Microsoft Promises 10-Year-Old It Won’t Mess Up ‘Minecraft’, YouTube Makers To Be Left Alone
Microsoft’s purchase of Mojang and Minecraft for $2.5 billion has understandably concerned fans of the PC, Xbox, Playstation, and mobile device game. One such fan is 10-year old Sabrina Lane, whose letter to CEO Natya Sadella asking the company to not “mess up” Minecraft was published by Fortune. Xbox head Phil Spencer responded with a letter Friday assuring Sabrina that the game will stay the same, but they are still looking for ways to make it better. At the same time, he told YouTube personalities who make money from producing Minecraft videos that nothing will change.
Sabrina’s letter opened by imploring the company not to change Minecraft and then dove into explaining why the game is fun and educational.
“Everyone I know, both boys and girls (except for Ruth), loves ‘Minecraft’ the way it is. So, Microsoft, you should know that we all want to keep ‘Minecraft’ the same!” she wrote the company.
In response, Spencer wrote, “I want you to know that we plan to keep all the things that people love about ‘Minecraft’ the same. We will look for ways to make ‘Minecraft’ better with more opportunities for players to play, connect and share together.”
The Xbox head concluded, “Keep the feedback coming and I hope you and your friends (maybe even Ruth) will love playing ‘Minecraft’ for many years to come.”
Spencer appears to say all the right things in response to Sabrina, and his comments about “more opportunities for players to play, connect and share together” are similar to those made as part of the Minecraft purchase announcement, as previously reported by The Inquisitr at the time.
“We respect the brand and independent spirit that has made ‘Minecraft’ great, and we’ll carry on the tradition of innovation to move the franchise forward. Our investments in cloud, Xbox Live and mobile technology will enable players to benefit from richer and faster worlds, more powerful development tools, and more opportunities to connect with the ‘Minecraft’ community.”
While Markus “Notch” Persson is leaving, he hasn’t been actively involved in the development of the game since 2011. Lead developer Jens “Jeb” Bergensten and developer Nathan “Dinnerbone” Adams, among others, have confirmed they are staying.
Bergensten and Adams have been responsible for the majority of the updates to the game since version 1.1, and have based those changes based on community feedback and their own creative whims. Microsoft’s approach for now appears to allow them to continue this model of community-driven development. However, the company will give them access to Microsoft tools and resources.
As The Inquisitr speculated at the time, it’s entirely possible that we could see the game re-written in C++/C# and use Microsoft’s cloud servers to support the game. Whether the developers will get behind this approach remains to be seen.
YouTube video makers have also been concerned that Microsoft will change their ability to produce videos using the extremely popular Minecraft. Spencer assured that nothing will happen on that front either.
Minecraft YouTubers, you’re a great part of Minecraft’s success and we have no plans to change what you’re doing once we close the deal.
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) September 19, 2014
What do you think of Spencer’s letter to Sabrina? Let us know in the comments below.
[Images via Mojang, Getty]
