Mojang Studios facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Mojang Studios

Logo since 2020
Headquarters on Söder Mälarstrand 43, Stockholm, in 2022
Formerly	Mojang Specifications (2009–2010) Mojang AB (2010–2020)
Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Video games
Founded	2009; 16 years ago (2009)
Founder	Markus Persson
Headquarters	Stockholm , Sweden
Key people	Åsa Bredin (studio head)
Products	Minecraft series
Number of employees	≈600 (2021)
Parent	Xbox Game Studios (2014–present)

Mojang Studios is a Swedish company that makes video games. It is located in Stockholm, Sweden. The company is most famous for creating Minecraft. This game is a sandbox and survival game. It lets players build anything they can imagine and survive in a blocky world. Minecraft is the best-selling video game of all time!

Mojang Studios was started by a game designer named Markus Persson in 2009. Back then, it was called Mojang Specifications. This was for making Minecraft. The name "Mojang" comes from a Swedish word meaning "gadget". As Minecraft grew popular, Persson and Jakob Porsér officially formed the company Mojang AB in late 2010. They hired Carl Manneh as the boss. Other early team members included Daniel Kaplan and Jens Bergensten.

Minecraft became a huge success. This helped Mojang grow bigger and bigger. Markus Persson wanted to move on from the game. So, he decided to sell his part of Mojang. In November 2014, Microsoft bought the company. After the sale, Persson, Porsér, and Manneh left Mojang. In May 2020, Mojang AB changed its name to Mojang Studios.

As of 2021, about 600 people work at Mojang Studios. Åsa Bredin is now the head of the studio. Besides Minecraft, Mojang Studios has made other games. These include Caller's Bane, Crown and Council, and more Minecraft games. Some of these are Minecraft Dungeons and Minecraft Legends. They also released smaller games made during special events called game jams. Mojang also published games made by other companies, like Cobalt.

The Story of Mojang Studios

How Mojang Started (2009–2010)

Markus Persson started Mojang Studios in 2009.

Mojang Studios was founded by Markus Persson. He is a Swedish game designer and programmer. Markus loved video games from a young age. He played games on his dad's computer. He learned to program when he was only eight years old. Markus spent a lot of time at home with games and programming.

After school, Markus worked as a web developer. In 2003, he created an online role-playing game called Wurm Online with a friend. They used the name "Mojang Specifications" for this project. Markus later left this project. He wanted to use the name "Mojang Specifications" again.

In May 2009, Markus started making a game similar to Infiniminer. He used parts of his old projects for it. On May 17, 2009, he released the first test version of his new game. He called it Minecraft. The first version you could buy came out on June 13, 2009. He used the name "Mojang Specifications" again for this game.

Minecraft quickly made enough money for Markus to quit his day job. This happened by May 2010. All the sales were done through the game's website. This meant he didn't have to share money with other companies.

In September 2010, Markus visited Valve, another game company. They offered him a job. But he said no. Instead, he called Jakob Porsér, a friend from an old job. Markus asked Jakob to help him start a real company for Mojang Specifications. Jakob agreed and they officially started Mojang AB.

Markus kept working on Minecraft. Jakob started making a card game called Scrolls. Markus and Jakob wanted to focus on making games. So, they hired Carl Manneh to be the company's boss. Other important early hires included Daniel Kaplan and Jens Bergensten.

Growing Bigger (2011–2013)

Mojang's offices were once located on Maria Skolgata 83 in Stockholm.

By January 2011, Minecraft had one million players. Six months later, it had ten million! Because of this success, Mojang started making Minecraft for phones. The original game was made with Java code. But phones needed a different type of code, so they used C++.

Another version of Minecraft was made for the Xbox 360. This was done by a company called 4J Studios. They also used C++. In March 2011, Mojang announced their new game, Scrolls. They tried to trademark the name "Scrolls". But another company, ZeniMax Media, said it was too similar to their game series The Elder Scrolls. We will talk more about this later.

Mojang also started to publish games from other small game studios. Their first published game was Cobalt. It was made by Oxeye Game Studio. Cobalt came out in December 2011 as an early version. The full game was released in February 2016. A multiplayer game called Cobalt WASD was also released in November 2017.

To celebrate the full release of Minecraft, Mojang held a big event called Minecon. It happened in Las Vegas in November 2011. Minecraft was officially released during this event. After that, Minecon became an event held every year. In December 2011, Markus Persson gave his role as lead designer for Minecraft to Jens Bergensten.

Many big investment companies wanted to put money into Mojang. But Mojang said no to all of them. They didn't need the money. They wanted to stay independent. This independence was a big reason for Minecraft's success.

By March 2012, Minecraft had sold five million copies. In November, Mojang had 25 employees. In 2013, they released a special version of Minecraft for schools. It was for Raspberry Pi devices. After a deal with Microsoft ended, Minecraft also came out for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation Vita.

Becoming Part of Microsoft (2014–Present)

Markus Persson felt a lot of pressure from owning Minecraft. In June 2014, he posted on Twitter asking if anyone wanted to buy his share of Mojang. Several companies were interested, including Microsoft. Phil Spencer, who leads Microsoft's Xbox team, really wanted Microsoft to buy Mojang. He thought it would be a bold move for Microsoft's gaming future.

