Minecraft authors earned 38% more on their IP last year than in 2012, the Wall Street Journal reports. Almost a quarter of the amount is revenue from the mobile version of the game.
When compared with the indicators of market leaders like King and Supercell, this figure does not seem so large. The authors of Candy Crush Saga, for example, earned $1.88 billion last year.
But here it is necessary to take into account several points:
Firstly, in terms of one employee, the authors of Minecraft are the richest. Each Mojang member accounted for $8.13 million last year (the studio is small – 40 employees).
Secondly, the company distributes its projects without resorting to a free-to-play model. From the very beginning, she relied only on word of mouth.
Thirdly, the company is on full self-sufficiency (no third-party investment). According to Mojang executive director Carl Manneh, “we have no owners outside the studio who would require us to achieve any specific goals.”
He also noted that “usually after the launch of games, after the first years since the launch, you expect a drop in performance, this has not happened to us.”
Markus Persson, a former employee of King, created Minecraft in 2009. A year later, he founded the company Mojang together with his friend and colleague at King Jacob Porser (Jakob Porsér). They put Karl in charge of its development.
Markus PerssonBy the way, there are no stock options for employees in the company.
Mojang pays another company Persson, as the holder of the rights to Minecraft, royalties.
Last year, out of 2 billion kronor earned, 821 million went directly into Persson’s pocket.
A source: http://online.wsj.com/