7 ms·

Of note is the Minecraft website from 2011 [1], where Markus Persson said: "Once sales start dying and a minimum time has passed, I will release the game source

Of note is the Minecraft website from 2011 [1], where Markus Persson said: "Once sales start dying and a minimum time has passed, I will release the game source code as some kind of open source. I'm not very happy with the draconian nature of (L)GPL, nor do I believe the other licenses have much merit other than to boost the egos of the original authors, so I might just possibly release it all as public domain." [1] http://web.archive.org/web/20110920065648/http://www.minecraft.net/game http://web.archive.org/web/20110920065648/http://www.minecra...

scrollaway 8y ago
Man I remember that. I was disappointed he didn't follow through, especially since Minecraft made him obscenely rich and there's really no reason to keep it closed source. Microsoft followed through where Notch couldn't. How about that...
- foota 8y ago
  I mean for what it's worth sales never really died out.
- SteveNuts 8y ago
  > Microsoft followed through where Notch couldn't. But this isn't the full source code.
  - scrollaway 8y ago
    It's more than Notch ever released? And it's my understanding there's more to follow.
    - OnlyRepliesToBS 8y ago
      spoon feeding is a trickle not in the spirit of open source
    - naikrovek 8y ago
      The entire source of Minecraft has been available to mod authors for quite some time.
      - chii 8y ago
        decompiling is not the same as releasing the source with a license.
        naikrovek 8y ago
        It didn't just decompile. It renamed all classes and methods and it included a source code usage license.
      - MertsA 8y ago
        That's like saying everything is open source if you can write assembly. Minecraft only ever released binaries and they also went out of their way to use an obfuscator so all of the class and method names are garbage and change every update.
        naikrovek 8y ago
        They also released a modders kit which renamed all the classes and methods, producing source code which, when compiled again, produced Minecraft.
        MertsA 8y ago
        The Mod Coder Pack wasn't developed by Mojang. MCP is the work of the community to reverse engineer and deobfuscate Mojang's binaries. The whole point of creating the MCP in the first place was to get around Mojang's use of tools to break most Java decompilers and try and document and come up with sensible names for all of the classes. If Mojang had simply compiled and released their game without obfuscating it first then there would be no point to the MCP in the first place.
        8y ago
- ru999gol 8y ago
  well to be fair Microsoft gave him almost 2 billion for it, at which point it wasn't his to open source anymore, and for him being a sellout I don't blame him, I blame his obnoxious fanbase at the time.
  - scrollaway 8y ago
    Oh of course, but there was a long period before the sale during which it could have happened.
    - hyperpallium 8y ago
      When did "sales start dying"?
      - Operyl 8y ago
        Never.
- scoggs 8y ago
  Maybe his hands were tied in the sense that releasing things open source would limit his ability to package and sell it off at a later date? I'm sure there were negotiations in progress at the time he would have considered doing so and from my POV, which could be terribly wrong, it would seem that releasing the thing you are considering to sell, for free, would sort of meddle with the entire process of selling it off?
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
LolNoGenerics 8y ago
He probably expected that sales would go down to irrelevant. That never happened, instead he got an absurd deal. MS is open sourcing to satisfy modders, eventually for more reach and cash. The intentions are very different and it would be awful to blame notch for that.
- brian_herman 8y ago
  Hit the nail on the head!
- Farradfahren 8y ago
  Cash wise minecraft is a horrible product - there is a limited audience with limited playtime out there. And you cant milk those people of therhe money with lootboxes, with the likes of minecraft. Two more minecraft generations and half the gaming-industry is gone.
- sneak 8y ago
  No, you’re right; there are much better things to blame notch for, like being unwilling to address his white supremacism. https://www.gq.com/story/notch-whiteness-tweets https://www.gq.com/story/notch-whiteness-tweets
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - usaelhorn 8y ago
    It's ok to be white.
    - mnsc 8y ago
      Nice checkmate you bigbrained supersmart intelligent feminist you!
      - dang 8y ago
        Please don't break the site guidelines yourself, no matter how egregiously another commenter has behaved. This is covered in the guidelines too: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.
kbumsik 8y ago
At least the sales is not dying at all. Surprisingly the number of active players is still increasing. [1]: https://www.google.com/amp/s/wccftech.com/minecraft-sales-144-million/amp/ https://www.google.com/amp/s/wccftech.com/minecraft-sales-14...
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- usaelhorn 8y ago
  I was hoping Microsoft buying it would mean they would make it free or at least drop the price. There's no way I'll be paying 24€ for a pixelated sandbox game written in Java.
  - Crosseye_Jack 8y ago
    They released the Windows 10 version for free for a period of time. That’s the version that is cross platform with the likes of the Switch and Xbox One iirc. The RaspberryPi version was also released for free but you know, It’s the Rpi not not exactly a power house. And I’m sure the Java version has been on sale a couple of times. I ended up buying the game on the 360, PC and Android over the years (though I think I only paid something like 10p for the Android version during a sale or Google Offer). Yeah it’s a pixel game, yes it’s Java, yes it can run like shit, yes it’s a sandbox game with no real objective. But it’s surprisingly relaxing. I’ve lost count of the amount of hours I’ve spend just building.
  - fit2rule 8y ago
    My kids love it. They learned to play it from teenagers who have moved on. And they're teaching littler kids how to play it, too. Maybe that's the thing.
  - pjmlp 8y ago
    There is a reason why game publishers don't take decisions based on programming languages.
  - detaro 8y ago
another-cuppa 8y ago
GPL draconian? How do people misunderstand it so? The GPL is there so that your contribution will actually benefit society in the long term.
- dragonwriter 8y ago
  You are confusing purpose (what GPL intends to accomplish) with methods (how the GPL attempts to accomplish it's purpose); “draconian” described the latter and your description of the former does not, even if true, contradict it.
- Qub3d 8y ago
  My guess is Notch, like many developers, was put off by the "viral" licensing [0] of the GPL. [0]:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_license https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_license
  - koffiezet 8y ago
    One of the things GPL does is take away many of the developer's rights. It's a protection for code, not for it's creators - and the latter is what most licenses try to protect.

