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Minecraft creator banks $350k a day, turns down job offers from Valve and Bungie

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Re: Minecraft creator banks $350k a day, turns down job offers from Valve and Bungie

#21

Post by kevingadd »

twymer wrote: post #8

Valve: "We heard you were making $350k/day, how would you like a job making $50k/year?"

1) Health care, taxes, payment processing fees, development tools... There are a lot of expenses covered by an employer, especially when you're a game developer. 2) It's not $350k/day versus $50k/year, unless he can somehow sustain his current income indefinitely (he can't). 3) The value of games publishers and platform developers being willing to talk to you (and having access to development kits, etc) is hard to put monetary value on. Working at a studio like Valve gives you that, too.

Re: Minecraft creator banks $350k a day, turns down job offers from Valve and Bungie

#22

Post by bananaandapple »

zeteo wrote: post #16
bananaandapple wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A week ago, he was selling up to 36000 copies a day.

Either give a reference, or you must be confusing sales and downloads.

http://m00d.net/minecraft/sales/

Re: Minecraft creator banks $350k a day, turns down job offers from Valve and Bungie

#23

Post by vaksel »

ryanwaggoner wrote: post #19
vaksel wrote: post #13

their math is a little bit off, a copy sold every 3 seconds = 28,800 sales a day. Or 10.5 million copies a year. To tell the truth its pretty shocking how minecraft has taken off...the guy will probably end up making 100 million off the game. And if he sticks to iterating it, it might end up making over a billion over it's lifetime(say 40-50 years). Which may seem like a huge number, until you remember that World of…

Speaking as a someone who has never played either, it's also shocking because World of Warcraft looks like this: http://www.sopheon.com/Portals/1/WoW%20Screenshot.jpg While Minecraft looks like this: http://www.indiegames.com/blog/images/timw/minecraft.jpg

looks can be changed, my guess is that the first thing he'll do is update the graphics to give the game mainstream appeal.

right now people are playing for the gameplay...just like they do with WoW

Re: Minecraft creator banks $350k a day, turns down job offers from Valve and Bungie

#24

Post by kevingadd »

rdj wrote: post #3

Not surprised. What could a job at either Valve or Bungie give him that he doesn't get now?

Ask the Portal team? Or the guys who made Team Fortress? Or the guys who made Counter-Strike?

To be more precise: Working at a larger studio like Valve means you trade some creative control and (in notch's case) some short-term income for reliable long-term income and access to things you could never get in the short term as an individual, like access to devkits for consoles, access to well-trained, highly skilled QA/art/programming departments, decades of design and programming experience from leads and senior developers, etc.

Re: Minecraft creator banks $350k a day, turns down job offers from Valve and Bungie

#25

Post by zeteo »

bananaandapple wrote: post #22
zeteo wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Either give a reference, or you must be confusing sales and downloads.

http://m00d.net/minecraft/sales/

That shows the maximum as 25000, not 36000 sales per day.

Re: Minecraft creator banks $350k a day, turns down job offers from Valve and Bungie

#26

Post by city41 »

ryanwaggoner wrote: post #19
vaksel wrote: post #13

their math is a little bit off, a copy sold every 3 seconds = 28,800 sales a day. Or 10.5 million copies a year. To tell the truth its pretty shocking how minecraft has taken off...the guy will probably end up making 100 million off the game. And if he sticks to iterating it, it might end up making over a billion over it's lifetime(say 40-50 years). Which may seem like a huge number, until you remember that World of…

Speaking as a someone who has never played either, it's also shocking because World of Warcraft looks like this: http://www.sopheon.com/Portals/1/WoW%20Screenshot.jpg While Minecraft looks like this: http://www.indiegames.com/blog/images/timw/minecraft.jpg

There's a refreshing vibe working its way through the game community where alternative graphic styles and alternative game concepts are given more acceptance. It's becoming a great time to be a game developer.

Re: Minecraft creator banks $350k a day, turns down job offers from Valve and Bungie

#27

Post by vaksel »

noodle wrote: post #18
vaksel wrote: post #13

their math is a little bit off, a copy sold every 3 seconds = 28,800 sales a day. Or 10.5 million copies a year. To tell the truth its pretty shocking how minecraft has taken off...the guy will probably end up making 100 million off the game. And if he sticks to iterating it, it might end up making over a billion over it's lifetime(say 40-50 years). Which may seem like a huge number, until you remember that World of…

i dunno about that. we're probably seeing one of his larger sales periods, as it enters into the mainstream from obscurity. it might continue to do well, but i'm skeptical that he'll be able to keep up the rate at which it is currently selling. either way, though, he's doing amazingly well for himself.

I think he'll be ok. Right now he is only selling to the early adopter crowd who doesn't mind the crappy graphics. Once he spends some money on graphic designers, he'll be able to get mainstream appeal.

Once he has mainstream appeal, he can release it for the stores to sell. Which will boost his sales.

But yeah...either way he has already made a ton of money off this game....at least a couple million. Which should give him plenty of room to perfect his product.

Re: Minecraft creator banks $350k a day, turns down job offers from Valve and Bungie

#28

Post by city41 »

vaksel wrote: post #23
ryanwaggoner wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking as a someone who has never played either, it's also shocking because World of Warcraft looks like this: http://www.sopheon.com/Portals/1/WoW%20Screenshot.jpg While Minecraft looks like this: http://www.indiegames.com/blog/images/timw/minecraft.jpg

looks can be changed, my guess is that the first thing he'll do is update the graphics to give the game mainstream appeal. right now people are playing for the gameplay...just like they do with WoW

I don't know why he'd change the graphics. $350k/day is a pretty resounding confirmation that people don't mind or even like them. (I personally think it's a really nice style, it's got a certain flare to it)

Re: Minecraft creator banks $350k a day, turns down job offers from Valve and Bungie

#29

Post by catshirt »

kevingadd wrote: post #21
twymer wrote: post #8

Valve: "We heard you were making $350k/day, how would you like a job making $50k/year?"

1) Health care, taxes, payment processing fees, development tools... There are a lot of expenses covered by an employer, especially when you're a game developer. 2) It's not $350k/day versus $50k/year, unless he can somehow sustain his current income indefinitely (he can't). 3) The value of games publishers and platform developers being willing to talk to you (and having access to development kits, etc) is hard to pu…

dude, we're talking about over $300,000 a day

Re: Minecraft creator banks $350k a day, turns down job offers from Valve and Bungie

#30

Post by steveklabnik »

vaksel wrote: post #23
ryanwaggoner wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking as a someone who has never played either, it's also shocking because World of Warcraft looks like this: http://www.sopheon.com/Portals/1/WoW%20Screenshot.jpg While Minecraft looks like this: http://www.indiegames.com/blog/images/timw/minecraft.jpg

looks can be changed, my guess is that the first thing he'll do is update the graphics to give the game mainstream appeal. right now people are playing for the gameplay...just like they do with WoW

Actually, if you upgrade your textures, the game bogs down pretty bad.

He'd have to do a serious overhaul to fix the graphics. I'm not sure if I'd want him to, either; the look is very charming.

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