Minecraft Should Be Dead By Now

Minecraft Minecraft how has this decade-old game overcome a change in ownership controversy and endless copycats yet still have a thriving community of 160 million monthly players we're sailing the seven and nine C's enough most games struggle to stay relevant for a few months let alone a decade but Minecraft has somehow grown in popularity as it's aged competing with the biggest titles year after year it feels like Minecraft will never die I mean how can it the art style is timeless and the game has a little something for everyone but there were moments in Minecraft's history when the game seemed doomed to fail and with another minecraft-like game currently gaining traction it might be finally time that Minecraft the king of video games finally Falls let's rewind a bit and go back to when it all started it's 2009 and the Swedish developer Marcus Pearson and his company Mojang just released a prototype of their game called cave game and this prototype you could play as a strange Square man exploring a Blacky world made of grass and caves okay never mind it was definitely unique but there wasn't much to the game all you could really do was place and remove blocks nothing crazy but what's interesting is that even in the simple State cave game grabbed people there's something in the code of this early Minecraft prototype that captivated Gamers around the world that was pretty cool months went by and Mojang added more and more features players couldn't get enough at this weird blocky yet surprisingly polished gameplay loop I mean you could do anything in this new game called Minecraft want to play with friends you got it want to explore unique world alone do it the world of Minecraft could be whatever you imagined for many this all sounds commonplace but back then in open sandbox with this level of creativity this level of expression did not exist this was a revolutionary game and it was all possible because Minecraft's implementation of the Gathering craft system so with all these new features in the crafting system in place Minecraft 1.0 was officially released in late 2011 selling 4 million copies mojing was on to something but little did they know that Minecraft was about to explode in popularity players were creating their own servers with their own game modes challenges and communities you had servers for Creative building for factions and for Warfare for vanilla survival for role play for utter uncontained chaos whatever you want to play there's a server for you and this variety of gameplay options helped Minecraft YouTubers and content creators rise to stardom as the game took off many of these creators accumulated millions of subscribers in a short amount of time like yogg's cast and Team Crafted look at him he's terrifying it's hard to remember everything about the first few years after Minecraft launched but what I do remember is that the game game was everywhere in the blink of an eye everyone was playing it and most stores featured creeper backpacks Minecraft and clothing and books on how to play the game the game was a hit with all audiences emojing realized it didn't make sense to limit their scope to just PC players there was a whole world of people with consoles and phones and Minecraft could be enjoyed on anything so Minecraft was quickly released on other platforms like the Xbox 360 PlayStation 3 and the App Store year after year Minecraft just kept getting bigger Mojang had continued to improve the game with the collection of new features including biomes trading mobs Ocean Monuments and improvements to existing features like Redstone giving the game more content and a wider ecosystem so much had changed in the two plus years since Minecraft's official launch from 2011 to 2014 the game had received eight updates and had 12 exits launch sales pushing 50 million copies sold this Swedish game Studio was the Pinnacle of game development and everyone was trying to copy Minecraft this instead kind of just feels like those 90s desktop renders this has a lot of similarities to Minecraft but the one difference is that in our other hand we have a gun but a shadow loomed over the Swedish studio mojing and Minecraft had grabbed the attention of a lot of people including the gaming giant Microsoft Mojang has confirmed it's being sold to Microsoft for 2.5 billion dollars in the same year that Minecraft hit 50 million copies Mojang was purchased by Microsoft for 2.5 billion dollars this purchase came out of nowhere and it sent ripples through the fan base so a lot of people have been saying this is a bad thing Notch Pearson will be leaving the company giving Microsoft complete creative control over the Minecraft brand players were unsure what to make of the acquisition some assume this would mean more content with Microsoft having unlimited funds throughout Minecraft others assumed this was the end of the game they loved having watched Microsoft destroy multiple games and Studios but weirdly enough both sides were kind of correct after the acquisition Minecraft craft went dormant and for almost two years nothing was released it felt like Microsoft had purchased the game and then placed it on the Shelf to gather dust so with development grinding to a halt and content seemingly disappearing overnight players slowly moved on to new games it looked like the Golden Age of Minecraft was over and the game was on a decline by the time Mojang announced the next update in 2016 it was too late the iron had gone cold and players had assumed that Minecraft's time in the spotlight was done it also didn't help that the first update after the acquisition was the most controversial change in history the combat update the most controversial Minecraft update to this day is update 1.9 while the update fleshed out the previous Baron and empty end Dimension with new cities and treasures to find it fundamentally changed a Cornerstone of the game the combat a tax now required specific timing the swords could no longer block while it technically added some depth and removed spamming it fundamentally adjusted a key aspect of the game that players were used to why fix something that wasn't broken not to mention the game's optimization was just going right downhill old Minecraft could run on a potato but with Microsoft's changes the game began to perform worse and worse every new update brought more frame drops Minecraft was dying and Microsoft seemed to be pushing the game ever closer to the Grave why had Microsoft spent so much money on a game only to shove it for years and make game-changing updates as an outsider looking in I couldn't help but think that Microsoft bought Minecraft just to kill it themselves although