Minecraft creator attacks Microsoft's Windows 8 plan

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-19760977

by bootload • 14 years ago

44 59 14 years ago

Toshio3• 14 years ago

BBC is using their platform to issue counter-attacks to legitimate complaints by independent developers. Nothing new here people, move along.

kleiba• 14 years ago

From the article:

Mr Persson revealed his views in two tweets.

From twitter:

Got an email from microsoft, wanting to help "certify" minecraft for win 8. I told them to stop trying to ruin the pc as an open platform.

I'd rather have minecraft not run on win 8 at all than to play along. Maybe we can convince a few people not to switch to win 8 that way..

ZoFreX• 14 years ago

But certification isn't new, and is still optional... I don't understand why developers are up in arms over it?

Also, is it intrinsically bad? It's proving that the software you installed is from a particular publisher and hasn't been tampered with, isn't that a good thing?

k-mcgrady3• 14 years ago

I think it's a minority of developers that are up in arms against in. As a user and developer I've welcomed it on the Mac. Developers can easily certify their apps and it gives customers confidence. If you choose not to certify your app you don't lose out, your software will still run. It will be pretty much the same on Windows (although I find their policies a bit more restrictive). If you don't want to certify, it doesn't prevent your software from working.

daliusd• 14 years ago

Could you name second bigest Android app store?

I think there are at least two problems:

1) average user will not download anything what's not in win8 app store; a) There are extra burden to upload app to store and pass QA process (I think the only exception here is Google). Haven't you heard horror stories about clueless QA people?

2) there are extra warnings for apps that are not from win8 app store (like in Mac OS X). E.g. I find it annoying because I use relatively lot of tools that are not from app store. Again average user might prefer safe way over risky one and it is problem for indie (game) developers.

eckyptang4• 14 years ago

I still think he's being a sensationalist. Even the BBC are less biased here. There is no requirement to get it certified and you can just use minecraft how it is now without having to go near an app store.

This is all hot air.

Toshio3• 14 years ago

The BBC has always been biased toward microsoft.

eckyptang4• 14 years ago

It definitely hasn't. They've been terribly critical over the years.

I think the issue is that they are not as biased against them as the rest of the industry who know how to get clicks for Microsoft bashing.

mtgx2• 14 years ago

The thing is Windows 8 is radically changing a lot of stuff and that won't sit well with most businesses in the PC world. Maybe Windows 8 won't give Valve or Notch a death blow by removing the "desktop mode", but I think it's pretty obvious that Microsoft wants the future of Windows to be "Metro-only", and these guys can see that.

So it's not Windows 8 per se that they are mad about. It's the whole direction Windows is taking. If they and others can get Windows 8 to fail, and get Microsoft to revert back to the old style Windows, then they win. If not, and Windows 8 is successful, they lose, because you can bet Windows 9 will be even more locked into Metro and with fewer options or less access for the desktop mode.

mariusmg• 14 years ago

No, they don't want "Metro-only" . This is bullshit. Stop spreading it.

pestaa• 14 years ago

That's a very weak counterargument. Why would Microsoft prefer to carry on developing both interfaces when the majority of users will clearly prefer Metro?

nsmartt• 14 years ago

I really think you should read this: http://paulgraham.com/disagree.html

augustl• 14 years ago

The mix of plain desktop and touch environment is what draws me to Win8. I didn't get a Asus Transformer, as the only emacs I could get there was in a terminal, and in a sandbox. With a Win8 tablet, I get tablet-y stuff, and a full desktop env with a full unsandboxed emacs. Exactly what I want.

So I hope they keep this best-of-both-worlds for the forseeable future.

89a• 14 years ago

Only if you get the x86 version. Arm version only runs Explorer, IE and Office in desktop mode

freehunter7• 14 years ago

I'm not sure Microsoft is explicitly wanting this change. It's a reaction to the shifting computing environment; the iPad showed that the PC isn't the only platform that people want to use, and that some people only want to use tablet computers. I feel Microsoft would have been more than happy to keep developing Windows the way they always have, but they've seen the writing on the wall. Windows isn't what the users want.

Microsoft didn't start the locked down tablet market. They're just the newest player. If you want to assign blame, blame the users.

rbanffy7• 14 years ago

Microsoft is the only company demanding the ARM devices other companies make to be locked down. What Apple does to its hardware is their problem, but it's not Microsoft's business to demand hardware manufacturers to deliberately kill competition on software (which would, ultimately, benefit both manufacturers and end-users).

citricsquid3• 14 years ago

Not related to the point at hand, but why don't people mention the millions of copies sold on other platforms?

    More than 7.5 million copies of the title have been sold

Minecraft has sold 7.5 Million (+) of the PC version, it has also sold millions of copies of the iOS version, the Android version and the Xbox version which just recently broke 5 (edit: sorry, 4) million sales. Seems strange not to say something like:

    More than 14 million copies of the game have been sold across all platforms, {relevant figure for relevant platform here}.

