Strategy Informer  

Minecraft has already become a best-seller, and the avant-garde MMO is still only in beta. Markus "Notch" Persson has revealed that he's sold 1,813,527 copies of Minecraft (800K during alpha, 1M during beta), which has brought in €23M to date ($33M in USD).

These figures were revealed by Persson when answering an "Ask Me Anything" question on Reddit.

In the Reddit answer, Persson also notes that this is net revenue, and the actual income is reduced by Paypal fees and taxes, as well as unmentioned distribution costs. "But it's still a huge wad of money," he notes.

He goes on to say, "I've always had a tendency to feel like I'm just not quite keeping up with demands, even before starting work on Minecraft. It's not gotten better by having a runaway hit like this."

There was some advice for neophyte developers too. "Start with just making games to get used to it," he said. "Focus on the details. What makes a jump animation feel good? What is a good main menu? Try to finish a few projects."

Source: Gamasutra

Related games: Minecraft (PC)