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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

#51

Post by derefr »

nihilocrat wrote: post #39
aresant wrote: post #6

The most refreshing part of this story is that it's not about the Apple / Google / etc App stores. Shows that exceptional indie products can get huge traction on a traditional platform, sort of like Braid on XBOX / PC / etc. That said, also excites me for the future when MSFT's & Apple's standard OS come with a servicable app store baked in.

On a similar note, Minecraft is written in... get this ... Java Which seems to be the dorkiest and most uncool language on the planet if you were to ask HN.

Eh, a good programmer can just treat Java as an object code format, compiling it in their heads from something like Scala or Clojure.

The real problem isn't that Java is spent, it's that (most) Java programmers are dorky. I avoid the language mainly to avoid associating with the community.

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

#52

Post by bond »

efsavage wrote: post #32
kevingadd wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

"unless he can somehow sustain his current income indefinitely" If he sustains it for 2 weeks he's pretty much set for life.

Right now he has earned $3.6Million...

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

#53

Post by jokermatt999 »

clistctrl wrote: post #14

I get the impression that this game was built because he wanted to build something he himself would enjoy, not something he could become rich off. Maybe there's something to that philosophy ;)

I agree, and I think that's a lot of it. Minecraft isn't a very typical game, nor a game that you would ever see out of a blockbuster publisher. It seems like its success is because of this, not despite it. Rather than be a formulaic FPS, RTS, RPG, etc, it's something (fairly) new that leaves it up to the player to have fun with. I've heard the comparison to Lego frequently, and I think it's an apt one. Most videogames today play more like movies, but sometimes it's nice to have a game that you can play with how you like.

(This post started out about being about being willing to ignore conventions, but drifted somewhat into the nature of gameplay, sorry.)

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

#54

Post by raganwald »

nihilocrat wrote: post #39
aresant wrote: post #6

The most refreshing part of this story is that it's not about the Apple / Google / etc App stores. Shows that exceptional indie products can get huge traction on a traditional platform, sort of like Braid on XBOX / PC / etc. That said, also excites me for the future when MSFT's & Apple's standard OS come with a servicable app store baked in.

On a similar note, Minecraft is written in... get this ... Java Which seems to be the dorkiest and most uncool language on the planet if you were to ask HN.

A plumber climbs out of a manhole, and his arms are covered with - guess what? - excrement! A beautiful little girl in a beautiful white dress happens to pass by. The plumber seizes the opportunity and quickly, but firmly sweeps his hands over the girl’s white dress.

Little girl (appalled): AAAH!!

Plumber (outraged): Oh yeah? I bet you love to take a shit though.

http://www.yosefk.com/blog/the-cardinal-programming-jokes.ht...

So yeah, Java is dorky and uncool, but I bet we love to play Minecraft (I don't know, since I haven't played a video game in at least a decade).

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

#55

Post by InclinedPlane »

twymer wrote: post #8

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

a: he doesn't make $350k every day

b: valve pays well north of $50k/year

c: valve likely has profit sharing of some variety, which could be quite substantial

d: likely valve wouldn't just hire him but would purchase his company, giving him a several million dollar lump sum payment

Factor that in with the temptation to use valve's resources in developing your game, it's not such a bad deal. Nevertheless, if one is making even $10k a day and feels they can continue to support and develop their work independently then any offer of full-time employment is going to be an uphill battle.

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

#56

Post by houseabsolute »

clistctrl wrote: post #14

I get the impression that this game was built because he wanted to build something he himself would enjoy, not something he could become rich off. Maybe there's something to that philosophy ;)

Maybe. On the other hand, people do things every day for the love of it that get little traction in the market place. It seems more likely this confluence is just a coincidence.

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

#57

Post by weaksauce »

mdwrigh2 wrote: post #37
Groxx wrote: post #35

> turns down job offers from Valve and Bungie Thank God . Not that they haven't been successful, but I really want this to stay entirely in Notch's control, as that's precisely why it's succeeding.

This may be a good thing ultimately, but if there was a gaming company I'd consider working for, it'd likely be Valve. They seem very community focused, and I imagine they'd give this guy the freedom to run the game how he likes, considering its his 'baby'. Plus, they'd give him some risk-free (to him) resources to build a second game if he needed it, and they probably have way more experience handling multiplayer si…

Just look at the game that the team they purchased made: portal. The indie game was very ugly. The final game was polished, funny, and fun. If he were to bring his game to valve they could probably improve it a lot.

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

#58

Post by bond »

vaksel wrote: post #45
zeteo wrote: post #15

The sales graphs are public: http://m00d.net/minecraft/sales/ The best day (9/23) had 25663 sales, or about $255k. This came on top of the server being down (0 sales) for 3 previous days. The recent average is around 10k sales ($100k / day). EDIT: As pointed out by bananaandapple below, the price is in euro not USD, which brings the best day to $347k. The recent average works out to about $136k / day.

according to that he sold 230,441 copies which comes out to €2,292,887.95 euros. 1 euro = $1.36 USD so that comes out to $3,118,327.612 After all the fees and costs, that's 3 mil before taxes,

He has sold 272,233 copies, making about $3.6million

http://minecraft.net/stats.jsp

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

#59

Post by 9ec4c12949a4f3 »

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…

He'll be fine if he gets a financial planner and keeps running a business. He should start a business or foundation. Healthcare concerns are done away with because all your company really gives you with it's health care is the fact they've purchased into a group-policy with some company... you could do the same with your extended group of friends if you can organize the thing.

350k/day = 7 years of 50k/year. If he pulls 10 days of 250k/day he's made 50 years of income, or $2.5 million. |I'm really worried for the guy.|

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

#60

Post by jokermatt999 »

aresant wrote: post #7
wushupork wrote: post #2

Why would you work for a software company if you are making that much?

Think Hollywood director type job offer. Use somebody else's money to build your dream product with a huge incredible staff. Get gauranteed, huge up front salary to do so. Take away a sizeable piece of the action on the success.

There's also the advantage of them taking care of the business side. Reading some of his recent updates seems to indicate that the past few weeks have been spent dealing with administrative duties like lawyers, servers, and hiring. Were he to take them up on their offer, that could all be taken care of for him, if we wanted (I'm guessing).

I'm happy that he's decided to stay independent, but I think Valve could actually handle a hire such as him correctly. They've got a great reputation with most of the gaming community for doing things right, and I'd be surprised if they screwed something like that up.

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