Recent financial statements show Mojang is still doing really well for itself.
The Swedish developer Markus “Notch” Persson is living large. Minecraft broke records when it was released as a mere beta test back in 2010, but now that it is available on multiple platforms, the game and its parent company Mojang is still printing money. According to an article in Swedish on the it24 website, the XBLA version of Minecraft is selling at an outrageously high rate, averaging 17,000 downloads a day since it was released on May 9, 2012. Managing Director at Mojang, Carl Manneh, said the company’s profits will double from last year jumping from $8.7 million US to around $16 million.
Even though Minecraft is a Mojang property, Notch collects a fair amount of profits directly from sales to another private company called Notch Development. Last year, he received a large percentage of the profits, but that won’t be true in 2012 now that lead development has shifted in-house to Mojang’s Jens Bergensten.
“Our profits will more than double. Markus’ company will also make more money, though perhaps not as high a percentage as Mojang,” said Manneh. “Since Mojang keeps more of the earnings from the new Minecraft versions, our turnover increases a lot this year.”
No matter how you split $16 million, that’s still a boatload of cash with very little overhead for the slim independent developer. Hopefully, the whole team of 16 employees at Mojang keeps the excellent momentum that Minecraft‘s sales have given them.
Source: it24 website via Develop