Microsoft also had a lot of money in other countries. They wanted to use this money. The idea of using Minecraft with Microsoft's mixed reality device, HoloLens, was also a big reason for the purchase. Microsoft first talked to Mojang about buying them in June 2014.

Microsoft announced they would buy Mojang for $2.5 billion on September 15, 2014. Markus Persson, Jakob Porsér, and Carl Manneh were the only owners. Markus owned 71% of the company. The sale was completed on November 6, 2014. Mojang then became part of Microsoft Studios. Markus, Jakob, and Carl all left Mojang. Every employee who stayed with the company for six months after the sale got a big bonus.

Under Microsoft, Mojang kept most of its independence. Microsoft gave them financial and technical support. This way of buying companies became a model for Microsoft.

Scrolls was fully released in December 2014. Mojang stopped making new content for it in 2015. Also in December 2014, Mojang and Telltale Games announced a partnership. Telltale Games would make Minecraft: Story Mode. This was a story-based game set in the Minecraft world.

In April 2016, Mojang released Crown and Council. This game was made by artist Henrik Pettersson. It was free for Windows computers. Later, in January 2017, it also came out for Linux and macOS. Mojang stopped the online services for Scrolls in February 2018. They then re-released it for free in June, calling it Caller's Bane.

Mojang wanted to make more games in the Minecraft world. So, they developed two spin-off games. These were Minecraft Dungeons, a game where you explore dungeons, and Minecraft Earth, an augmented reality game like Pokémon Go. They were announced in September 2018 and May 2019.

Minecraft Classic, the very first web browser version of Minecraft, was re-released for free in May 2019. This was for its ten-year anniversary. By this time, Minecraft had sold 147 million copies. This made it the best-selling video game ever!

On May 17, 2020, Minecraft's eleventh anniversary, Mojang announced a new name: Mojang Studios. This new name shows that they are now a bigger company with many teams. They also got a new logo. Minecraft Dungeons was released later that month. In June 2022, the studio announced a new action-strategy game called Minecraft Legends. In December 2023, Åsa Bredin became the new head of Mojang Studios.

Games Made by Mojang Studios

Games from Game Jams

Mojang worked with Humble Bundle in 2012 to create Mojam. This was an event where game developers made games quickly to raise money for charity. Mojang made a mini-game called Catacomb Snatch for it. They raised a lot of money! The next year, Mojang made three more mini-games for Mojam 2. They also made three mini-games for a "Games Against Ebola" event in 2014.

Games That Were Not Released

In 2011, Markus Persson and Daniel Kaplan thought about making a game that mixed Minecraft with Lego bricks. They talked with the Lego Group about it. The game was called Brickcraft at first. Mojang hired new programmers for the game. But after six months, Mojang stopped the project in July 2012. Markus said they wanted to focus on games they fully owned. A Lego Group employee later said there were legal issues. The Lego Group also thought about buying Mojang but decided not to. They didn't know how popular Minecraft would become.

In March 2012, Markus Persson said he was designing a space game. It was called 0x10^c. But he stopped working on it by August 2013. He said he lost interest and had trouble coming up with ideas.

Minecraft Earth was an early access game released in November 2019. In January 2021, Mojang Studios announced that the game would be removed from sale. All player data was deleted in July. Mojang Studios said the COVID-19 pandemic was the main reason. The pandemic made it hard for people to play the game as it was designed, which involved going outside.

Games Published by Mojang Studios

Legal Issues

The Scrolls Name Problem

In August 2011, Mojang tried to trademark the name "Scrolls" for their game. But ZeniMax Media, the company that owns The Elder Scrolls, sent a letter. They said "Scrolls" was too similar to their trademark. They said Mojang couldn't use the name and would sue them. Markus Persson offered to add a subtitle to Scrolls. But Mojang didn't stop using the name. So, ZeniMax filed a lawsuit in September.

Mojang won a temporary ruling in October. The court said Scrolls and The Elder Scrolls were different enough. But ZeniMax could still appeal. In March 2012, Mojang and ZeniMax reached an agreement. Mojang gave ZeniMax all the "Scrolls" trademarks. ZeniMax then let Mojang use the name for their game Scrolls and its extra content. But Mojang could not use it for new games or sequels.

The Uniloc Lawsuit

On July 20, 2012, a company called Uniloc sued Mojang. Uniloc makes technology to prevent software piracy. They said that Minecraft's Android version used a system that was too similar to one of their patents. The case was filed in a US court. The founder of Uniloc said he only filed the patent, not the lawsuit. In March 2016, the patent was found to be invalid.

The Putt-Putt Letter

In July 2013, the mini-golf company Putt-Putt sent a letter to Mojang. They said Mojang was using their "Putt-Putt" trademark without permission. The letter included a picture from Google showing videos of user-made Minecraft maps with the name "Putt-Putt".

Mojang's lawyer, Alex Chapman, explained that Minecraft lets people build things. He said Mojang doesn't control what users build or what videos they make. He compared it to suing Microsoft because of what people do using Word.

See also

In Spanish: Mojang Studios para niños