‘Minecraft’ Creator Notch Says He’s Starting Work On A “Spiritual Successor” To Popular Sandbox Game, But Admits “I’m Not Even Sure I’ll Make It To Release”
Markus Persson, also known as “Notch,” is considering if he should make a spiritual successor to Minecraft. He described the project as “Minecraft 2,” though emphasized his game would be different to the one he sold to Microsoft in 2014.
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Posing a question to his followers on X, Notch explained he was working on a new game, but was unsure if it had appeal compared to what he was most famous for.
“Honest and legitimate request for feedback for once: The new game I’m passionately working on is currently set to be a traditional roguelike (i.e. ADOM, nethack, etc) mixed with a tile based first person dungeon crawler (ie Legend of Grimrock (esp 2), Eye of the Beholder),” Notch pitched.
Notch then admitted, “But then I gots to thinking that maybe there are people who like my work but might not share my taste in retro nostalgia and would prefer for me to make a spiritual successor thing to Minecraft, and I mean sure, I’d take that cash. So market research. I’d be happy to oblige either, which one would make you happier?”
The two options followers could vote on were “make minecraft 2 boomer,” and “i love uncursing potions.” With more than 215,000 votes, the poll currently has “Minecraft 2” in the lead, with 78.2% of the vote, and four days to go.
In discussion with others, Notch still sounded keen on his retro roguelike game (“Kinda feels like stardew valley [sic], but more diagonal door kicking”) and how it could reward players with lore. Many seemed to encourage Notch to pursue concepts he enjoyed, and that it is all the easier thanks to his wealth.
Notch also elaborated to one user on what his Minecraft successor would do, in technical terms, to use higher resolution voxels than the original.
After emphasizing he was serious, and another X user asked what he meant, Notch dropped a tweet that reached over nine-and-a-half million views as of this time of writing. “I basically announced minecraft 2. I thought that maybe people ACTUALLY do want me to make another game that’s super similar to the first one, and I’m loving working on games again.”
“I don’t super duper care exactly which game I make first (or even if I make more), but I do know I’m making one, so I figured I’d absolutely be willing to give it an honest shot in the form of a spiritual successor to minecraft and put up a poll about it,” Notch elaborated.
“My intentions are to be clear and honest about it, saying that spiritual successors are usually kind of… you know… washed up. Tragic. The things I’m fearing my next game is going to be anyway and try to push myself to avoid. So why not do the thing that people DO want and are willing to give me, somehow, even MORE cash for,” Notch proposed.
Notch also gave some motivation. “I intend for the money to the [sic] spent for good, but my god have I learned I fail a lot. Winning is failing until you make yourself succeed.”
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“Oh and I also very much value being a man of my word, so I also intend to do this in a way that in no way tried to sneakily infringe on the incredible work the Mojang team is doing and that Microsoft is successfully doing the microsoft s**ttification about,” Notch snarked.
Nonetheless, Notch added, “And I respect them for doing that. It’s their job. And they, from what I understand, let the studio do things their way, which seems very fair to me.”
While many were shocked and delighted at the announcement of “Minecraft 2” (particularly with such a concept coming before Grand Theft Auto VI), Notch emphasized once again his game would be distinct.
@The0neWh0kn0ck5 begged, “[Y]es bro please make a minecraft 2 im begging you i want you to almost make a minecraft remastered basically starting off where you left minecraft and completing it in your vision.”
Notch simply replied “no.” Later he added, “Besides, I already did that! Jeepers.”
While the majority heaped praise upon Notch over the potential alone, @Catabonk took a far more dour stance, tweeting “9/10 chance it’ll be s**t.” Whether in jest or otherwise, Notch revealed that there was always a chance the game wouldn’t be completed.
“Honestly, I’m not even sure I’ll make it to release, based on having been me for all my life. But I do know I’m genuinely loving having fun working on a game in an office and would love to give it a shot,” Notch confessed.
Notch sold Minecraft and Mojang Studios to Microsoft in 2014 for $2.5 billion, and it saw Microsoft make an additional $63 million in first-party revenue (in Q2 of 2015). Despite numerous accolades, there have been issues that have made fans unhappy with Microsoft’s reign.
This includes a stricter EULA (end-user license agreement), banning “pay-to-win” servers, account migration, banned players being unable to access even private servers, and the divisive “Mob Vote” eventually leading to a petition to ban it (and succeeded).
Other complaints have included the need to connect online when starting the game, Microsoft pushing their Bedrock edition with more microtransactions and less modding, a general lack of heart and soul, and even changing the desktop icon.
Will Notch’s potential next game of “Minecraft 2” be able to satisfy these players? Will it be something Notch is able or wants to complete, or will we be getting something entirely different?
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