As a redditer commented; I have never played minecraft for fear of never being able to put it down. It's fantastic it's been such a success, I think games like this will always appeal to a certain niche but no one count have predicted it would have been so successful to such a large audience.<p>With that said, I just contend myself with watching the odd youtube video. I dare not get closer.
He's saying that revenue is in the region $20-30 Million.[1]<p>That's... crazy. Awesome, but crazy. I knew Minecraft was a success story but not to that extent!<p><a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/gjrf4/iama_indie_game_developer_who_made_a_commercially/c1o1ox6" rel="nofollow">http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/gjrf4/iama_indie_game_...</a>
A great quote in response to a question about Minecraft's continuous release schedule: "Developing in the dark is scary and probably wrong."<p><a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/gjrf4/iama_indie_game_developer_who_made_a_commercially/c1o1or0?context=1" rel="nofollow">http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/gjrf4/iama_indie_game_...</a>
You can watch a 20 minute mini-documentary about Notch and the Mojang company here: <a href="http://www.penny-arcade.com/patv/minecraft/101/" rel="nofollow">http://www.penny-arcade.com/patv/minecraft/101/</a><p>(Part of a kickstart project to do a much more involved documentary <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2pp/minecraft-the-story-of-mojang" rel="nofollow">http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2pp/minecraft-the-story-...</a> )
An interesting question, and one that is more relevant to this community, would be to ask about being approached by investors.<p>How soon it happen, how often, what they said or offered, etc.<p>There must have been a stampede of VC's and angel investors after the stories of his success in beta were published.
As an early player of minecraft I have always had a nagging question to ask: why did minecraft succeed while second life "failed"? In a sense they offer similar creative expression but with different gameplay philosophies.