Marcus "Notch" Persson Turned Down a Job at Valve to Develop Minecraft

[AzrealMaximillion]

Notch was very lucky. I'm glad it paid off, both for him and us who still enjoy playing with blocks.

How much longer are we going to hear about what Notch isn't doing before we hear anything about what he is doing?

Not to start a hate train but he cancelled his Firefly inspired game and Scrolls is being outdone by Blizzard of all people with Hearthstone.

You do know there was a WoW TCG out before Hearthstone... right? While Blizz didn't make it themselves, I'm sure the product rubbed off some experience on the devteam to actually make a PC TCG.
I'm not sure why anyone thought Scrolls would be good. I for one foresaw a mediocre game at best, these things take immense balancing to do right and I can only imagine that it takes a hell of a lot of experience to pull off a successful game like that.

I'm aware there was a Wow TCG, bowever that wasn't what I was getting at.

I'm getting at the constant dragging on of the Notch hype wave that's been going on for the past few years. Minecraft was a very influential game yes, but for reasons that are credited to its community rather than Notch himself. And to be frank, Scrolls could have been better had they not taken so long with it. It seems they didn't really know what they wanted to do with it for a long time. Then Heartstone came out and is currently dominating the audience for digital TGC.

It's kind of similar to how DayZ's standalone doesn't look like it will be worth the hype it drummed up at all when(or if) it gets released. Meanwhile games like Nether are progressing faster and are chipping away at DayZ's attention.

I dunno, I feel that sometimes gaming news tries to pander readers by writing about the most popular game/developer for a very long time after they've done something exciting. We can't be expected to be excited over whatever Notch will do, has done, or is currently doing forever when there are currently other interesting things going on in gaming currently.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

From a business and I have to admit, possibly artist perspective, he made the right call. Valve is still an awesome company, although some of their steam policies are a bit iffy. However, how the company works (a "vote with your desk" system were employees decided which projects they want to support) may of meant minecraft would not of gotten the attention that Mojang has been able to give it.

Minecraft would have gotten the attention it deserve. That game was built more by its community then by Mojang. Being under Valve wouldn't have changed that.

 

[Hatchet90]

Just imagine, he could've been involved with not making Half-Life 3.

 

[weirdee]

By the point he got that offer, Minecraft was already very successful. It was already a phenomenon when it was in alpha, even! Trying to paint it as some gutsy move by a little guy deciding to go his own seems pretty silly.

eh, to be honest, most of the potential was realized by modders, not notch himself. he just happened to be getting the money, and put out a decent amount of content, but the concept was stronger than anything else that he could possibly take credit for.

there's a good chance that valve would have provided him with significantly more support than he was capable of on his own, even after hiring other folks to help with the development. but what's done is done...

 

[truckspond]

So...?

Gabe Newell left a job at Microsoft to start Valve in the first place

 

[GladiatorUA]

Good for him.

On the other hand, Minecraft might have been better with Valve's resources and attention to detail.

Still, good for him.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Eh, the question still stands; will it last? I don't think they can live off of Minecraft for too long, so I'll be interested in seeing where Mojang ends up.

He made enough with Minecraft to live the rest of his life, even after Swedish taxes.

I think he was thinking about the company, not the man. I know Notch isn't going to disregard his own personal bank.

I'm just wondering where the future of his company is going to go. Will they continue to update Minecraft indefinitely or will they go all in when they make a new game.

Anyway, I'm not surprised Valve offered him a job in Beta. It was a big deal back then. Still is to some people.

 

[Zauxst]

(...) and Gabe Newell (who didn't even make the list).

Is it me or there is so much hate in this post towards Gabe?

 

[Nurb]

He would have just been another cog in the clique-ish valve machine, and I think he realized that.

 

[Josh Engen]

(...) and Gabe Newell (who didn't even make the list).

Is it me or there is so much hate in this post towards Gabe?

Dude. I love Gabe. It was just an easy comparison given Notch's uneasiness about turning down Gabe's offer.

 

[Sight Unseen]

Well, with the way things are going for him, creating his own "Valve" could very well be possible.

I wish Valve did headhunting like that more often though, it seems a bit of a rarity for them.

I'm not sure how you can say this if you understand much of Valve's history. Even when Gabe Newell and *mysterious co-founder that nobody remembers guy* founded Valve, they hired their initial batch of devs from people making mods for I believe Quake. They made Half Life.

Team Fortress was initially a mod for Quake. Valve hired the modders and asked them to remake it for Source and then redid the art style to make TF2.

Alien Swarm was an Unreal Tournament 2004 mod that was converted into a full Valve game on Source when Valve hired the modders who made it.

Day of Defeat was a Half Life mod, Valve hired the modders and made it an official title.

Portal started off as a university project for some grad students called Narbacular Drop. Valve caught wind of them and hired them to make portal.

The gel mechanic of Portal 2 was also obtained by hiring a second group of students from the same university a few years later.

Valve hired Icefrog who made the original WC3 DotA mod to make Dota 2.

Left 4 Dead started as a game by Turtle Rock Studios, who Valve hired and supported to make the official Left 4 Dead.

Pretty much Valve's entire catalog can be attributed to Valve finding great talent out in the wild, hiring them, supporting them and allowing them to make their game, so that statement of yours really confuses me.

 

[Strazdas]

I wonder if by the time Minecraft ends it will be the most popular PC game out there? I mean if it continues to grow at this speed it will be one, it already beat most of PC games.

What reactions? He obviously made the right decision. It's not a matter of opinion.

