What Would Minecraft 2 Look Like Under Microsoft?

An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft spent billions purchasing Mojang, the studio behind the game Minecraft, and while it's unlikely to start work on a sequel anytime soon, rather than continue development of the game, it's worth considering what a Minecraft 2 will look like. After all, as a public company with revenues to justify, it doesn't seem beyond unreasonable a few years down the line, especially since a Minecraft-like game was one of the stand-out tech demos shown for the software giant's HoloLens augmented reality headset. As the author points out, Microsoft will have to tread carefully, tackling issues like whether greater graphical fidelity is actually what players will want ever — and whether to continue to support Minecraft on PlayStation."

Comments

I'd expect lots of cross-over branding crap

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

I'd expect lots of cross-over branding crap. Look what happened to Legos: you can barely avoid the Star Wars, LOTH, Disney Princess and Marvel (and yes, even Minecraft) branded tie-ins over there.

Re:I'd expect lots of cross-over branding crap

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd expect lots of cross-over branding crap. Look what happened to Legos: you can barely avoid the Star Wars, LOTH, Disney Princess and Marvel (and yes, even Minecraft) branded tie-ins over there.

All of which brought LEGO back from the brink. Without the "branded crap" LEGO would be all but dead. Today we see them as the largest toy company on the planet. Why? Because kids love building stuff they're familiar with. LEGO's own kits are pretty dull, throw in a spaceship from a film and the collectors will be out in droves buying them all up to fleece unsuspecting parents when it comes to their kids' birthdays/crimbo gifts.

Re:I'd expect lots of cross-over branding crap

[chuckymonkey]

I fail to see the problem here. My kids have dozens of sets of those branded Lego kits and you'd be hard pressed to find a single one of them intact. The tie-ins make the kids interested in the sets themselves which is fine because they immediately tear them apart and make new things with them which is a good thing. So if marketing sells a toy to that interests a kid which can then set that kid's imagination free then I fail to see a problem with it.

Re:I'd expect lots of cross-over branding crap

[Sarten-X]

Why is this modded flamebait? Is it because there's no "pretty-accurate" mod?

I recall an article a while back about the huge corporate shift within LEGO when they started working with tie-ins. Yes, kids were quite content with building... but they're even happier to be building with their favorite pop-culture characters and settings. The bottom line was the bottom line. Ultimately, LEGO faced a decision whether they would keep their mediocre sales figures and their original characters, or whether they'd cash in their fanatic followers as targets for the movie marketing drones.

It turns out the latter choice wasn't nearly as bad as was feared. LEGO is iconic enough that they can hold their own in negotiations with brands. There are (almost) no remastered LEGO sets, no special promos, and no enforced storylines. Tie-in LEGO sets are still LEGOs, but with some familiar characters. Of course, LEGO still has their original material, which has seen a significant increase in sales because the tie-ins have served as a means to attract new customers. Perhaps surprisingly, LEGO has maintained its fanatic customer base, and yes, that often leads to supply shortages and expensive collector-oriented sets.

I'm afraid I can't find that article now, but here's an informative image.

We all know what we expect is not what we want

[FellowConspirator]

Here's a short list of what certainly awaits in a Microsoft Minecraft 2:

- Registration requires a multi-part authentication process that involves at least 3 e-mails and the creation of one Microsoft outlook.com mailbox -- for each member of your family that wants to play
- The game will still cost $19, but multiplayer or network storage will require an Xbox Live account and gold subscription.
- The game will be retooled to appeal to an older audience, so expect ultraviolence and maybe some skin (which will usher in an era of very crude "box" jokes).
- Minecraft mods will be easy to write in C#, but no longer be supported in Java; they will implemented as SOAP services instead of plug-ins; and to use them you will need to register as a developer go through a multi-stage certificate generation and validation process to sign your mod which will only be available through the Microsoft store
- The Microsoft store will be integral to the game and appear as a building in the shape of the Windows logo; they'll sell diamond pickaxes that otherwise will be impossible to get
- There will be Windows-phone exclusive features, including a Smite button that allows people to kick other people off a server.

