After 20,000,000 downloads sold, Minecraft could be on pace to take down the Sims as the top selling PC game. So obviously, people are looking to get their piece of the pie but Mojang cofounder Carl Manneh says they aren’t looking to sell. In a recent interview with Reuters, Manneh explained why he and the rest of the founders of Mojang have no interest in selling.
When discussing the money, Manneh said, “We are living the dream, really… An exit would be huge, but do we really need that money? In our case, we have the cash flow. We have more money than we need.” Currently, the XBox Live version of Minecraft sells for $20 a pop, in addition to the PC, Mac and mobile versions of the game.
Manneh also told Reuters that part of the success for Mojang comes from the company’s independence. Recently, along with cofounders Markus Persson and Jakob Porser, the three turned down an offer from Napster cofounder and Facebook investor Sean Parker. Manneh stated, “We’ve always felt that the independence we have is one of our core strengths. We can take decisions by going into a room and in 15 minutes we’re done… We try to be extremely agile, to release games quickly.”
So what does that mean? It sounds like things are staying par for the course for Minecraft. Mojang gets to keep doing what they are doing and we don’t have to worry about someone else mucking up one of the most open and addictive games of the last decade.
