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Original article. http://www.aftonbladet.se/nojesbladet/spela/article7965992.ab
Made 1.6 million euros in a month.
The computer nerd Markus Persson's home made game has become a success.
He made his own homemade game that he has made all by himself without any budget to speak of. And now the world is ready to pay for it. He has already earned about 1.6million euros in just a month.
He has bought himself a hat
+ Show Spoiler + If Markus would have been a gangster rapper and would have released a cd with the theme "life in the ghetto". This would be the time that he would have bought him self a Hummer with a home theater system in the trunk. But Markus isn't a gangster rapper.
He's 31 years old nerd who have recently distributed a game that consists of looking for minerals in mines and hiding from square shaped anilmals. And the only thing he has bought is a new hat.
-Oh wait now I also bought a tablet for my computer! It costed 2000 euros and I don't use it. It is probably the most wasteful thing I've ever done. If I had thought about it I proably wouldn't have bought it.
It's hard to understand that he's a millionaier. The only slight indication is that he's got a shopping bag next to him, it's from low priced clothing store.
Marcus doesn't seem to understand it himself either.
-The feeling is surreal. You just walk around and all of a sudden you come to think of that Oh... I am.. Rich...
Played everywhere
There's not really anything to compare Markus success with in the present world of gaming. He started with nothing more than an idea for a game, a computer and two hands. 1 and and a half year later "Minecraft" isn't even done yet. But it has 402 157 paying users who are just playing the alpha build of the game.
And it's played everywhere. At schools, workplaces and even at the American game studio Valve ( The guys behind the "Half life" series). Valve was so impressed that they flew him over to Seattle to recruit him.
-Valve are my idols. So I mostly walked around in awe. But it was really nice and I received a bunch of free games as well.
Even after this Markus refused their offer and is starting his own game studio. It's first objective is to finish up "Minecraft" and then start working on a new project.
Has become a youtube-phenomenon
"Minecraft I a game where the player wakes up on a randomly generated island where everything is made up by square shaped blocks. To survive on the island he has to use it's resources to construct various objects.
The gamers have realized that the constructing don't really have any boundaries and that you can construct other things than axes and doors. For instance you can build an exact replica of the "Star Trek"- space ship (The Enterprise) and working computers.
And that youtube movies of these constructions have become minor phenomenons has a lot to do with he success of Minecraft. It has helped to spread the word of this game. And provided a lot of free advertisement for a guy who had no budget to advertise his game.
The future
"Minecraft" is a kick in the crotch to all the big game developers out there who are determined that you can only make money out of established game concepts. And a nice pat on the back for indie developers who hope to make a living of their games.
Sorry if there are any grammar/spelling errors since this was my first translation I doubt that it's perfect.
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thats pretty sick. good for him
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Hehe yeah indeed he seems like a nice guy :p Doesn't think he's better than everyone cause he's got money
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the game is so cheap too! one time fee of 10 euro is hard to find for a game these days
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Hats off to Valve, actively recruiting from the gaming community.
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Yeah if I were him I would have finished minecraft and joined the valve is a dream job .p
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On October 17 2010 01:15 simme123 wrote: Yeah if I were him I would have finished minecraft and joined the valve is a dream job .p
Well if he does the things he has planned with minecraft it could become even bigger. He seems like a modest guy. If he makes like 10 mil over the next years he could retire for the rest of his live and ceep working on fun projects
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Valve is such an awesome company. Shame it didn't work out with them.
And I fucking hate that guy now. Only because I'm mad jealous though. Eeeennnnnvvvvvvyyyyyyyy~~~~~~
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Well 1.6 million euros= 16 million swedish crowns. a people in sweden can live of a saluary of 16000 crowns per month. 16000*12 =192000 a year. and 166 million will allow just a normal living for 83 years
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what a badass. It's good that someone who seems nice is getting all that money.
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nice!!
minecraft is pretty addicting too, he made a great game for such a low budget
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What kind of hat?
