Yogscast and Notch no more?

While Markus "Notch" Persson, the creator of Minecraft, is a rising celebrity among independent gamers, and the Yogscast are rising celebrities among YouTube viewers, it seems that the two entities have less in common than everyone thought.

At the first - and probably only - Minecraft convention, drama seemed to surround Simon Lane and Lewis Brindley of the Yogscast. In October, the Yogscast claimed their YouTube Minecraft series to be one of the reasons Minecraft has become so popular.

Mojang invited the Yogscast to attend Minecon and put on a panel there. Mojang claims that the Yogscast demanded to be paid while no other speakers at the convention were compensated.

Notch tweeted: "They called us "a bunch of nerds who don't know how to run a company", demanded that we pay them to come here (nobody else got paid)."

Notch tweeted a total of 8 tweets on November 11 just about this conflict.

Apparently it all started when the Yogscast said the F-word to a child. The Yogscast has not commented on the matter yet, but Notch tweeted: "A kid wanted them to sign something I had signed, and they said they'd cross it out and put 'f*** you' there instead."

"I'm very sorry about the behavior of the people we won't work with any more. Celebrity or not, you don't f-bomb kids," he said. Then verified who he was referring to by tweeting: "Yes, Yogscast."

Notch said that the Yogscast "repeatedly insulted people, talked behind their backs, refused to cooperate, and acted like total spoiled divas nonstop."

There has been much bantering between Minecraft fans on reddit.com and other forums. While some Minecraft attendees claim to have been treated poorly by the Yogscast, others shared positive experiences.

Notch has been receiving angry comments from thousands of "Yognaughts.

"Wow. Hate, insults and threats are flooding in from Yogscast fans," Notch said.

The Yogscast has not yet commented on the matter. MintyMinute, Yogscast's main administrator has been handling questions while Lane and Brindley consult with their P.R. and write an official statement.

"An Official statement/Vlog will be released when Simon, Lewis and Hannah return from Las Vegas to clarify what has happened. Hopefully this will clear everything up for everyone," MintyMinute posted on the Yogscast's facebook fan page.

"we aren't stalling in any way, we merely want to draft a coherent response, instead of raging in a con-flu/jet lagged state - have patience!" the Yogscast tweeted.

They followed up an hour ago with: "Still drafting what we want to say, between naps and calls to V.I.P.s - we want to give you the clearest idea of what went down."

Fans on both sides of the conflict continue to rage on over forums and tweets. And there have been reports of fans pretending to be the Yogscast and commenting on the forums. But the Yogscast said they have not taken any position or commented about it at all yet.

So fans await the Yogscast's statement.

Evolution of Minecraft video at Minecon

Minecon began with a 6 minute video showing the evolution of Minecraft, starting from the very beginning.

Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvMzmaDnO2s&feature=channel_video_title

Minecraft released for iOS, preparing for Xbox release

Mojang released Minecraft for Apple products this weekend, and they announced that Minecraft will be available for Xbox Arcade in spring 2012.

Minecraft - Pocket Edition for Apple devices jumped to second most grossing app as soon as it was released and later rose to be most grossing app.

The Apple version of Minecraft is similar to the version for Android devices. The controls are the same, but it only supports local multiplayer over Wifi.

The game costs $6.99 and allows for creative building with 36 different blocks. It works for any apple phone or device, including iPads.

Not much has been said yet for Minecraft on the xbox, but Mojang did release a trailer for it. The link to the trailer is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfYuY3sv1Ro&feature=player_embedded

Minecraft officially released

Mojang launched Minecraft's official release Friday at Minecon in Las Vegas.

It has been over two years since Markus "Notch" Persson created Minecraft and released the Alpha version. The game started out with a small list of mobiles and blocks. Now Minecraft has hundreds of blocks, thousands of craftable objects and three different dimensions within the game world.

New creatures in the game include the Enderman and the Ender Dragon. New objects include potions tables, eyes of ender and melon slices.

The 4+ million people who bought the game while in beta or alpha versions will receive the official version of the game at no additional cost.

Notch said in his blog that Mojang will continue updating the game for some time, and they plan to add even more elements to the game.

Minecraft has gone through a drastic transformation since it was first started, and many players can be heard saying the phrase, "It's like a whole new game!"

Minecon starts

Today marked the second and final day of Mojang's first Minecraft Convention.

Yesterday, day 1, Markus Notch Persson, the creator of Minecraft addressed fans, and announced the official release of Minecraft. Yesterday also featured keynote speakers and breakout sessions about various aspects of Minecraft and YouTube.

