5 ms·

They still sell around 10k PC copies per day … It’s not growing, but it’s also not exactly shrinking (I remember obsessively checking those stats years ago and

by arrrg 12y ago

They still sell around 10k PC copies per day … It’s not growing, but it’s also not exactly shrinking (I remember obsessively checking those stats years ago and they always hovered around 10k), and hasn’t for years. Minecraft might be a different beast than other video games, truly more like Lego than video games actually. There are always new young people you can sell the game to and with constant maintenance for free that might just work out. That’s even ignoring other platforms and merchandise – or however much Minecraft Realms (their server hosting service) makes or how much potential that has. The believe that they already made all the money seems completely wrong to me.

skyebook 12y ago
I like this strategy a lot. When you release something that, on day one, already has 'dated' graphics, you don't have to worry about keeping up with the latest graphics cards or poly-counts or anything of the sort. Its just about the game. Like Legos there are countless others, The Game of Life (Milton Bradley, not Conway) has been around since the 1800's. The beauty of this is that you've never completely saturated since kids are coming of age every day and growing into the game.
- jebblue 12y ago
  Arguably dated graphics yes but amazing computational thinking and creative empowerment combined with exciting gameplay.
- dahart 12y ago
  Nintendo likes that strategy too. But, it's arguably hurting them now.
phkahler 12y ago
>> ...truly more like Lego than video games actually... Which is really funny considering what Lego did in the video game space - they made video games where many things were made of Lego, but there was no "building" involved at all.
NegativeK 12y ago
10,000 copies per day at $26.95? That's nearly $100M per year. That's a fuck ton of revenue if there are only 40 employees. Growth might not be increasing, but I can't help but see that as a lot of sales.
- arrrg 12y ago
  That’s only the PC version, not including console versions, their online service (they rent servers), merchandise and Mojang’s other games (which aren’t very successful at all). We do know their revenue and profit for 2013. Revenue was $322M, profit was $128M. (http://www.polygon.com/2014/3/20/5531046/minecraft-mojang-profits-doubled-2013 http://www.polygon.com/2014/3/20/5531046/minecraft-mojang-pr...) I think the large difference between revenue and profit is mostly down to licensing fees that Mojang has to pay to Notch. At any rate, it seems unlikely to me that a 40 person company could cost nearly $200M to run per year, especially since I really struggle to come up with any significant costs besides just labour (and even if every employee costs half a million per year that’s still only $20M). But I obviously don’t actually know this for sure.

by arrrg 12y ago

skyebook 12y ago

I like this strategy a lot. When you release something that, on day one, already has 'dated' graphics, you don't have to worry about keeping up with the latest graphics cards or poly-counts or anything of the sort. Its just about the game. Like Legos there are countless others, The Game of Life (Milton Bradley, not Conway) has been around since the 1800's. The beauty of this is that you've never completely saturated since kids are coming of age every day and growing into the game.

jebblue 12y ago
Arguably dated graphics yes but amazing computational thinking and creative empowerment combined with exciting gameplay.
dahart 12y ago
Nintendo likes that strategy too. But, it's arguably hurting them now.

phkahler 12y ago

>> ...truly more like Lego than video games actually... Which is really funny considering what Lego did in the video game space - they made video games where many things were made of Lego, but there was no "building" involved at all.

NegativeK 12y ago

10,000 copies per day at $26.95? That's nearly $100M per year. That's a fuck ton of revenue if there are only 40 employees. Growth might not be increasing, but I can't help but see that as a lot of sales.

arrrg 12y ago
That’s only the PC version, not including console versions, their online service (they rent servers), merchandise and Mojang’s other games (which aren’t very successful at all). We do know their revenue and profit for 2013. Revenue was $322M, profit was $128M. (http://www.polygon.com/2014/3/20/5531046/minecraft-mojang-profits-doubled-2013 http://www.polygon.com/2014/3/20/5531046/minecraft-mojang-pr...) I think the large difference between revenue and profit is mostly down to licensing fees that Mojang has to pay to Notch. At any rate, it seems unlikely to me that a 40 person company could cost nearly $200M to run per year, especially since I really struggle to come up with any significant costs besides just labour (and even if every employee costs half a million per year that’s still only $20M). But I obviously don’t actually know this for sure.