I disagree. I think it is very much a matter of opinion. One could easily argue that by joining valve and continuing to work on minecraft at valve he could have done thing that some people (that would be the ones arguing that point ov view) like more than where he took it himself.
Im not saying that i think hes bad off or anything, merely that yes, one could easily argue against his decision in this case.

I wish Valve did headhunting like that more often though, it seems a bit of a rarity for them.

I think they do, its jsut that you dont really hear new stories about people who join the team before releasing their stuff. Valve is also said to be very hard on picking its staff.

He went with the formula of a simple idea sells and it did. Minecraft blew up 2 years ago and the fucking thing won't fuck off! I'm happy for the guy and I'm jelly of his money (as much as I am jelly of anybody with more cash than me) but jeez, his game is digital lego. Chill the fuck out about it.

Only as much as we should chill about Psycho (1960) pretty much creating the slasher genre. There are so many copycats of Minecraft now that it can be easily seen where this is going. It doesnt have to be good, all it needs is to be the first. (and by that i mean first popular one, technical first doesnt really matter as Apple has proven by stealing all the ideas and selling them as thier own).

 

[viking97]

Would've been cool if he'd said yes. Although probably worse for Mr. Persson, I would love to see a valve backed minecraft. You know, with like, graphics.

 

[Jumwa]

That is just plain not true. In alpha, it had less then half a million sales. That is not a 'phenomenon' thats just really successful for an indie game. By the end of Beta, it only had like 2.5 million sales, which is still pretty massive for an indie game. Once it went out of beta, THEN it became a 'phenomenon' and became insanely popular.

You can nitpick over what constitutes a phenomenon or is simply "just really successful" if you like, but considering the fact he sold those copies for $20 a pop with little overhead (he didn't hire anyone else until in the beta phase), he was a very rich man who had pulled in enough cash to retire by the time he got this offer from Valve. I stand by my remark.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

Well, with the way things are going for him, creating his own "Valve" could very well be possible.

I wish Valve did headhunting like that more often though, it seems a bit of a rarity for them.

I'm not sure how you can say this if you understand much of Valve's history. Even when Gabe Newell and *mysterious co-founder that nobody remembers guy* founded Valve, they hired their initial batch of devs from people making mods for I believe Quake. They made Half Life.

Team Fortress was initially a mod for Quake. Valve hired the modders and asked them to remake it for Source and then redid the art style to make TF2.

Alien Swarm was an Unreal Tournament 2004 mod that was converted into a full Valve game on Source when Valve hired the modders who made it.

Day of Defeat was a Half Life mod, Valve hired the modders and made it an official title.

Portal started off as a university project for some grad students called Narbacular Drop. Valve caught wind of them and hired them to make portal.

The gel mechanic of Portal 2 was also obtained by hiring a second group of students from the same university a few years later.

Valve hired Icefrog who made the original WC3 DotA mod to make Dota 2.

Left 4 Dead started as a game by Turtle Rock Studios, who Valve hired and supported to make the official Left 4 Dead.

Pretty much Valve's entire catalog can be attributed to Valve finding great talent out in the wild, hiring them, supporting them and allowing them to make their game, so that statement of yours really confuses me.

At the risk of sounding snippy,

No one ever reads the "seems like".

It's just my own personal obliviousness that makes me make such statements.

 

[vun]

Eh, the question still stands; will it last? I don't think they can live off of Minecraft for too long, so I'll be interested in seeing where Mojang ends up.

He made enough with Minecraft to live the rest of his life, even after Swedish taxes.

Oh yeah, Notch could probably live off of the MC profits, but he's running a company with several employees as well, and I don't think supporting that off of MC money is all that viable.

 

[omega 616]

snip

Except nobody is still going cocoo for coco poofs over psycho... However minecraft/notch is headline news every 5 fucking seconds minecraft coming to a new device, it's sold x amount etc.

Then there people watching it being streamed, gets millions of views on YouTube and so many "so and so built such a thing in minecraft" (you know like the enterprise). Don't forget about how great it is in schools!

I think seananners was the one to really get it huge, the the yogscast capitalized on the game... Notch just made it, very slowly by all accounts.

Speaking of which, is it finished yet or is it still just "mods or shit"

 

[Gameguy20100]

Yea good call man.

I don't think I would want to spend my life making hats for Team fortress 2 either.
(honestly how has nobody made that reference yet)

 

[Hutzpah Chicken]

Notch has more dedication to his work than I can possibly imagine. I would probably drop what I was doing for a job at Valve.

 

[Strazdas]

snip

Except nobody is still going cocoo for coco poofs over psycho... However minecraft/notch is headline news every 5 fucking seconds minecraft coming to a new device, it's sold x amount etc.

Then there people watching it being streamed, gets millions of views on YouTube and so many "so and so built such a thing in minecraft" (you know like the enterprise). Don't forget about how great it is in schools!

I think seananners was the one to really get it huge, the the yogscast capitalized on the game... Notch just made it, very slowly by all accounts.

Speaking of which, is it finished yet or is it still just "mods or shit"

Psycho came out in 1960. Minecraft came out in 2009. That is 4 years ago. 4 Years after Psycho came out A LOT of people were going "Coo coo". In fact, a lot of people still do and talk about it constantly. It just didnt have youtube when it released. people STILL try to copy Psycho scenes. after 53 years. It still gets into headlines.

And minecraft being a computer lego does get a lot of "i built this" in it, of course. thats to be expected.
Technically its been finished for a while now. the rest is patching, which is same as patching, say, skyrim a year after its release. you can still add new things (you know, what patches used to do before they decided to make us pay for them) in patches. Mods are really what makes the game interesting though. but interesting is in the eye of the beholder.