And now they have non-minimal expenses, and they are unlikely to have another hit of even half Minecraft's success ever again - Minecraft was a HUGE outlier.
One can only wonder if this game is going to be too geeky to cross over to significant adoption. I know a lot of people that got into Minecraft that would probably struggle with 0x10c.
While I initially assumed the same, I think 0x10c could possibly evolve into a state that allows even casual players to be able to jump in without getting involved in the geekier aspects.
For instance it be possible to have a Minecraft-esque gameplay mechanic on the planets and, as a player, to acquire through some in-game currency a pre-designed spacecraft created by others. So it could be played as an ordinary space trading game to an extent. In this form it'd be an extension of Minecraft.
For others, I can see guilds being set up around exploitation of the programmable computers onboard spacecraft, with guilds developing their own encrypted communications protocols and attempting to break those of their competitors while still engaging in standard space game warfare with the added extra of electronic warfare. This is far geekier, but it has scope for players of varying skill levels occupying different roles without having to learn how to program the DCPU-16. This would be a sort of EVE Online scenario.
There are other combinations that would be available, given a big enough community, a way to exchange items and the right gameplay dynamic. If Mojang gets that right and sells it right then 0x10c may potentially become a huge hit.
Of course what I've described is ambitious in what's required from the game and there are a million things that could go wrong and make it too hard to make a game with this breadth and flexibility. The odds are against Notch and his team, but if they do succeed I think it'll be epic.
Let's not forget that to an outside observer Minecraft is very geeky and quite confusing. It's a game without any gaming like most are used to, yet over time interest snowballed and non-gamers got into it based on recommendations. I hope the same could happen with 0x10c.
I'm guessing that the expenses probably still aren't bad compared to their income. Just one day's sales of Minecraft probably pays for the rent there. The furniture was a 1-time expense, etc.
Yup. I think we're going to see this more and more. Companies that generate significant success from outliers, find funky ways to burn through the (substantial) cash by growing and then are unable to repeat their initial success to keep fuelling things. If they can repeat the success then more power to them.
