Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson recently announced a spiritual successor to his classic survival game, colloquially known as Minecraft 2.
Set to become a major motion picture in 2025 (behind star Jason Momoa), Minecraft is one of the best-selling games of all time, selling over 300 million copies to date.
However, Notch himself has not been involved in the franchise since 2014, following the sale of his studio Mojang to Microsoft for $2.5 billion.
Notch Casually Announced Minecraft Successor
In a thread on social media, Markus "Notch" Persson teased fans with a potential Minecraft spiritual successor, he has dubbed Minecraft 2.
Asking fans on his personal X (formerly Twitter) account, the Minecraft creator asked what they would rather see the developer pursue with his next project, "Make Minecraft 2" or continue with his work on what he described as "a traditional roguelike... mixed with a tile-based first-person dungeon crawler:"
"The new game I'm passionately working on is currently 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')
But then I gots to thinking that maybe there are people who like my work but might not share my taste in retro nostalgia and would prefer for me to make a spiritual successor thing to Minecraft, and I mean sure, I'd take that cash."
When asked if he could even make a Minecraft sequel without Microsoft or Mojang, Notch admitted, "No, it would be super illegal." However, he did tease "[I could] make a new original game of the same type as Minecraft and call it something else:"
"No, it would be super illegal. Instead I'd make a new original game of the same type as 'Minecraft' and call it something else. These are traditionally sometimes referred to as'spiritual successors,' but usually kinda mostly feel a bit flat. But, like, if that's actually what people want, I would LOVE to make that game. It'd be my 'Gremlins 2.'"
"If Microsoft, for some reason, would want me to do it, and we, somehow, agreed on the terms, I'd absolutely be willing," the Minecraft creator posited, saying that if the company he sold his game to were interested in him returning to the franchise, he would be ready:
"If Microsoft, for some reason, would want me to do it, and we, somehow, agreed on the terms, I'd absolutely be willing do to that. I'd even give them a much bigger share than I'd feel obliged to just to make it clear I'm not doing it with ill intent. But I'll be a bitch to work with."
This, of course, caused a flurry of speculation about the potential sequel online. Since its original release in 2011, talk of a Minecraft 2 has been somewhat of a moot point as the original game has continued to sell.
While some have questions about how serious Notch is about the announcement, he remains adamant that it was real. In a separate thread, Persson told his followers, "I...very much value being a man of my word:"
"I basically announced 'Minecraft 2'...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 shittification 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."
Will Minecraft 2 Ever Actually Happen?
Whether Notch actually makes his Minecraft 2-esque spiritual successor remains to be seen, but he seems clear he will make it happen if that is what the audience wants.
Over the years, Microsoft and Mojang have remained relatively silent on the front of a full-on Minecraft sequel.
Instead, the two tech giants have opted to simply continually update the base Minecraft game and bring it to new platforms as they are made available — one can assume it will come to Nintendo Switch 2 when it is eventually released (read more about the Nintendo Switch 2 here).
So, this potential new game from Notch may be the closest thing to a Minecraft 2 fans ever get. Since leaving development on Minecraft after he sold the gaming mega-hit to Microsoft in 2014, Notch has been relatively quiet on the development front.
Aside from a few smaller projects, including a free two-hour Unity demo and several smaller game-jam projects, the renowned developer has yet to release a project on the scale of Minecraft since the release of that game.
This could be a unique testing ground for the developer, seeing if he can strike lightning twice by dipping his toe back into a formula he helped to create back in 2011.
Minecraft is available now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, PC, Apple Android, and Mac.
