojang employees supporting MC 1, and probably create a new team for MC 2.

It's possible they even already own another voxel game and they're waiting on the deal to rebrand it as MC 2.

[MoRmEnGiL]

It's possible they even already own another voxel game and they're waiting on the deal to rebrand it as MC 2.

Yikes. I find that way too low, even for ms. Which means it probably is what's been happening.

[FlowerChild]

Yikes. I find that way too low, even for ms. Which means it probably is what's been happening.

Well, let's say you had a kick-ass voxel game nearing the end of development (or already finished for that matter). What would be the ultimate way to promote it other than calling it MC 2?

I dunno, it's the only way I've figured out that the deal makes any kind of financial sense for MS. I don't think they've really bought anything other than the Minecraft name, because there's not a whole lot else of value to them here, and IMO, they must have a very specific use of the name in mind to blow that kind of cash and then tell their investors they'll be getting a relatively short-term return on it.

I found it rather amusing that MS stock seemed to take a bit of a dive yesterday in the wake of this announcement. I guess a lot of people are left guessing at what MS might be doing here.

EDIT: A bit further along the speculation front with the above, my understanding is that XBox One sales haven't been doing so great. What if they're planning on creating a MC 2/XBox One bundle for the holiday season and making MC2 exclusive to XBox One (at least initially), so that it's on every kid's Christmas list? If they're trying to boost hardware sales with this, the 2.5 billion starts to make more sense, especially since that then translates into additional royalties on other XBox titles once people own the system.

This may be all about giving the XBox One a "killer game" that winds up selling the system.

[VegasGoat]

I'm cautiously optimistic about the whole Microsoft deal. No doubt they have money and talent to make a pretty awesome new version of Minecraft if they really wanted to. I think if they made a new version that performed much better in multiplayer and had a decent modding API it would be successful. I wouldn't even mind paying for it again.

[Equitis1024]

Well, let's say you had a kick-ass voxel game nearing the end of development (or already finished for that matter). What would be the ultimate way to promote it other than calling it MC 2?

I dunno, it's the only way I've figured out that the deal makes any kind of financial sense for MS. I don't think they've really bought anything other than the Minecraft name, because there's not a whole lot else of value to them here, and IMO, they must have a very specific use of the name in mind to blow that kind of cash and then tell their investors they'll be getting a relatively short-term return on it.

I found it rather amusing that MS stock seemed to take a bit of a dive yesterday in the wake of this announcement. I guess a lot of people are left guessing at what MS might be doing here.

EDIT: A bit further along the speculation front with the above, my understanding is that XBox One sales haven't been doing so great. What if they're planning on creating a MC 2/XBox One bundle for the holiday season and making MC2 exclusive to XBox One (at least initially), so that it's on every kid's Christmas list? If they're trying to boost hardware sales with this, the 2.5 billion starts to make more sense, especially since that then translates into additional royalties on other XBox titles once people own the system.

This may be all about giving the XBox One a "killer game" that winds up selling the system.

Wow, I had been scratching my head over this deal wondering what Microsoft was thinking, and this is the first idea I've seen that makes complete sense. I would be more surprised now if this ISN'T what they end up doing.

[MoRmEnGiL]

No no you all have it wrong! MS is trying to compete with blizzard and wants to pour money on scrolls, this is what this all is about! *cries alone in a corner*


Joking aside, I'm sure the eggheads in MS are not stupid, and will treat the minecraft name smartly..

[FlowerChild]

No no you all have it wrong! MS is trying to compete with blizzard and wants to pour money on scrolls, this is what this all is about! *cries alone in a corner*

Don't forget about Cobalt :)

Yeah, I suspect if MS were interested in card games, they'd be aiming to buy the rights to MtG, not Mojang ;)

[agentwiggles]

How do you guys think having MS in charge will effect modding and BTW specifically?

Besides my personal feelings on Microsoft (short version: not good), I think the chances of me getting a "cease and desist" letter at some point just shot up dramatically.

Well, that's the scariest thing I've ever read on these forums. Thank Cthulhu that this is happening at the tail end of BTW, and not, say, a year or two ago. All the more reason to be excited about RTH!

[FlowerChild]

Well, that's the scariest thing I've ever read on these forums. Thank Cthulhu that this is happening at the tail end of BTW, and not, say, a year or two ago. All the more reason to be excited about RTH!

Meh...the more I think about it, the less concerned I am that MS would bother with me or any other modder.

