A few hours ago, a spiritual sequel to the best-selling game ever, Minecraft, was teased by creator Markus ‘Notch’ Persson. As you might recall, Persson left Mojang after selling the studio he created to Microsoft for $2.5 billion in September 2014. The following year, he founded another game development studio called Rubberbrain, which, however, never released a game.
Persson relaunched it in 2024 under the new name Bitshift Entertainment. On January 1, the game designer talked openly about Bitshift’s current project (a traditional roguelike mixed with a tile-based first-person dungeon crawler) but also polled his fans to see if they’d rather him make a Minecraft spiritual successor. Which they did (78% voted for this option). Two days later, Persson shared the mindset behind this announcement:
I basically announced Minecraft 2. I thought that maybe people ACTUALLY do want me to make another game that’s super similar to the first one, and I’m loving working on games again.
I don’t super duper care exactly which game I make first (or even if I make more), but I do know I’m making one, so I figured I’d absolutely be willing to give it an honest shot in the form of a spiritual successor to Minecraft and put up a poll about it.
My intentions are to be clear and honest about it, saying that spiritual successors are usually kind of… you know… washed up. Tragic. The things I’m fearing my next game is going to be anyway and try to push myself to avoid. So why not do the thing that people DO want and are willing to give me, somehow, even MORE cash for. I intend for the money to be spent for good, but my god have I learned I fail a lot. Winning is failing until you make yourself succeed.
Oh, and I also very much value being a man of my word, so I also intend to do this in a way that in no way tried to sneakily infringe on the incredible work the Mojang team is doing and that Microsoft is successfully doing the Microsoft shittification about. And I respect them for doing that. It’s their job. And they, from what I understand, let the studio do things their way, which seems very fair to me.
When a fellow X user asked him if he’d really make Minecraft 2, he replied:
No, I’d make a similar game based on what I think the audience that says they want that game might enjoy. Probably do early access to make sure we’re on track. But I mean I still sort of think I’m just a clown getting lucky in a sea of actual talents, so I have no idea if it actually will be good. But I’ll try.
Based on his track record, it would be no exaggeration to call him a one-trick pony, as Minecraft is his only real claim to fame in the game industry. Even if he does end up releasing such a game, it would inevitably be compared to his previous creation, which Mojang continuously updates for the legions of fans who still play it regularly.
The last content patch, The Garden Awakens, dropped in early December and added a new biome and a new mob. There are also plenty of spin-off games for those looking for different experiences, such as Minecraft Dungeons and Minecraft Legends. And A Minecraft Movie airs in theaters on April 4, 2025.