Good for him though. Such a simple premise that makes a great game but nobody ever thought of it before. He deserves every Euro he makes the clever nerd. I wouldn't mind if he teamed up with Valve to make an even more incredible version of this game.
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You can see the hat in the original article
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On October 17 2010 01:15 simme123 wrote: Yeah if I were him I would have finished minecraft and joined the valve is a dream job .p
You're dream is to work at Valve? Over having your own studio with a massively popular game you yourself created?
He's living the dream job bud.
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The reason that would be the dream is to help them develop their game series that I loved. I mean half life is the shit would be so sweet to contribute.
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Glad he refuses Valve. Gotta follow your own path and dreams!
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On October 17 2010 02:00 keV. wrote:Show nested quote +On October 17 2010 01:15 simme123 wrote: Yeah if I were him I would have finished minecraft and joined the valve is a dream job .p You're dream is to work at Valve? Over having your own studio with a massively popular game you yourself created? He's living the dream job bud.
That's his idea of a dream, doesn't make it right for you to tell him otherwise.
Anyway, I'm extremely happy that this guy made it rich! How sweet it must be to watch your game take off and earn you so much money. If that happened to me, I would not know how to react or what to do, total shock would be accurate.
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On October 17 2010 01:24 simme123 wrote:Well 1.6 million euros= 16 million swedish crowns. a people in sweden can live of a saluary of 16000 crowns per month. 16000*12 =192000 a year. and 166 million will allow just a normal living for 83 years
I know you're kidding around but 1.6 million euros now is worth so so so much more than 1.6 million euros over 83 years...
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On October 17 2010 02:44 eckm wrote:Show nested quote +On October 17 2010 01:24 simme123 wrote:Well 1.6 million euros= 16 million swedish crowns. a people in sweden can live of a saluary of 16000 crowns per month. 16000*12 =192000 a year. and 166 million will allow just a normal living for 83 years I know you're kidding around but 1.6 million euros now is worth so so so much more than 1.6 million euros over 83 years...
Yeah I was joking around would only work if the money's worth would stay the same
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wouw..cool story... i was aware that minecraft is a successful project but 1.6 millions already...not bad! it's pretty cool to see how a former noname can crush an entire industry all by himself...
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On October 17 2010 02:55 simme123 wrote:Show nested quote +On October 17 2010 02:44 eckm wrote:On October 17 2010 01:24 simme123 wrote:Well 1.6 million euros= 16 million swedish crowns. a people in sweden can live of a saluary of 16000 crowns per month. 16000*12 =192000 a year. and 166 million will allow just a normal living for 83 years I know you're kidding around but 1.6 million euros now is worth so so so much more than 1.6 million euros over 83 years... Yeah I was joking around would only work if the money's worth would stay the same
Nope you're still wrong. What matters is does interest cover the decreasing vallue of money. If interest is 3 procent. Inflation 2 procent. (Assuming he's not spending anything). If he lives for another 60 years he will have 1.01^60 times 1.6 million euro. which totals up to above 3 million euro. The one procent is quite a small amount of net interest. If he puts it in obligations and can get a net interest of 2 procent after inflation he could get 1.02^2 (about 3 times) 1.6 million.
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You can do more than just earn interest with that money, but yeah even the most conservative option will net him decent life without actually touching his original 1.6
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I'm pretty sure he's not done earning money off of minecraft either, this is just the beginning.. Especially when he bumps the price up for retail edition.
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Total sales as of 10/16/2010 @ 7:05 KST: 1349306 registered users, of which 420824 (31.18%) have bought the game 420824 * 9.95 euros = 4,187,198.8 euros = 5,846,166.9646 US dollars
The number is still rising fast. When I first saw the number of people who bought the game (it was in the 40,000s when I first saw it) I was astonished. It seemed to me that there were only about 30-50k people watching each of the videos on youtube, so why were almost 100% of that many people buying the game? Then I realized that I had bought the game only a few days earlier. Since then there's over 10 times the amount of paid accounts as there was when I bought the game. It's all pretty surreal.