I can't say for sure I don't think Microsoft cared if Minecraft succeeded it sounds odd but you have to think like a trillion dollar company to understand why they do what they do so let's break it down Microsoft buys Minecraft at its peak but doesn't up the game for two years why well I think a few reasons number one Microsoft wanted the Minecraft IP not the game after the Xbox One failed to sell anywhere near the amount of consoles of the PlayStation 4 Microsoft started changing their business model from selling consoles to trying to own the majority of video game IP Minecraft just happened to be one of the first purchases and endless line of games and Studios to be bought by Microsoft I have a full video coming soon to explain what I mean but basically Microsoft was focused more on the Minecraft brand and its future not the specific game that was already three years old alright number two Microsoft had just released their hololens this was Microsoft's version of the augmented reality headset and they wanted to use a popular game like Minecraft to sell their Hardware you see porting Minecraft hololens was one of the only things Microsoft did during the Gap years showing off an in-depth demo at E3 2015. the hololens failed to sell headsets even with Minecraft trying to carry it failing so hard Microsoft looks to be scrapping most of their AR VR plans but it's not Minecraft's fault that the hololens didn't work out there were multiple factors at play that I outlined in a previous video now the third and final reason why Microsoft bought Minecraft this one's a little more vague but I believe Minecraft was purchased because Microsoft had 86 billion dollars lying around in 2014 and the 2.5 billion dollars invested in Minecraft could make more money yearly than it would make sitting in the bank accruing interest what think of it like the stock market you can make more money with your savings sitting in index funds the market than it would sitting in your bank account so like the stock market Microsoft bought Minecraft because of its higher yearly gains and resale value why risk dumping time and resource forces into something that is a cash cow but all that being said what's interesting is that even if Microsoft had handled Minecraft better than they did I don't think it would have mattered most of the players who loved Minecraft when they were young had grown up Microsoft's primary customer demographic was aging out this is certainly what happened to my generation kids and teenagers played Minecraft like it was their job in the early 2010s but after several years of devoted commitment the game didn't have the same charm anymore many had moved on it seemed like this was the end for Minecraft the sales after 2014 had completely plateaued Microsoft had mishandled the game and the community leaving Minecraft to slowly become irrelevant what's weird is during all of this the Mojang staff continued working on the game I'm not sure what happened internally there but finally after two year gap of no content updates became more consistent the frostburn update released less than four months after the combat update an exploration update another five months later Microsoft flipped the switch all of a sudden they were working on a game that they had left in the closet many of the changes made were controversial but they didn't need to appease the early players anymore because the majority of the first gen Minecraft users had moved on so with these updates new players found their way to the world of Minecraft an entire new generation of fans appeared kids began to discover the game all over again experiencing their own golden age and with this rise in new players came another Boom the ultimate game of all time minecraft of minecraft new faces started to appear in the Creator scene s p live and fills they kicked it off but then PewDiePie jumped in Minecraft's popularity skyrocketed new Creative Concepts and videos were released and old faces started dipping their toes back into the game all of a sudden dreams started producing Manhunt videos amassing millions of views setting a trend that others would follow like the domino effect more people watching Minecraft led to more content and creative ideas which brought millions and millions of new players this was a different age of Minecraft the first stage of the game was all about novelty and fun but this new age had a different feel there were insane challenges and cool stories the videos you watched on YouTube have production value and investment what was once a Grassroots Community with simple videos now had production teams and editors Minecraft's YouTube views had grown steadily over the years reaching 500 billion in 2018 but in the following two years that number had doubled to 1 trillion views the game was no longer in limbo sales jumped exponentially far surpassing its original success Minecraft's accessibility and open-ended nature lent itself perfectly to content creation it was a blank canvas for creators to mold and form their own ideas series and genres there's so much more to Minecraft than initially thought and we were just scratching the surface the unthinkable had happened Minecraft a decade old game was somehow dominating the world again it seems impossible for a game to just fall off and then resurge years later but Minecraft is different the game has something for everyone and as the game has grown in scope its appeal has expanded their entire Community is dedicated to extremely specific aspects of Minecraft and as the players experiment more and more gameplay modes appear somehow the blocky style has given the game a distinct identity outliving copycat after copycat standing as the most recognizable game in the world as I said in the beginning this reign of dominance may have come to an end troubles have been brewing within Minecraft and issues that should have been resolved many years ago are still plaguing the game since it was originally coded in Java the game has been suffering performance drops have become more common and it's only getting worse what's even crazier is the game has two versions one is known as Java and the other is called Bedrock making content development a living nightmare each version has different crafting recipes balance changes and optimization whenever Mojang pumps out new content they essentially have to develop for two entirely different games but the difficulties don't end there while Java stands as a more open free experience it has worse performance where Bedrock Edition has improved performance being coded in C plus plus but it's more controlled and restricted with microtransactions in monetization community made content and skins that