Re:Just switch to Minetest already

[Coren22]

Original? How could a copy of a game ever be considered more original than the original?

Re:I hesitate to comment

[duck_rifted]

They started it :D I just want to be able to speak freely when I criticize what is ultimately a great company. When I give Microsoft crap, it's not a case of, "My grandpappy said Microsoft is evil." It's a case of, "They're very nearly doing this thing correctly, and if only..." Let me give you an example.

Consider their half-hearted, slow implementation of the C++11 standard when it's already time to start work on C++14. If I point something out like that, I'm not saying that Microsoft's development tools aren't worth using. Visual Studio is the best of the best, no contest. It's the industry and academic standard for a reason. Yet that's one example of a perfectly fair, valid criticism that can't ever really be posted because those $8.00/hr PR hirelings don't actually know anything about half the topics they shill up all over the web.

So, I have two options. I can shut up and never talk to anybody about topics relevant to my profession, or I can through trial and error attempt to find a way to deal with uninformed Internet police mucking up topics they don't know anything about using only the most kindergarten of rule sets to distinguish shitposts from honest criticism.

I don't think any of them lose any sleep over my pointing out that they do us, the Internet at large, and the company who contracted with them a disservice.

Last time I encountered them, marketing had decided to stir up banter by getting people to criticize icons. The idea is that even if the topic is banal, we'd still be discussing an upcoming product. So, when I pointed out that changing icon sets is braindead-simple (as in, my eight year old daughter can do it and my two year old daughter almost has on her own before), the comment got marked down because it didn't play with their random mission of the day that we'd have to telepathically read their minds to even know ahead of time.

PR has its place. It's the future of marketing, politics, and who knows how much else? But in this early new PR industry state, it's often performed with such incompetence that it defeats the purpose. That's not actually the workers' faults. It's the half-assed performance of their bosses who just follow an outdated formula and roll in outsourcing money for it rather than ever use their brains.

Re:Here's hoping they bought it to close it down.

[jythie]

Why do you need this sandbox in order to build stuff? What is wrong with building mechanical stuff using actual wood or metal or meccano or lego? What is wrong with building electrical stuff using actual breadboards and wires and components?

Need? No, but it does have one significant advantage, and that is cost vs return. The game is not that expensive, the hardware to run it is not that expensive, and the flexibility within it is pretty significant. Mechanical and electrical projects both require obtaining raw materials per project and tools can be quite expensive. Minecraft also has a significant multiplayer capability which allows collaborative projects on scales a child hobbyist is less likely to have access to.

I would not call it a replacement for other craft projects, but then again I would not consider mechanical/electrical projects a replacement for fiber crafting or vice versa. Different tools, different experience.

I am not sure what misunderstanding of my argument leads you to say that. I'd be against writing in a word processor which limits your vocabulary and sentence structure for no good reason, certainly.

Any project, wood, writing, music, is going to have limitations on it due to the tools or physical laws.

No, but I'd have a problem if one electronic music creation platform (say... Garageband?) massively dominated all other sorts of music composition online or offline.

Ah, the old 'if something is popular and it is not my thing, it is bad!' argument. Why exactly something that draws people in and gets them creating stuff bad? People gravitate twoards the tool and platform that suit them best, so while it is possible if you remove the option they would find other outlets, those outlets have already been rejected by them for not being what they are looking for.

That is remarkably false. Many school field trips and demonstrations and home experiment kits which were routine when I was young are permitted today, at least in the UK.

Not sure where you are paying attention, but I see a vibrant kit marketplace well in excess of what was available 20 or 30 years ago. I envy kids today and the options they have at just a few clicks of a mouse and a little shipping time. I have even been ordering kids projects or reading plans lately because there are so many and they make great little lazy saturday activities. The only place I can think of that is more limited today would be chemistry sets, which were a small market in the first place and their removal impacts a tiny number of (enthusiastic) people.

But on the whole I have seen the market for beginners and experiment kits in pretty much every domain explode, with more variety easier to obtain than ever.