Minecraft Now Has One Million Paying Players! But When's the Mainstream and Tech Press Going to Notice Notch?

Minecraft, the beloved indie sandbox game that's inspired a massive ecosystem of user-generated content, now has over 1 million paying players, as you can see from the dynamic stats page here. This achievement cannot be overstated: each paid registration went for about $15-18 US dollars, with revenue going to Swedish developer Markus "Notch" Persson and his extremely small team. This despite a lack of high-end graphics, advertising campaign, or even a finished game (it's still in Beta.) But Minecraft has managed to capture a market that so far has been unfulfilled:  the desire for a dynamically simulated world that a player can meaningfully explore and change. (As I noted early on, Minecraft is a realized version of what Philip Rosedale originally wanted Second Life to be, before the users came in.)

There is one small irksomeness to this milestone: At this writing (and unless Google missed it), Minecraft has received little or no coverage from the mainstream or tech press. Not from Seth Schiesel of the New York Times, nor Time, Newsweek, or Entertainment Weekly, who often cover gaming, not even from TechCrunch, GigaOM, or VentureBeat, who regularly cover the business of gaming. We are looking at an amazing success story, an indie developer with an innovative, transparent revenue model (Minecraft is free to play, but paid registrations get more content and features) which is succeeding where so many gaming start-ups have failed. That Notch has not gotten the coverage he deserves is a rebuke to the insularity of the tech and mainstream press, who really need to start playing catch-up soon.

Meanwhile, at least, here's New World Notes coverage of Minecraft over the last few months, beginning with an interview with Persson, and examples of great user-generated content his game has inspired:

• Interview With Markus "Notch" Persson on the Indie Sandbox Building Blockbuster
• Minecraft Passes World of Worldcraft on Google Trends!
• Minecraft Metaverse? Creator of Hit Sandbox Game Promises Interconnected Network of Minecraft Multiplayer Servers
• Minecraft Machinima: Beautiful and Innovative New Video from Maker of the 8 Mile Minecart Viral Hit
• Man Makes 8 Mile Minecart Rail in Minecraft & Beautiful Timelapse Machinima to Show It Off

Much more here.

Comments

[Eggy Lippmann]

I'm afraid I must point out a small incorrection: the game only cost 10 euros for the majority of users (Alpha). It has been only recently that the price increased to 14.95
It's still a shitload of money. If I were Notch I would simply stuff it in the bank and live off the interest.

[Nyoko Salome]

;0 anyone wanna buy a chicken? :)

[Arcadia Codesmith]

Well, Angry Birds has about seven times as many paying players.

I'm not saying that to knock Minecraft (thanks ever so much for getting me addicted, Hamlet), but as a potential explanation of why it's in the mainstream blind spot.

To be honest, under the radar may be the best position for Minecraft at the moment, at least until it's officially out of Beta. The hype cycle is a fickle thing.

[Ananda]

If I could invent a product that got a million paying customers, and do it without having to endure a major media hypestorm, I would consider myself a very fortunate person indeed.

[Hamlet Au]

Arcadia, that's a good point about Angry Birds, which definitely has more players. At the same time, according to the NYT, the game's only made $8 million so far:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/12/technology/12birds.html

By contrast, Notch has grossed something like $15-20 million in under a year. Angry Birds is a great game, they do deserve a lot of coverage, but it's really weird Minecraft so far has gotten little to none in the mainstream press.

[CronoCloud Creeggan]

It's easy to see why Angry Birds gets buzz and Minecraft doesn't, take a look at the platforms Angry Birds is on:

iOS, Maemo (Nokia N900), Palm webOS, Android, Symbian^3, PSP/PlayStation 3, Windows, Mac OS X

Notice the first one is iOS, considering how the Apple Reality Distortion Field adds hype to things what else would you expect.

Angry Birds is also an easily understandable Puzzle game, Minecraft is not.

The Minecraft website tells users to go to outside forums or IRC for info, it is very non-nerd unfriendly and I had to go to Wikipedia to find out what platforms it runs on. The Free version of Minecraft is not updated. It's like Dwarf Fortress or Nethack...something for the most hardcore of nerds.

[Rob Dawg]

Blizzard is another company that may have had a little more advertising but not too much more. A few Superbowls ago they only had close to 4 commercials which is very little compared to their popularity. But not to long ago I remember a time where I would maybe overhear Warcraft and was aware of it but only on a subconscious level.Now most people know about it but really their advertising is very minimal for 11-12 million players.

[Anonymous]

I play Minecraft at least every other day. I had never heard of Angry Birds until three days ago.