The mention of Minecraft 2 on X (formerly Twitter) left no one indifferent. Notch, the creator of the best-selling game in the world, has just dashed all hopes on the networks.
No game comes close to Minecraft. Unbeatable, the title recently exceeded the mark of 300 million copies sold, surpassing two emblematic laws Grand Theft Auto V (205 million sales) and Wii Sports (82 million). When Notch, its creator, announced on X (formerly Twitter) the possibility of developing a Minecraft 2, Internet users went into panic.
An X post that changed everything
While 2025 had just begun, Notch, followed by nearly 4 million subscribers on X, confronted Internet users with a crucial vote. The Swedish developer had in fact asked its community to choose between designing a roguelike type game, or creating the “spiritual successor” from Minecraft. Unsurprisingly, more than 80% of the 300,000 voters opted for the second option.
Honest and legitimate request for feedback for once:
The new game I’m passionately working on is currently set to be a traditional roguelike (ie ADOM, nethack, etc) mixed with a tile based first person dungeon crawler (ie Legend of Grimrock (esp 2), Eye of the Beholder)
Aim
— notch (@notch) January 1, 2025
A broken promise
Despite the results of the survey, which could not be more telling, Notch returned to his comments at the start of the year. The latter admitted on X that his team of developers, Bitshift Entertainment, preferred to work on the roguelike titled Levers and Chests. A turnaround that is not to the taste of all Internet users, disappointed not to see their promises listened to.
However, such a scenario is not that surprising. Levers and Chests was already in the works since 2022, when the Bitshift Entertainment team was formed. Notch’s roguelike is in fact at a somewhat advanced stage of development. Note that the game would better correspond to the identity of its creators, according to the words of Notch himself.
Finally, Minecraft having been bought by Microsoft in 2014, it is difficult for Notch to use the mechanics of its flagship game for its “spiritual successor”. It is undoubtedly very difficult for the developer to recover the license rights, which partly explains the abandonment of Minecraft 2yet mentioned at the very beginning of the year. What is certain is that Notch’s “betrayal” risks damaging his reputation.