I thought he had it made when he had $500k in the bank. lolz
Edit: Since I started writing this post, 420824 has become 420945.
Edit2: That's an increase of about 30 people per minute.
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Now imagine when the game actually comes out. This guy is going to be loaded.
But imagine that, the simplest things become the most popular. Game devs need to learn from this, a large world with a bunch of large pixelated boxes that you can break down, combine, and rebuild is essentially more enjoyable and time consuming than 1080p, linear, flashy shooter. I'm not saying there is room for growth, but jumping back to your roots is the easiest way to keep gamers hooked.
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The game has skyrocketed in popularity since the beginning of summer. I purchased Alpha in early July and he had just hit 20 000 sales (and the game had apparently been out for about a year).
Now he's already at 421 000 sales lol.
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On October 17 2010 08:10 Fruscainte wrote: Now imagine when the game actually comes out. This guy is going to be loaded.
But imagine that, the simplest things become the most popular. Game devs need to learn from this, a large world with a bunch of large pixelated boxes that you can break down, combine, and rebuild is essentially more enjoyable and time consuming than 1080p, linear, flashy shooter. I'm not saying there is room for growth, but jumping back to your roots is the easiest way to keep gamers hooked.
Perhaps with the success of Minecraft, the world is finally ready for...
+ Show Spoiler +
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-The feeling is surreal. You just walk around and all of a sudden you come to think of that Oh... I am.. Rich...
This must be the best feeling ever
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On October 17 2010 08:30 reki- wrote:Show nested quote +-The feeling is surreal. You just walk around and all of a sudden you come to think of that Oh... I am.. Rich... This must be the best feeling ever
Or one of the most terrifying.
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On October 17 2010 20:20 Sokalo wrote:Show nested quote +On October 17 2010 08:30 reki- wrote:-The feeling is surreal. You just walk around and all of a sudden you come to think of that Oh... I am.. Rich... This must be the best feeling ever Or one of the most terrifying. well now that he has all this publicity...
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On October 17 2010 03:33 Marradron wrote:Show nested quote +On October 17 2010 02:55 simme123 wrote:On October 17 2010 02:44 eckm wrote:On October 17 2010 01:24 simme123 wrote:Well 1.6 million euros= 16 million swedish crowns. a people in sweden can live of a saluary of 16000 crowns per month. 16000*12 =192000 a year. and 166 million will allow just a normal living for 83 years I know you're kidding around but 1.6 million euros now is worth so so so much more than 1.6 million euros over 83 years... Yeah I was joking around would only work if the money's worth would stay the same Nope you're still wrong. What matters is does interest cover the decreasing vallue of money. If interest is 3 procent. Inflation 2 procent. (Assuming he's not spending anything). If he lives for another 60 years he will have 1.01^60 times 1.6 million euro. which totals up to above 3 million euro. The one procent is quite a small amount of net interest. If he puts it in obligations and can get a net interest of 2 procent after inflation he could get 1.02^2 (about 3 times) 1.6 million.
He's right if this guy keeps all that cash in a closet.
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Didn't PayPal screw him over with a lot of money? Or is that just some rumour
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the reason it sells so good is the combination of requiring a log-in to play, and that it's cheap. the number 10 is just the perfect border before the "nah, I'm not gonna buy this" zone.
and the fact that you can't really play unless you login is a huge motivator. the game really isnt all that great. it really isn't. it's repetetive, still very very buggy and there's no real challenge to it either. but it's basically a giant lego box, and people find their own ways to have fun with it.
this and the fact that you don't need a credit card to buy it is huge.
On October 17 2010 20:35 Chesner wrote: Didn't PayPal screw him over with a lot of money? Or is that just some rumour
that was solved a few weeks ago.
