5 ms·

Case in point: Notch once said that his price for selling out Minecraft was $2B. When Microsoft eventually said "sounds fair" and gave it to him very few people

Case in point: Notch once said that his price for selling out Minecraft was $2B. When Microsoft eventually said "sounds fair" and gave it to him very few people found it easy to be mad at him.

slongfield 6y ago
To be fair, people found plenty of other things to be mad at Notch about.
- Macha 6y ago
  That occurred a few years later
- Wowfunhappy 6y ago
  They did, but it was all pretty unrelated. I thought GP's example was a good one.
drewwwwww 6y ago
that was not what people got mad at notch about
- newnamenewface 6y ago
  People got mad at Notch for internet-age old reasons: expecting someone with high technical skills in one domain to have the right takes on social and political issues because they're now a internet social presence in addition to whatever creative work they've done. If people were realistic in their expectations of Notch, they'd never have been mad in the first place because they wouldn't have cared what inane ideas he spouted.
  - Cthulhu_ 6y ago
    I don't think people on the internet are expected to "[take] on social and political issues"; they are expected to not be a piece of shit though. It costs $0 to not be a dick on the internet. It's free to not voice your opinion. You're not less of a person if you self-censor.
cbhl 6y ago
I wonder what the calculus was on the Microsoft side of the equation. "It'd take more than 10-SWE-years to build a clone, so we should take his offer"?
- mywittyname 6y ago
  They are paying for the brand, not the product. Microsoft is ensuring that they have mindshare in the next generation of gamers. That's critically important to maintaining their ongoing success in the gaming sector. Similar to why Disney paid billions for Star Wars: the company was easily capable of replicating the product; the issue was replicating the brand. That brand has a proven track record of multi-generational appeal.
  - ljm 6y ago
    I think it's more than just the brand right? I can't speak for Disney and Star Wars because Star Wars was never my thing. These creative endeavours have a soul, or an essence, for want of a better term. You can replicate a game or a movie and it will feel utterly soulless compared to the original, even if you can't visibly notice a difference. You could reproduce Minecraft but even the most infinitesimal divergence from the original will make it feel fake. Maybe the controls have a different 'feel', or the way the scene is rendered feels a bit off. It's just not Minecraft any more. There are just so many quirks and details that will be lost in the translation, or even patched over if they're seen as bugs. It's no different if you ported a game from Unity to Unreal and then to CryEngine. I'm sure that with a blind comparison you would be able to 'feel' the difference. And the same for films. The way these things were created has a lot of influence over the end result. On the other hand, it's exactly what can make a remake or remaster so successful. The Resident Evil 2 and 3 remakes that followed Resi 7 were phenomenal! Not totally faithful to the originals, didn't try to be...they just took an older game and gave it a new life.
    - citizenkeen 6y ago
      I think you've just described a brand. People don't go to Starbucks because it's the best, they go to Starbucks because mocha frappucinos in Lima and London taste exactly the same. Any divergence, even an infinitesimal one, makes the frap feel fake.

Case in point: Notch once said that his price for selling out Minecraft was $2B. When Microsoft eventually said "sounds fair" and gave it to him very few people found it easy to be mad at him.

slongfield 6y ago

To be fair, people found plenty of other things to be mad at Notch about.

Macha 6y ago
That occurred a few years later
Wowfunhappy 6y ago
They did, but it was all pretty unrelated. I thought GP's example was a good one.

drewwwwww 6y ago

that was not what people got mad at notch about

newnamenewface 6y ago
People got mad at Notch for internet-age old reasons: expecting someone with high technical skills in one domain to have the right takes on social and political issues because they're now a internet social presence in addition to whatever creative work they've done. If people were realistic in their expectations of Notch, they'd never have been mad in the first place because they wouldn't have cared what inane ideas he spouted.
- Cthulhu_ 6y ago
  I don't think people on the internet are expected to "[take] on social and political issues"; they are expected to not be a piece of shit though. It costs $0 to not be a dick on the internet. It's free to not voice your opinion. You're not less of a person if you self-censor.

cbhl 6y ago

I wonder what the calculus was on the Microsoft side of the equation. "It'd take more than 10-SWE-years to build a clone, so we should take his offer"?

mywittyname 6y ago
They are paying for the brand, not the product. Microsoft is ensuring that they have mindshare in the next generation of gamers. That's critically important to maintaining their ongoing success in the gaming sector. Similar to why Disney paid billions for Star Wars: the company was easily capable of replicating the product; the issue was replicating the brand. That brand has a proven track record of multi-generational appeal.
- ljm 6y ago
  I think it's more than just the brand right? I can't speak for Disney and Star Wars because Star Wars was never my thing. These creative endeavours have a soul, or an essence, for want of a better term. You can replicate a game or a movie and it will feel utterly soulless compared to the original, even if you can't visibly notice a difference. You could reproduce Minecraft but even the most infinitesimal divergence from the original will make it feel fake. Maybe the controls have a different 'feel', or the way the scene is rendered feels a bit off. It's just not Minecraft any more. There are just so many quirks and details that will be lost in the translation, or even patched over if they're seen as bugs. It's no different if you ported a game from Unity to Unreal and then to CryEngine. I'm sure that with a blind comparison you would be able to 'feel' the difference. And the same for films. The way these things were created has a lot of influence over the end result. On the other hand, it's exactly what can make a remake or remaster so successful. The Resident Evil 2 and 3 remakes that followed Resi 7 were phenomenal! Not totally faithful to the originals, didn't try to be...they just took an older game and gave it a new life.
  - citizenkeen 6y ago
    I think you've just described a brand. People don't go to Starbucks because it's the best, they go to Starbucks because mocha frappucinos in Lima and London taste exactly the same. Any divergence, even an infinitesimal one, makes the frap feel fake.