What Makes Minecraft A 'Game Changer'What Makes Minecraft A 'Game Changer'

Author: by Staff

In Gamasutra's latest feature, a reprint from Game Developer magazine's October 2011 issue, we cover the business, community, and development skills that make Minecraft soar -- alongside 19 other entrants. Game Developer editor-in-chief Brandon Sheffield writes that "we've decided to drill down and look at some of the recent concepts, games, companies, and services that are changing the game industry, for better or for worse." One such game changer is Mojang, developer of Minecraft: Much has been said about Mojang and its monster hit Minecraft. At over 4 million paid accounts and 16 million users total, the game is a massive financial and critical success. It takes the concept of user-created content to new extremes, making the gameplay and the creation one and the same. But the reason Mojang makes our list is not just the money. Any company can make money with shady tactics -- but Mojang has done so with absolute transparency. For one thing, it proved the viability of the "pay at alpha" model of self-funding. Companies have tried it before, and others have done it since, but Minecraft wrote the book on the concept. Essentially, let people pay for something they like as early as possible -- but make sure you keep supporting them, fixing bugs, listening to your audience, and being as honest with them as you can. Minecraft creator Markus Persson makes most of his announcements to Twitter rather than through press releases, and does his best to answer most emails and comments directly (though that's impossible with 10 million users), which makes Mojang's messaging more personal, and less corporate. On top of that, as the company gets sued by Bethesda for using "Scrolls" as the title of its upcoming game (Bethesda thinks Mojang's Scrolls sounds too much like its own The Elder Scrolls), Mojang is turning a blind eye to the blatant copies of its game that have cropped up on XBLIG and PC, some of which have made over $1 million. Mojang should be changing the way companies think about the game business. The Swedish company proves you can be honest, transparent, and responsive to your fans, and still make a massive profit. For 19 more game changers of recent memory, read the full Gamasutra feature.