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WSJ: Mojang Could Be Worth $1 Billion

online.wsj.com

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Re: WSJ: Mojang Could Be Worth $1 Billion

#11

Post by pavel_lishin »

jiggy2011 wrote: post #4

Surely this depends on if they can continue to produce smash hits like minecraft. While I love the idea of 0x10c I don't know if it will replicate the success. It's something I find it hard to explain to people who don't understand things like programming and emulators. It could just be too hard to have the sort of mass appeal that minecraft did.

> It's something I find it hard to explain to people who don't understand things like programming and emulators.

"It's a space game where you have to build your own computer. Unless you don't want to, in which case you can download one of, like, a million that people have already worked on for months and years."

Re: WSJ: Mojang Could Be Worth $1 Billion

#12

Post by wsc981 »

jiggy2011 wrote: post #4

Surely this depends on if they can continue to produce smash hits like minecraft. While I love the idea of 0x10c I don't know if it will replicate the success. It's something I find it hard to explain to people who don't understand things like programming and emulators. It could just be too hard to have the sort of mass appeal that minecraft did.

It will be very hard, perhaps impossible, for Mojang (or any other company) to replicate the success of Minecraft. But I don't think 0x10c needs to be as successful as Minecraft is. As long as they can make at least a little profit on 0x10c all will be fine. From what I've seen and understand about the game, I think 0x10c will certainly be profitable.

The nice thing about 0x10c will be that in a way it's another sandbox game as well, but this time the sandbox is the on-ship computer instead of the world. But I also think the game will offer plenty for people who are not into programming. Markus streamed the FPS capabilities of the game recently: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2k8QBcaaUM

Re: WSJ: Mojang Could Be Worth $1 Billion

#13

Post by nightpool »

jiggy2011 wrote: post #9
dwerthen wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely the same thing could have been said about Minecraft, having little to no mass appeal, before it became a huge hit, no?

I think there was probably more evidence in favour of minecraft being a success. For example widespread popularity of lego and other various sandbox games. Minecraft is also relatively simple to understand, pick up and place blocks. I assume that 0x10c will have a much steeper learning curve. Though it was certainly a long shot that minecraft would be as popular as it is today, the question is whether lightning can s…

The cool thing is none of this was made for the profit or sales numbers. Notch makes games because he loves making games. In fact, it kinda seems like he's intentionally trying for a more obscure game, something to be niche with a strong community rather then wildly popular.

Re: WSJ: Mojang Could Be Worth $1 Billion

#14

Post by bfwi »

jiggy2011 wrote: post #4

Surely this depends on if they can continue to produce smash hits like minecraft. While I love the idea of 0x10c I don't know if it will replicate the success. It's something I find it hard to explain to people who don't understand things like programming and emulators. It could just be too hard to have the sort of mass appeal that minecraft did.

If they are to have chance of replicating that success, I would think they have to aggressively brand Mojang as the "creator of Minecraft". Maybe then it would be possible. I know of Minecraft, but I didn't remember that Mojang was the company behind it, before I was reminded by this post.

Re: WSJ: Mojang Could Be Worth $1 Billion

#15

Post by tterrace »

I just finished talking with a colleague whose six year old loves minecraft and I remember talking with a twelve year old who was similarly obsessed - to the point of knowing the patch numbers and all the details. The community which grew organically around this game is incredible, and that kind of peer-to-peer promotion is priceless.

Re: WSJ: Mojang Could Be Worth $1 Billion

#16

Post by ben0x539 »

dwerthen wrote: post #7
jiggy2011 wrote: post #4

Surely this depends on if they can continue to produce smash hits like minecraft. While I love the idea of 0x10c I don't know if it will replicate the success. It's something I find it hard to explain to people who don't understand things like programming and emulators. It could just be too hard to have the sort of mass appeal that minecraft did.

Surely the same thing could have been said about Minecraft, having little to no mass appeal, before it became a huge hit, no?

Lightning never strikes the same place twice, etc

Re: WSJ: Mojang Could Be Worth $1 Billion

#17

Post by gradys »

slmt wrote: post #3

It just goes to show that social proof is extremely powerful. 1. Create a really crap game that's not really a game. 2. Create a site with a bullshit stats page showing how many geeks are supposedly buying it and how fast. 3. Spam about it on geeky sites. 4. Watch all the geeks throw money at you as they try to prove that they are geeky enough by buying a sandbox game that they "totally get." Mojang, I salute you.

I think this is an overly cynical view. Minecraft is actually fun, particularly with friends. The multiplayer experience is in a niche essentially on its own. This great multiplayer experience encourages people to get enlist their friends to buy the game and play with them.

While I think a $1 billion valuation is probably presumes far too much about the repeatability of Minecraft-like success, I think it's obvious that Mojang's success with Minecraft is attributable to more than just effective marketing. I also don't think it's unreasonable to think that Mojang's highly innovative game design will bring them more success in the future.

Re: WSJ: Mojang Could Be Worth $1 Billion

#18

Post by webwanderings »

slmt wrote: post #3

It just goes to show that social proof is extremely powerful. 1. Create a really crap game that's not really a game. 2. Create a site with a bullshit stats page showing how many geeks are supposedly buying it and how fast. 3. Spam about it on geeky sites. 4. Watch all the geeks throw money at you as they try to prove that they are geeky enough by buying a sandbox game that they "totally get." Mojang, I salute you.

You have to understand how cartoon characters work through the TV for the children, in order to understand the popularity of Minecraft (which didn't become popular through TV).

When kids grow up, they watch TV and they take the liking of characters like Barney, Thomas the Tank Engine, Spongebob etc and the companies behind those characters become ultimately huge!. The same is the case with Minecraft.

If Minecraft is crap than TV is crap and all these characters who are on it. Tell that to the growing kids on their face, just don't gossip about the degrading culture, the morality of capitalism etc.

Re: WSJ: Mojang Could Be Worth $1 Billion

#19

Post by hagios »

slmt wrote: post #3

It just goes to show that social proof is extremely powerful. 1. Create a really crap game that's not really a game. 2. Create a site with a bullshit stats page showing how many geeks are supposedly buying it and how fast. 3. Spam about it on geeky sites. 4. Watch all the geeks throw money at you as they try to prove that they are geeky enough by buying a sandbox game that they "totally get." Mojang, I salute you.

I don't think it's too hard to "get" Minecraft. The way it was originally explained to me (I purchased it in the beta) was "it's Lego." I played for a few weeks and it was good fun.

What pulled me back into Minecraft was logic circuits. I found Minecraft to be an incredible teaching tool to help impart the absolute basics of circuit design to others. From the first step of turning on a bulb (or, in Minecraft terms, opening a door) with a circuit, to building memory and discovering new ways of state persistence, all the way to building entire machines for the express purpose of computation, Minecraft manages to turn the learning process into enough of a game to leave people associating "logic" with "fun."

I think it's probably only half a decade before we start seeing people in universities who were inspired to be electrical engineers by Minecraft.

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