I really don't think they give a damn about Minecraft 1 other than being the origin of the franchise and a means to keep existing fans occupied while they do their thing. I think it likely they'll just let the existing devs keep doing their thing with it.

I was only concerned about the cease and desist thing based on some of my early theorizing about how they were going to make money off of Minecraft as the game it is now. I really doubt that's their goal though, as the numbers just don't add up IMO, and I suspect they won't even trouble themselves with it as a result.

[William the tuba]

Yeah, I suspect if MS were interested in card games, they'd be aiming to buy the rights to MtG, not Mojang ;)

They could probably do a better job than Wizards does when it comes to the online client, but I don't think Hasbro is letting go any time soon.

I'm not sure whether it'll be Minecraft: the Sequel on Xbox One, but rather a 2.0 release with very major changes across all platforms--MC is already available for the Xbox One. I think the purchase is more about Notch wanting out and Microsoft wanting to expand its influence: MC is available for a whole bunch of major platforms, and I think Microsoft wants its foot in the door everywhere else too.

See: The Xbox news post on the purchase.

At Microsoft, we believe in the power of content to unite people. Minecraft adds diversity to our game portfolio and helps us reach new gamers across multiple platforms. Gaming is the top activity across devices and we see great potential to continue to grow the Minecraft community and nurture the franchise. That is why we plan to continue to make Minecraft available across platforms – including iOS, Android and PlayStation, in addition to Xbox and PC.

[FlowerChild]

I'm not sure whether it'll be Minecraft: the Sequel on Xbox One, but rather a 2.0 release with very major changes across all platforms--MC is already available for the Xbox One. I think the purchase is more about Notch wanting out and Microsoft wanting to expand its influence: MC is available for a whole bunch of major platforms, and I think Microsoft wants its foot in the door everywhere else too.

I see no reason why MS would want to support other game platforms when they have their own platform that is in need of a sales boost, that is more difficult to pirate games on (ensuring they get a bigger piece of the pie), and where they can charge a premium for it.

I'm speculating a lot here with varying degrees of how likely I think things are, but I would be *very* surprised if a sequel were multiplatform. I'd consider that way out of character for MS, and I think it's just wishful thinking to assume they'd do otherwise.

Megacorps like MS pretty much never do anything just to be nice.

See: The Xbox news post on the purchase.

At Microsoft, we believe in the power of content to unite people. Minecraft adds diversity to our game portfolio and helps us reach new gamers across multiple platforms. Gaming is the top activity across devices and we see great potential to continue to grow the Minecraft community and nurture the franchise. That is why we plan to continue to make Minecraft available across platforms – including iOS, Android and PlayStation, in addition to Xbox and PC.

Uh huh :)

What would you expect them to say if they planned something similar to what I was saying? Would it be any different from the above? Would it be any different if they planned to mobilize the MC fan base to invade a third world country, or turn Mojang into a commercial space agency?

That's pretty much a boiler plate PR statement about an acquisition to try and look good and calm down any outrage that might result. It's utterly non-binding (not that it conflicts in any way with what I proposed) and there's not much incentive to not just lie through their teeth in such statements if they so desire.

To me, when I see stuff like that out of companies, it's just a non-statement. Doesn't mean squat.

Like seriously, how can anyone read a statement like:

At Microsoft, we believe in the power of content to unite people.

With a straight face. Heck, if I were at a party and someone started talking in that kind of tone I'd likely flee before they start handing out the Kool Aid :)

[Wafflewaffle]

At Microsoft, we believe in the power of content to unite people.

Here at Jack's Slaughterhouse we treat meat like family.

But really, could they rip minecraft out of the PC? They did it Halo right?

[FlowerChild]

But really, could they rip minecraft out of the PC?

I think a better question is: why would they? That sounds like a huge pain in the ass with no real benefit.

Minecraft is potentially an ongoing multiplatform source of advertising for Minecraft 2. Killing existing versions of MC on certain platforms would create a lot of bad blood with fans. I suspect making a sequel exclusive to their platform will generate hardly any comment beyond "oh...I guess that makes sense".

Heck, they can even use the modding community of MC1 as a source of ideas for DLC for MC2, and would likely be well within their rights to do so, so why would they even bother killing that aspect of it?

You know, this conversation is giving me the impression more people really need to watch this film:



I think it is extremely useful when considering the motivations of corporations (especially huge publicly traded ones) to keep in mind that they don't really think like or act like (most) people, whatever legal status they may be entitled to :P