Minecraft Creator Forming Own Studio

Greg Tito

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Sep 29, 2005
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Minecraft Creator Forming Own Studio



Despite being courted by both Valve and Bungie, the creator of Minecraft is set on forming his own game development studio.

Minecraft is undoubtedly the unexpected hit of the year. As of this morning, the sandbox building/survival game has sold 278,772 units through the game's official website [http://www.minecraft.net/]. At 9.95 British pounds per copy, that translates to over $3,787,748 total earnings, and the game isn't even out of the alpha phase of development yet. When Minecraft enters beta, and eventually releases, the price-point is expected to rise. But even though it was reported that Markus 'Notch' Persson was approached by many AAA studios, he is starting up his own company, which is as yet unnamed.

"The status right now is that we're up to four people confirmed, and we're talking to several people," Persson wrote on his blog this week [http://notch.tumblr.com/post/1205447916/im-sorry-about-the-lack-of-updates].

Much of Persson's time is occupied with the mundane details of staring a company. "Most my time these days is taken up by meetings and lawyers, accountants, banks, potential partners, potential employees, and the occasional interview," Persson said. "The few hours I do have to develop the game every now and then are mostly spent on looking into bugs and replying to emails."

Persson apologized to the community for not working fulltime on Minecraft, but it will ultimately create a better system for updates. "All this non-development work will result in a much nicer working environment, with talented people helping out with development, an actual office, and a much better way to deal with support issues, bug reports and feature requests.

"It's a good thing I didn't know how much work setting up a company would be when I started doing it..."

All I can say is good luck to Persson. I know that it's daunting starting up a new venture, but then again, I never had over $3 million in seed money. Based on the popularity of Minecraft, something tells me that Notch will be making games for a long time.

Source: Gamesindustry.biz [http://notch.tumblr.com/post/1205447916/im-sorry-about-the-lack-of-updates].

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cobrausn

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Dec 10, 2008
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Congratulations to him. After toiling over a computer for years making fun little games, he has managed to coalesce almost everything that makes games enjoyable into a pretty simple yet immensely enjoyable title. Currently, he's living my dream.
 

Greg Tito

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Sep 29, 2005
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Wish him all the best. It's nice to see a one-man operation turn into a studio and I hope it happens for him.
 

Slythernite

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The poor guy is working hard. He's making BANK, but he is working on a company. He publicly apologized for the delay in updates, but that statement was an update in itself. People are giving him flak when the game's only in Alpha. It's a real shame.

Good luck Notch.
 

monstersquad

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Jun 7, 2010
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If they're getting their own studio, then they should also seriously reconsider renaming theire product. Instead of Minecraft, it should be Minecrack, cause it's dangerously addictive.
 

SeanTheSheep

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Jun 23, 2009
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Awesome for him! Hopefully we can have even more little gems like Minecraft from Notch's studio in future.
Actually, what is the studio going to be called?
 

wasalp

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Dec 22, 2008
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...indie dev making a company...SELL OUT, HE'S A SELL OUT. May he be hated from this point foward.
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...Nah, congrats man you deserve all your succes and I hope you have more time to relax in the enar future.
 

TraderJimmy

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Congratulations! I'll not get Minecraft for a while, as I'm currently at Uni doing pretentious things for a year, and my lappy struggles with flash games and the first Dungeon Keeper. It's on my list tho, I swers it.

It makes a great story *sniff*. Major kudos.
 

Callex

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Oct 20, 2008
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Hehe, after all these Minecraft articles, and a certain fanmade trailer [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaMTedT6P0I] I decided to check it out and see what all the fuss was about...

...I can feel my A-level grades slipping away already!
 

SnipErlite

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Aug 16, 2009
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Good for him. Minecraft is awesome.

Still, $4 million. From an Alpha stage game.

0_O

Bloody hell.
 

SnipErlite

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Aug 16, 2009
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SeanTheSheep said:
Awesome for him! Hopefully we can have even more little gems like Minecraft from Notch's studio in future.
Actually, what is the studio going to be called?
Notch studios?

Actually, as someone already said the game is horrible addictive. I'd quite like to see Minecrack Studios.
 

Argtee

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Oct 31, 2009
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I love Minecraft, and I'm glad that he's getting his own studio. He's earned it!

I can't believe how much money he's made on a game that costs about $10.
 

Pandora92

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Apr 2, 2010
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Aww, personally I was hoping he would sign for Valve to be honest, given their history for developing basic concepts and young talent...

Oh well, good luck to him anyway. ;)
 

Captain Pancake

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May 20, 2009
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At least it proves that all you still need to be successful in a venture is something truly innovative. Good to see that hasn't been lost over the years.
 

cobrausn

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Dec 10, 2008
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SeanTheSheep said:
Awesome for him! Hopefully we can have even more little gems like Minecraft from Notch's studio in future.
Actually, what is the studio going to be called?
Well, he could just call it Moneycraft Studios, because that's essentially what it's doing.
 

Greg Tito

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Sep 29, 2005
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A lot of people give me nasty remarks when I say that the Xbox Live indie games are shit. Then they remind me that these are not made by budget studios and it is normally just one or two guys. Of course, I reiterate that you don't need a big budget to make an awesome game. As of now, this is my shining example. This game was made by one person and it is more entertaining than 99% of the big budget titles in the gaming industry.