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Notch sure as hell deserves all that money, Minecraft is such a awesome game that i even bought a copy for my sister and she really enjoys it too.
Cheers to Notch, he have no doubt created the best builder-game ever
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On October 17 2010 20:20 Sokalo wrote:Show nested quote +On October 17 2010 08:30 reki- wrote:-The feeling is surreal. You just walk around and all of a sudden you come to think of that Oh... I am.. Rich... This must be the best feeling ever Or one of the most terrifying.
yeah, you keep telling yourself that...
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I'd never heard of this game before this thread, now I'm in the final steps of purchase rofl
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On October 17 2010 21:02 StimD wrote: I'd never heard of this game before this thread, now I'm in the final steps of purchase rofl
You won't regret the purchase, good sir
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Good for Notch. The gameplay is fantastic. 160,000 buyers in already? I want to see how much money he makes when it's released for good and the price is doubled. I hope Minecraft isn't a fad; it's been really addicting for me.
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On October 17 2010 20:52 sob3k wrote:Show nested quote +On October 17 2010 20:20 Sokalo wrote:On October 17 2010 08:30 reki- wrote:-The feeling is surreal. You just walk around and all of a sudden you come to think of that Oh... I am.. Rich... This must be the best feeling ever Or one of the most terrifying. yeah, you keep telling yourself that...
Well imagine it. You're so 30 year old computer nerd who is probably introverted and secluded for the most part in a small country, and now the entire world is looking at you. You're one of the most famous people in the gaming world, you're getting tons of publicity and money, and you have such high expectations all of a sudden. Shit, I would be terrified too.
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On October 17 2010 21:55 Weavel wrote: Good for him and valve! He refused Valve's offer.
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yeah as he said, good for valve! this way they won't be overwhelmed by his mightyness of spirit! xD
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And it's just in alpha, with bugs, not that much content (considering the potential for better physics, enemies, new mechanisms etc. etc.). When it's fully released it should go off even more
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Wow thats some sick succes for his game. And he seems like a nice guy who deserves it. Good for him.
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Added hat pic for the laazzy pplz ^_^
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He just looks so lovey dovey aswell.. I thought he was a skinny cynic, even when I played his games, to be honest! This is the kind of guy I'd love to have a beer or two with!
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Yeah he looks like a guinness man .. which is awesome
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On October 17 2010 02:55 simme123 wrote:Show nested quote +On October 17 2010 02:44 eckm wrote:On October 17 2010 01:24 simme123 wrote:Well 1.6 million euros= 16 million swedish crowns. a people in sweden can live of a saluary of 16000 crowns per month. 16000*12 =192000 a year. and 166 million will allow just a normal living for 83 years I know you're kidding around but 1.6 million euros now is worth so so so much more than 1.6 million euros over 83 years... Yeah I was joking around would only work if the money's worth would stay the same
Another reason as to why I wouldn't want my own studio is that just imagine the pressure of having to come up with even more great ideas sure he could pretty much retire with that money and have a game studio for fun but I'd rather have someone else backing me up and not be the one who's responsible if the next game would be a flop.
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He's an amazing man, no doubt. I cannot even imagine how much more successful he and his game will be once it is out of its alpha phase :O I can't wait!
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Canada9720 Posts
he refused valve, and he'd have been crazy to quit developing minecraft and start working for someone else. his own game's made him a millionaire, and it isn't even finished yet. maybe he'll end up working there if they offer to buy his company in a few years, though
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Haloween update coming october 31st .. gonna be sick! Improved multiplayer support, hell dungeons, new mobs, new tiles/boxes, lanterns instead of torches ( torches will expire now )
GONNA BE SICK.. cant wait to play survivor mp with my brother.. that is seriously an epic experience :>
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Respect for that guy. Nothing but respect.
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deservedly. it's just the question why nobody came up with this simple but genius concept before that. there is some basic human instinct addressed by this game.
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