As we kick off 2020, many of us are taking perspective on our future goals for the year and decade. This seemingly also applies to Markus “Notch” Persson, co-creator of the increasingly popular Minecraft and founder of development studio Mojang. In a recent tweet, Notch is asking some questions from his dedicated community on whether people would prefer he develop free, small games or create a brand new studio for polished commercial games.
Posing the question ‘theoretically’ moments ago, Notch’s is actively looking for feedback from his base of nearly 4 million followers:
Theoretically, would you prefer me to develop small free games on my own, or start a studio and make polished commercial games?
— Notch (@notch) January 4, 2020
Of course, the ‘theoretical’ part of this leads to some grain of salt — but even his responses raise a question to that. When asked by a follower what would make him the happiest, Notch pitched that he’s been on the fence about it for some time and is hoping a preference will surface now:
This question is part of me figuring that out. I feel like I'm on the fence, but I probably have a preference deep down I'll find out now
— Notch (@notch) January 4, 2020
Even the founder of the Pirate Party of Sweden, Rick Falkvinge, chimed in asking how ‘theoretical’ this proposition is:
How theoretical is the question?
— Rick Falkvinge (@Falkvinge) January 4, 2020
That’s all to say that his community seems fairly split — though many would love more free experimental projects like the original Minecraft, others compare his journey from Mojang as Hideo Kojima-esque, believing that his vision could be extended with a talented staff behind him.
Markus Persson has certainly garnered a following — along with some ire — among the gaming community and industry at large. Persson left Mojang in 2014 following Microsoft’s acquisition of both Mojang and the Microsoft party in 2014. Since then, Notch has frequently had head-on conflicts with high-profile industry members over Twitter. Lately, Microsoft has made active moves to disassociate themselves from Markus Persson — going as far as to remove Notch from Minecraft‘s main page (though keeping him in the game’s credits) as well as refusing to invite him to Minecraft‘s 10th-anniversary event.
Microsoft has seen a new wellspring of success in 2019, as they hope to expand through 2020 with Minecraft Dungeons. Additionally, PS4 Minecraft players recently saw the addition of crossplay in a recent Bedrock Update.
It will be interesting to see whether Notch follows through with this, or if this is truly a purely theoretical exercise. In any case, Minecraft is available now on practically every console — you an grab the Nintendo Switch version of the game digitally via Amazon.
The post Minecraft Beleaguered Co-Creator Notch Mulls Creating a New Studio by Lou Contaldi appeared first on DualShockers.