Ever since Microsoft announced their $2.5 billion acquisition of video game developer Mojang last year, fans of Mojang’s Minecraft have been wondering what this means for the future of the game’s development and would there ever be a Minecraft 2 on the horizon?
Since Microsoft has become more involved with the ongoing development of the game, a new plan has emerged to consolidate the Minecraft Pocket Edition with a PC experience by offering the Minecraft Windows 10 Edition Beta. And in an interview with IGN at Gamescom 2015, Mojang and Microsoft said their efforts are going to continue to be placed on things like the Windows 10 Beta, with improvements through continual iterations of the existing game as it is brought to more and more platforms. Rather than focus on what’s next after Minecraft, Mojang will work on bringing the game to all platforms and letting people play together for years to come.
Jonas Martensson of Mojang stated to IGN at Gamescom that:
“First of all, there’s been no discussions about Minecraft 2 at the moment. I can’t promise forever there’ll never be a Minecraft 2, but for the foreseeable future there won’t be.”
Microsoft Games Studios General Manager also spoke similarly about brining continual improvements to Minecraft and its community of builders, rather than focusing on a sequel, by saying:
“There was never, even within Microsoft, a conversation about a Minecraft 2 just because it’s never how the game has been developed and even in the philosophy that the company has taken with Windows 10 where this is something that gets updated often. The way to think about it is more to do with continual updates and a continual process.”
Martensson also said that they are looking to empower users and the creativity community to “take the game [to] where it’s going to be in five years.” Potentially hinting that is the timeframe Mojang is assuming before they would even begin discussing a sequel to the widely popular open sandbox building game.
Further reading: Gamescom 2015, IGN, Microsoft, Minecraft, Mojang
