Minecraft creator Markus Persson has said he “basically announced Minecraft 2” after polling his social media followers on what game they’d like him to make next.
Two options were listed in the poll: a roguelike mixed with a tile-based first-person dungeon crawler, and a a spiritual successor to Minecraft, which in the poll was called “Minecraft 2.” At the time of this article’s publication, 81% had picked Minecraft 2 after 282,968 votes.
Honest and legitimate request for feedback for once:
The new game I’m passionately working on is currently set to be a traditional roguelike (i.e. ADOM, nethack, etc) mixed with a tile based first person dungeon crawler (ie Legend of Grimrock (esp 2), Eye of the Beholder)
But…
— notch (@notch) January 1, 2025
In a subsequent tweet, Notch admitted he “basically announced Minecraft 2,” and insisted he was “100% serious” about the poll.
“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,” he continued.
“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 the [sic] 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 [sic] 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.”
Based on that, then, Notch is indeed setting out to work on a spiritual successor to Minecraft a decade after selling Mojang to Microsoft for $2.5 billion. Mojang continues to work on the eternally popular Minecraft, of course, putting out multiple updates each year across all the platforms the sandbox game is available on. Minecraft is officially the best-selling video game of all time, with an incredible 300 million copies sold. Microsoft has made no indication that it intends to release a Minecraft 2, which comes as no surprise given how popular Minecraft remains. Perhaps that leaves the door open for Notch to fill a gap from the original creator.
As Notch noted himself, it remains to be seen whether this ‘Minecraft 2’ ever sees the light of day. Since selling to Microsoft, the Swedish developer has started and stopped a number of games, including space sandbox game 0x10c (pronounced “Ten to the C”). However, in another tweet, Notch said the odds of him finishing projects now are higher than they were because he has employees he feels responsible for.
In later tweets, Notch answered questions from followers on social media about this Minecraft 2, and insisted he doesn’t want to use anything “too similar to the stuff I sold,” in this new game. He also said his Minecraft 2 wouldn’t be a story game, suggesting a new sandbox of some kind. “I’d make a similar game [to Minecraft] based on what I think the audience that says they want that game might enjoy,” he explained. “Probably do early access to make sure we’re on track.”
I mean best I’ve got at the moment is Adventureland, so yeah no idea
— notch (@notch) January 3, 2025
Notch even went on to say that if Minecraft ever wanted him to make an official Minecraft 2 and both parties agreed on terms, “I’d absolutely be willing to to that.”
“I’d even give them a much bigger share than I’d feel obliged to just to make it clear I’m not doing it with ill intent,” he continued, before adding: “But I’ll be a bitch to work with.”
It seems unlikely that Microsoft would work with Notch, given it removed his name from the opening credits of Minecraft following various controversial statements he made in the years following the sale of Mojang.
Photo by Yui Mok/PA Images via Getty Images,
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
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