are free on Java are locked behind paywalls on Bedrock much of which is stolen Community content players have to choose which version of the game to play both with major downsides but this might be changing in the near future in an attempt to unify the experience for the sake of development monetization and performance it's possible Mojang will do away with the Java Edition it's incredibly likely that Minecraft Java is going to be discontinued within the next 5 to 15 years but if they do they'll piss off so many need players and the backlash will be immense he infected him the community and developers have been wrestling with these issues for years trying to find a solution but there's no clear path it's an old game with baggage that isn't easily fixed but when you have people as passionate as the Minecraft Community someone will find a way and that player just might be Simon College LaFlamme better known as Hypixel Simon is a legendary player within the Minecraft Community he is behind some of the most ambitious projects in The Game and his efforts have brought him and others enormous success but over the years Simon's ambition has grown he could see the writing on the wall Minecraft's problems would never be fixed they're just too bloated so he set his eyes in something bigger something that could topple Minecraft as the sandbox key foreign it's a whole new Minecraft world patterned after the old one a blocky world with crafting building and exploring but with a focus on adventure customization and expression a game called hightail people love Minecraft but they're eager for something new and this trailer shows how eager in the past few years the trailer has received 60 million views creating a huge community of fans in 2020 when the beta waitlist was launched it gained over 2.5 million people but surely this game is just another copycat right many have tried and failed to be the new Sandbox King well so far hightail appears to be different Hypixel developers understand the limitations and flaws of Minecraft having been long-term fans themselves they are directly addressing pain points of players to create an experience that should survive for years to come Hypixel is learning from Microsoft and Mojang's mistakes but coding the game in the modern C plus plus and allowing for easy updates and new content to quote the Hypixel team themselves we want to avoid a situation where our community finds themselves split up based on the platform they play on high pitch is focused on complicity not to mention they're making the game look great the procedural Generations shown by their blog and development updates show incredible Landscapes that exceed Minecraft displaying distinct biomes and tons of content to discover while both games offer an excess of player Freedom Hypixel is taking this to another level with integrated World design and content creation tools accessible to everyone World Generation modding animation World painting in-game filming hightail has everything a player or Creator could want just like Minecraft the game will feature dedicated servers for mini games and more but with a deeper integration between game modes the developers don't want the doors to creative social and Adventure separate but rather one big door for complete interconnectivity achievements progress and builds will carry over from one game to another and with a highly customizable Avatar players will feel a sense of recognition and connection that is unmatched by Minecraft the key to all of this is to remember that the team behind hightail is the same team behind Minecraft's biggest server they have experience and no know what players want and what they need so hightail just might be the new king of sandbox and I'm not the only one who thinks so in 2020 Hypixel Studios the developers of hightail was acquired by the gaming giant Riot games the company behind Titans like League of Legends and Valor we don't know how much was spent since Riot is a private company but Brian Cho the head of Business Development at Riot had this to say when we led the investment in the Hypixel Studios team two years ago we saw a group deeply immersed in existing block games who believed that the genre could better serve its Community okay now even with all the support talent and momentum can hightail actually compete with the Behemoth that is Minecraft will Hypixel be able to challenge the original King in new shipment storm or will they become forgotten labeled just another copycat in years to come although we don't know what the future holds some games are so big they can never die they surpass the limitations of video games and become pieces of human culture like Mario or Tetris Minecraft is one of these legendary titles the game is so dive verse in its offering and experiences that I believe it will never die Minecraft is the perfect creative canvas for players and creators alike it is simple to pick up but infinite in scale people will continue to discover Minecraft developing new ways to play while the game may not die history shows that these Timeless games can lose their dominant grip on the industry their market share Slips Away unless people play it there is a growing frustration amongst Minecraft players and many issues still haven't been addressed performance continues to drop and content becomes more spread out so Minecraft may lose its Spotlight to another but even with games like hightail on the horizon I believe Minecraft is one of those few games that will be remembered in history and I also believe that Minecraft will be enjoyed by players for decades to come hey everyone I have a couple quick announcements before we do our indie game shout out first we are launching a patreon the goal of the patreon is to help developers navigate the crazy world of Indie development specifically through community and business support Second we are launching the going Indie fund you can find out more about the fund on our Discord but in a nutshell we are launching a fund to help Indie developers half of all of our sponsorship deals and half of all patreon donations will go to this fund you can find out more about the fund on our Discord and lastly our indie game Spotlight the game chosen this week was a short hike it's a little exploration game about hiking up a mountain it's a short game with a simple storyline but every minute is enjoyable the art is fun and the music is beautiful go check it out when you have a chance thanks and see you next time

Channel: Going Indie

Views: 187,495

Keywords: going indie, video game business, video game marketing, game devlogs

Id: QWHsIc6f6NE

Length: 18min 15sec (1095 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 25 2023