Minecraft Is Big Business
How much money can an indie game/OCD-fest make in under two years? Apparently the answer is about 33 million. Marcus Persson, Minecraft designer and fellow Swede, tackled some questions over Reddit, in which he disclosed the positively sickening amount. As Persson notes, taxes, Paypal fees, and distribution costs have chipped at his vast fortune, but "it's still a huge wad of money," and being a mere thousandaire (during a good year) I can scarcely fathom the thought of such riches. He further notes that "It all ends up in an account somewhere, and I try not to look at it. I get a normal salary these days for day to day stuff, but there's a big pile somewhere." Even more staggering is the fact that, according to the Minecraft website, "In the last 24 hours, 42112 people registered, and 9954 people bought the game" -- not bad at all, given that the game has spread primarily though word-of-mouth. The exchange addressed several other issues, among which were the staggering revelation that Minecraft has never "directly" gotten him laid -- ("peripheral" laying was not addressed), and Minecraft's perceived stability problems, owing to alleged user preference for additional content over "fix" updates. Hopefully Persson & Co. ill be able to remedy this as his company, Mojang, gains the traction one would expect from releasing a preposterously successful game.
Those interested in the full back and forth can find it at the provided link.
Super Swede
Posted to Video Games on 6 April 2011