scrollaway 8y ago

Man I remember that. I was disappointed he didn't follow through, especially since Minecraft made him obscenely rich and there's really no reason to keep it closed source. Microsoft followed through where Notch couldn't. How about that...

foota 8y ago
I mean for what it's worth sales never really died out.
SteveNuts 8y ago
> Microsoft followed through where Notch couldn't. But this isn't the full source code.
- scrollaway 8y ago
  It's more than Notch ever released? And it's my understanding there's more to follow.
  - OnlyRepliesToBS 8y ago
    spoon feeding is a trickle not in the spirit of open source
  - naikrovek 8y ago
    The entire source of Minecraft has been available to mod authors for quite some time.
    - chii 8y ago
      decompiling is not the same as releasing the source with a license.
      - naikrovek 8y ago
        It didn't just decompile. It renamed all classes and methods and it included a source code usage license.
    - MertsA 8y ago
      That's like saying everything is open source if you can write assembly. Minecraft only ever released binaries and they also went out of their way to use an obfuscator so all of the class and method names are garbage and change every update.
      - naikrovek 8y ago
        They also released a modders kit which renamed all the classes and methods, producing source code which, when compiled again, produced Minecraft.
        MertsA 8y ago
        The Mod Coder Pack wasn't developed by Mojang. MCP is the work of the community to reverse engineer and deobfuscate Mojang's binaries. The whole point of creating the MCP in the first place was to get around Mojang's use of tools to break most Java decompilers and try and document and come up with sensible names for all of the classes. If Mojang had simply compiled and released their game without obfuscating it first then there would be no point to the MCP in the first place.
        8y ago
ru999gol 8y ago
well to be fair Microsoft gave him almost 2 billion for it, at which point it wasn't his to open source anymore, and for him being a sellout I don't blame him, I blame his obnoxious fanbase at the time.
- scrollaway 8y ago
  Oh of course, but there was a long period before the sale during which it could have happened.
  - hyperpallium 8y ago
    When did "sales start dying"?
    - Operyl 8y ago
      Never.
scoggs 8y ago
Maybe his hands were tied in the sense that releasing things open source would limit his ability to package and sell it off at a later date? I'm sure there were negotiations in progress at the time he would have considered doing so and from my POV, which could be terribly wrong, it would seem that releasing the thing you are considering to sell, for free, would sort of meddle with the entire process of selling it off?
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]