Although maybe with the article being about the PC version it's assumed readers will understand the figures are for the PC version alone.

ido• 14 years ago

It's really surprising (to me) that 10k people per day are still buying pc minecraft. I'd think pretty much everyone that was interested in a game like that would have gotten it by now? How can there still be 10k new people per day (over what, 3 years now?) that have just found out about minecraft?

carlisle_• 14 years ago

The game format is pretty conducive to "casual" gaming. I'm sure with all the new features getting added it's more and more attractive to these gamers.

bayes• 14 years ago

Currently (I'm in London UK) Minecraft has a huge folllowing among boys aged (roughly) 8-14. As long as that demographic remains obsessed there'll be a constant new market.

morsch3• 14 years ago

The game is still getting new features through official development and through addons. People who weren't interested in the pure survival or "3d drawing" modes might be more interested in the improvements in interactive storytelling, both creating them and running through maps by others.

The game has also gained a significant community on YouTube (and probably elsewhere), which ends up promoting the game. I watch Minecraft videos occasionally -- some of the interactive storytelling is quite good --, despite the fact that I've never actually played the game. And it's just an impulse buy away if I ever see a video which makes me thing I need to play this myself.

gavanwoolery• 14 years ago

I have found that kids are particularly attracted to it, and a new generation of kids matures every year - most of them have access to funds, so it is often purchased on special occasions (i.e. birthdays). It is kind of the new Legos for kids. They had drawing from kids up on the wall in my local supermarket - roughly 10 of the 50 drawings had Minecraft characters in them.

InclinedPlane• 14 years ago

In the agreements for some of those distribution channels there are stipulations against releasing specific sales data.

citricsquid3• 14 years ago

Specific? Maybe, but Mojang are open about the general sales figures. They frequently talk about them and we republish them, example of the Minecraft studio announcing 4 Million sales: http://twitter.com/4JStudios/status/252480126128885761

k-mcgrady3• 14 years ago

>> ""Microsoft owns the Xbox. Apple owns the iOS. The charm of the PC is that nobody owns it... "

Yes, but Microsoft owns Windows. The certification change doesn't affect the PC it affects Windows users. His final comment is a lot more balanced:

>> "Microsoft is free to do whatever they want with their OS. I won't support all of what they do, however"

His comment about Microsoft trying to ruin the PC as an open platform is nonsense. Obviously Windows runs on the majority of PC's but no matter what Microsoft does they can't ruin the PC as an open platform. Linux is available. Build Minecraft for Linux and actively promote Linux. Refuse to build the game for any closed platform and make it clear people can only use your game on open platforms.

The whole thing seems to be misuse of 'PC' and 'Windows'.

willvarfar• 14 years ago

You haven't been following the trusted computing for windows 8 row then?

you won't be able to run linux on these machines.

bootload• 14 years ago

"... Build Minecraft for Linux and actively promote Linux. ..."

Is this a tech problem? Maybe the MS strategy is to move gaming to the XBox where it has greater control, where greater control >> revenue.

Minecraft is written in Java ~ http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Development_Resources there are also various ports with other code bases ~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minecraft#Ports so it's available on Linux but I would guess Microsoft is the biggest source of revenue. So you're right it won't ruin the PC, just the coffers of the parent company.

ps2000• 14 years ago

Yeah, the reality is that most game vendors ruined open desktop platforms. There was a time when Windows and PCs were still big and mobile gadgets were only used by business people. During that time the biggest hurdle for many people that wanted to leave Windows was that the cool games just worked on Windows.

I think nobody will feel sorry for the game industry loosing their last desktop platform. After all you need a lot of cash to make games experience on the desktop comparable to game experience on a top-notch game console.

SquareWheel2• 14 years ago

This is the most overdone news story in recent months. It was two tweets, and yet entire articles are being written analyzing a small quip.

Now how many times do we have to go over the argument? x86, for the moment, is just as open as Windows 7. ARM is not, it's very locked down. Windows 8 as a whole consists of both versions, in that respect it's considered less open. The fear is that we're going to see ARM become the major OS (for various reasons, mostly tablets/phones/mobiles becoming more popular) and at that point there won't be an open Windows. That's the concern. Yes, it's a slippery slope argument, but it looks to be the direction we're headed in.

And please, stop with the "then why did he release on iOS/Xbox" argument ad nauseam, it's an ecosystem which was locked down from the beginning, nothing is being "lost".

This story has really embittered me, so I apologize if this is brash. But all the personal attacks I see on various websites against Notch are incredibly disheartening.

rbanffy7• 14 years ago

My worry is that openness may die with this move, not to ARM per se, but to locked down ARM devices. Ubuntu and Android run just fine on the hardware Microsoft demands their OEMs to cripple (and yes, none of my Android devices is locked down). Microsoft is pushing towards a world they can enjoy without having to compete as much as they do now - they don't want to make software people love: they'd rather live with people having no option.

cooldeal3• 14 years ago

The problem is that what Notch is saying is terribly unclear. Is he talking about the desktop game or about Windows RT? The two tweets are pretty ambiguous, and so it may seem to some that Notch is trying to cash in on the publicity with this while happily contributing to the death of the PC by selling the iPad version.

Here's an excellent series of articles about the confusion that Notch needs to clear up.

http://www.withinwindows.com/2012/09/28/notch-doesnt-hate-wi...

Minecraft creator attacks Microsoft's Windows 8 plan

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