Markus Persson, otherwise known as ‘Notch’ and the creator of Minecraft itself, is well-known for his tendency to throw his opinions out into the public. While he hasn’t been in charge of Minecraft for over a year now, as the head of Mojang he still has a number of Minecraft-related responsibilities to do. This week, he was approach by Microsoft via email about certifying the game for Windows 8 – and his response was a little more than a simple ‘no’.
According to Notch on Twitter, he told Microsoft that he dislikes Windows 8 so much he’d rather have the game unplayable on the operating system than be officially certified. The bold stance against the operating system came as a surprise to many fans who immediately worried about the future of Minecraft, but everyone should know whether a game is certified or not has no factor on if gamers can play it on the OS. Simply put, Minecraft will be able to run on Windows 8 despite the drama.
Certification means the creator of the program signs off that their program won’t restart the system, play around with multiple logins and in general must meet a certain quality standard. Whether certified or not, Microsoft’s latest operation system will feature block-based builder, despite Notch’s distaste for both company and system.
Got an email from microsoft, wanting to help “certify” minecraft for win 8. I told them to stop trying to ruin the pc as an open platform.
— Markus Persson (@notch) September 27, 2012
I’d rather have minecraft not run on win 8 at all than to play along. Maybe we can convince a few people not to switch to win 8 that way..
— Markus Persson (@notch) September 27, 2012
Afterward, Notch received thousands of tweets and emails from various gamers about the issue, and he told the Internet to ‘take a chill pill’. While he probably should have done the same before complaining about Microsoft over Twitter, at the end of the day one grumpy programmer (even if he’s Notch) isn’t going to stop a game from being supported on such a mainstream OS.
For now, the only part of Minecraft to actually require certification for each update is mobile phone editions of the game, and the Xbox 360 port.
What do you think, Ranters? Is Notch overreacting about certification, or does he have a valid point?
Follow me on Twitter @Makelevi.
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Source: Markus Persson Twitter [via VG247]
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Im not a programer so i dont know if there are big changes between windows 7 and 8 which make it easyier for microsoft to control what you do with your pc. what i do know is that i dont like the way microsoft is trying to merge the tablet/smartphone OS with a desktop OS. i dont believe that there is a win win scenario there and i wish they would just improve windows 7 or find some other way to inovate their operating system. i also dont like that windows 8 gets rid of the quin essential start menu which has been the staple of windows based OS’s for a long time and is the first thing i click on when i start a windows computer. if i ever have to use a PC with windows 8 i foresee myself spending all my time not in the metro view and with a program that brings back the start menu.
I’m not upgrading to Windows 8 either… Windows 7 is fine with me, I’ll stick to it until they have one that’s just as good and doesn’t look like an OS meant for a phone or tablet. It doesn’t belong on my PC, that’s all I know. I won’t mind a tablet running Windows 8 though…
Ken J, always the Wise man.
I couldn’t agree more. Windows 8 is the second coming of Vista. It will be panned by anyone that knows what they are doing. I’ve watched a few reviews of it and everyone says “it would be good, if it wasn’t designed for a Tablet”, they say a few of the core features are nice, but it’s unfinished and not polished and definitely not designed for a desktop/laptop.
Of course Windows 8 is gonna have issues. It’s part of how Microsoft functions.
Win95 -> Win98
WinME -> WinXP
WinVista -> Win7
Win8 -> ?
Each time they try something different, they mess up, and then the next version is widely hailed as “what should have been released in the first place.”
Win8 is the “what were they thinking’ and what I’m guessing will be called Win9 will be “The best M$ OS since 7.”
Yeah, that’s true when you ignore the reasons. With Vista it was a huge resource hog and had problems with the UAC. Windows 7 cut all those problems and launched almost bug free.
Windows 8 plans on trying allot of new things or at least changing up the formula that has worked well for them in the past. If you search for a review by tek syndicate they do a pretty nice review of it, if that doesn’t jive with you search this “how real people use windows 8″.
Yep, agreed. I like the look of the interface, and I’m sure it’ll be great with the Surface, but it seems pretty far from ideal for a traditional desktop with a mouse. I just got W7 a year ago, not planning on replacing it any time soon. Doesn’t seem to me to be any good reason to do so anyhow.
Wasn’t planing to get Win 8 anyway. Was planing to switch to Linux Mint 13 Cinnamon or Zorin 6 Ultimate.
I also don’t play Minecraft.
I just can’t believe all the people who actually SUPPORT Windows 8 saying that keyboard+mouse interfaces are a thing of the past and anyone who does not adapt to touchscreens will get left behind in technology. They also shun anyone who says that want to use third party software to restore the traditional start menu.
Perhaps they are the same crowd that only use their computers for casual web surfing, music, watching videos, instant messaging, etc as opposed to office tasks or software development. Also, I cannot see this working for gaming either. With the exception of RTS and most casual titles (like Angry Birds, Bejeweled, etc that already appear on tablets), I cannot conceive how touchscreens could replace a keyboard+mouse or gamepad for all other games. For example, can you honestly see yourself playing Modern Warfare 3 with a touchscreen or how about a platformer like Psychonauts? I remember trying Crash Bandicoot on an iPad and it was ridiculously awkward.
Now if someone can clarify this alternate perspective that touchscreens is the future way of interacting with your computer and will somehow replace all current means, then do elaborate further.