Mojang demands customers not have high expectations for their products

Take a look this story about what Notch said on Reddit:

Writing as part of an ‘ask me anything’ session on Reddit this afternoon, Notch responded to the question: “Do you find that people expect another game as popular as Minecraft from Mojang?”

“If people are expecting that, they will be disappointed,” said Notch. “Minecraft is a one in a million fluke.”

I have to laugh at people responding to this as if Notch is ‘humble’. He is anything but the opposite. What’s going on here is Notch and his friends will make the games they want to make and give a giant middle finger to any outside expectations.

Best selling games are not flukes. The reason why a game often becomes best selling is because it hit the right ‘taste buds’ that Humans desire of their gaming. Phenomenons can be replicated again and again. The history of Nintendo is a good example of this. At one point, Sega made hit after hit. Hudson once made quality game after quality game. And what of Konami and Capcom back in the day?

You’re only as good as your last game. Minecraft was not made because Notch wanted to prove himself a genius or something like that, he wanted to succeed on his own within his own financial structure (as opposed to working for someone else’s company and make their owners get rich). When you examine how Minecraft came about, there wasn’t much selfishness going on with Notch’s part. He sold the alpha promising that people wouldn’t have to pay again for the final release (which he now regrets doing). I remember him going on radio interviews and doing all sorts of things game developers don’t want to do but he did so because he wanted his game to be a success.

Once these crappy Mojang games come out (assuming they will be crappy), Notch’s reputation will tank because people are only buying those games because they liked Minecraft.

To put this into perspective, imagine if Steve Jobs said the success of the Apple II was a ‘fluke’. Where would he be today? Certainly, he wouldn’t have led to make the Macintosh, the iPod, the iPhone, and all of that.

Mojang is giving us a clear signal they since they now have enough money, they only wish to make games for themselves for now on.