With over 300 million copies sold since 2011, Minecraft is one of the best-selling video games of all time. And with nearly 170 million monthly active users as of 2024, it remains one of the most popular and played games.
Now, more than a decade later, fans are finally getting a sequel — or rather a spiritual successor.
Original Minecraft creator Marcus "Notch" Persson has "basically announced" Minecraft 2, but there are a few problems. First, let's get to the initial announcement.
At the start of the New Year, Notch took to social media to reveal that he's "passionately working" on a game that's "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)." He made the announcement alongside a poll that asked fans to vote on which one would make them happier" "Uncursing Potions" or "Minecraft 2."
Unsurprisingly, more than 78% of the 239,000-plus votes were for Minecraft 2.
Just a few days later, Notch posted again that he was "100% serious" about the poll, and that he had "basically announced Minecraft 2." He also offered a bit of insight into his thoughts on the development process, why he posted the poll, and why he's hesitant to create a spiritual successor to one of the most iconic and beloved games on Earth.
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 spent for good, but my god have I learned I fail a lot. Winning is failing until you make yourself succeed.
And now for the caveat. Notch can't actually make a "Minecraft 2." He sold the rights to Minecraft back in 2014 when his studio, Mojang, was acquired by Microsoft. So any spiritual successor he makes won't be an "official sequel" to the hit game, nor will it share the same name.
Of course, most fans already associate Notch with Minecraft, so it's probably not a big deal that it won't have Minecraft in its name. If he says the game is a spiritual successor to it, most will follow right along.
It's unclear how Microsoft will respond to Notch's announcement; however, he did note that he plans to develop this sequel in a way that does not infringe on the work being done at Mojang while simultaneously taking a dig at Microsoft's monetization practices.
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 shi*tification 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.
At this point, it's far too early to even predict when Notch's Minecraft sequel could see the light of day. He released a public beta of the original game in 2009, two years before it was officially launched. It's possible his new game will follow a similar release structure, in that it will release as a beta or in early access before a more formal launch. This would give players a chance to go hands-on with the game and offer any feedback while giving Notch the chance to fix any bugs and work out any kinks.
In the meantime, Minecraft is readily available on just about any platform you can think of. In addition to the sandbox game, there have been numerous spin-offs, including Minecraft: Story Mode, Minecraft Dungeons, and Minecraft Legends. There's even a live-action movie adaptation, A Minecraft Movie, set for theatrical release this April. It stars Jack Black, Jason Momoa, Emma Myers, Danielle Brooks, and Jennifer Coolidge.