GameZebo: Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have more money than God? Me too. And while only a call to his accountant could verify this, it seems that Minecraft creator Notch should have a pretty good idea of what it’s like. He may not be Gabe Newell rich, but after independently creating one of the most successful video games in history, he should be financially primed to retire anytime he wants.
Unfortunate news falls on Mojang’s lesser-known title, Scrolls. Lead game designer Måns Olson announced on Tuesday that the official Scrolls servers are shutting down soon, and a number of community events have been scheduled to send it off.
Mojang, the studio who was valued at $2.5 billion dollars by Microsoft in 2015, the studio who is responsible for sweeping hit Minecraft, which has shipped over 70 million copies is also responsible for another game. That game is Scrolls, one that Mojang would likely rather forget.
The lost brother of Minecraft, Scrolls could not have had a more conventional start to life than its big brother. It was designed with a specific plan in mind, for a specific market, by a well-funded development studio and with an already eager audience awaiting any chance to play it. Minecraft lacked all of these advantages. So why was Scrolls such a failure?
When Mojang developed and released Minecraft, it resulted in two things. One, it gave birth to a gaming revolution that allowed gamers to release their creative nature in ways unseen since mmo games first burst upon the market. Second, it gave Mojang a license to print money that most other game companies (with the exception of Blizzard) can only dream of. The game sold tens of millions of units, thus allowing the company to go off the beaten path with their next project. The company then began work on Scrolls, a hybrid trading card game and strategic wargame. Sadly, the company recently announced that a Scrolls hiatus was going into effect, and that nothing new would be released for the game. With so many resources behind it, why did Mojang's Scrolls go on life support?