LolNoGenerics 8y ago

He probably expected that sales would go down to irrelevant. That never happened, instead he got an absurd deal. MS is open sourcing to satisfy modders, eventually for more reach and cash. The intentions are very different and it would be awful to blame notch for that.

brian_herman 8y ago
Hit the nail on the head!
Farradfahren 8y ago
Cash wise minecraft is a horrible product - there is a limited audience with limited playtime out there. And you cant milk those people of therhe money with lootboxes, with the likes of minecraft. Two more minecraft generations and half the gaming-industry is gone.
sneak 8y ago
No, you’re right; there are much better things to blame notch for, like being unwilling to address his white supremacism. https://www.gq.com/story/notch-whiteness-tweets https://www.gq.com/story/notch-whiteness-tweets
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- usaelhorn 8y ago
  It's ok to be white.
  - mnsc 8y ago
    Nice checkmate you bigbrained supersmart intelligent feminist you!
    - dang 8y ago
      Please don't break the site guidelines yourself, no matter how egregiously another commenter has behaved. This is covered in the guidelines too: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.

kbumsik 8y ago

At least the sales is not dying at all. Surprisingly the number of active players is still increasing. [1]: https://www.google.com/amp/s/wccftech.com/minecraft-sales-144-million/amp/ https://www.google.com/amp/s/wccftech.com/minecraft-sales-14...

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
usaelhorn 8y ago
I was hoping Microsoft buying it would mean they would make it free or at least drop the price. There's no way I'll be paying 24€ for a pixelated sandbox game written in Java.
- Crosseye_Jack 8y ago
  They released the Windows 10 version for free for a period of time. That’s the version that is cross platform with the likes of the Switch and Xbox One iirc. The RaspberryPi version was also released for free but you know, It’s the Rpi not not exactly a power house. And I’m sure the Java version has been on sale a couple of times. I ended up buying the game on the 360, PC and Android over the years (though I think I only paid something like 10p for the Android version during a sale or Google Offer). Yeah it’s a pixel game, yes it’s Java, yes it can run like shit, yes it’s a sandbox game with no real objective. But it’s surprisingly relaxing. I’ve lost count of the amount of hours I’ve spend just building.
- fit2rule 8y ago
  My kids love it. They learned to play it from teenagers who have moved on. And they're teaching littler kids how to play it, too. Maybe that's the thing.
- pjmlp 8y ago
  There is a reason why game publishers don't take decisions based on programming languages.
- detaro 8y ago

another-cuppa 8y ago

GPL draconian? How do people misunderstand it so? The GPL is there so that your contribution will actually benefit society in the long term.

dragonwriter 8y ago
You are confusing purpose (what GPL intends to accomplish) with methods (how the GPL attempts to accomplish it's purpose); “draconian” described the latter and your description of the former does not, even if true, contradict it.
Qub3d 8y ago
My guess is Notch, like many developers, was put off by the "viral" licensing [0] of the GPL. [0]:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_license https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_license
- koffiezet 8y ago
  One of the things GPL does is take away many of the developer's rights. It's a protection for code, not for it's creators - and the latter is what most licenses try to protect.