Today, Simon Lane and Lewis Brindley from the YouTube sensation, Yogscast, addressed fans in a breakout session and signed autographs afterwards.

Mojang will end Minecon tonight with the "Into the Nether" party, only for adults 21 and older, at the Wynn Hotel.

Everyone who went to Minecon received goodie bags featuring various handouts from mod creators and server hosts.

The bags also held Minecraft-themed bottles of Jones soda, mousepads, 3D cardboard cutouts of the classic player skin and some blocks, opportunities to win items like an Xbox or a gaming PC, and the item everyone wanted most - the cape for players' in-game characters.

Notch named in most popular game makers list

Imagine Games Network recently named Markus "Notch" Persson, the maker of Minecraft as number 14 in a list of the web's 25 most popular game makers.

Notch's name is well-known among online gamers as the creator of a new type of sandbox game and a new kind of game promotion system. His system to sell the game early and release updates in prerelease patches is unique.

He plans to use the same type of promotion system with Mojang's new game, Scrolls. And other independent games have tried the same approach.

An independent game using the same type of promotion recently received a large donation from Notch.  The game called Voxatron, is available for purchase in Alpha for however much customers want to donate.  Notch purchased the game for $2,000.

Minecraft sells 4 million copies

Minecraft sold its 4 millionth copy yesterday, a huge milestone for an independent game.

Even more unique about that number of sales is the fact that Minecraft is still in Beta mode. After years in Alpha and Beta modes, the game will be officially released in two weeks at Minecon.

Notch has used a unique development plan with Minecraft. Rather than waiting to sell the game until it was fully developed, Notch started selling games in the developing modes of the game. He sold it in Alpha mode for a 50% discount, and now that the game is in Beta mode, it is sold for a 25% discount.
Notch used the money from selling the game early to hire more game developers, founding the company Mojang. As more developers were hired, Mojang added more features to the game, meriting positive feedback from fans.

Mojang employees have been updating more abundantly in the past couple of months to prepare the game for the official release. They have updated in patches, and the major additions include mushroom biomes with giant mushrooms and mushroom cows (mooshrooms), animal breeding, new mobs including baby animals and dragons, and potion tables with hundreds of crafteable potions.

Notch said that Mojang will continue with the update patches even after the official release.

Youtube sensation claims partial credit for Minecraft success

Lewis Brindley and Simon Lane from the YouTube sensation, the Yogscast, claim to be largely responsible for the popularity of Minecraft, according to an interview with Edge magazine.

"The entire game has had $0 spent on PR yet has sold 3.5 million copies - I think a large part of that is due to us," Brindley said.

The commentators said their Minecraft series on YouTube has helped Minecraft gain popularity. 

"We are Minecraft's PR! I think we enjoy a symbiotic relationship with Mojang and have definitely contributed to each other's success. I'm very thankful we've done so well out of it."

Minecraft and the Yogscast both skyrocketed around the same time that Brindley and Lane started making Minecraft videos.  And it is possible to see the similarities between the Yogscast and Minecraft. 

They both had small, humble beginnings and offered something unique in the entertainment market.  Minecraft was a new, revolutionary type of sandbox game, and the Yogscast was a new channel of gaming commentators who focused more on plot and comedy than on gameplay. 

The Yogscast has revolutionized gaming commentating; dozens of YouTube channels have attempted to follow their footsteps and replicate their style, but not many have had the same "oomph."

The Yogscast channel, under the name "Blue Xephos", receives over 80 million views month and recently surpassed 1 million subscribers. 

Lane and Brindley started their gaming commentary channel 3 years ago after meeting in the World of Warcraft guild, Ye Olde Goone Squad (YOGS, hence Yogscast.)

They initially made World of Warcraft videos, but when Lane introduced Brindley to the newly founded Minecraft, their channel took off.

The videos started out as a how to series to inform viewers about Minecraft.  About halfway through the season, a third character entered their gameplay, known only as Israphel.  Brindley and Lane were as surprised as viewers were that a stranger had accessed their server. 

Soon other characters entered and plots unfolded.  The series evolved to the "Shadow of Israphel" series.  In an interview with "gotgame.com" Brindley said the "Shadow of Israphel" crew includes friends, fans and "random people from many sources" who build the buildings and craft the plot. 

Brindley said he has to keep in contact with the other players so they all know when to log in to their multiplayer server.  So, Brindley knows a little of what is going to happen in each episode but they never inform Lane about it beforehand.

"Simon has literally zero idea about anything, which I think is crucial to the series," Brindley said.