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Comment by Groxx | Hacker News Reader

>turns down job offers from Valve and Bungie

Thank God. Not that they haven't been successful, but I really want this to stay entirely in Notch's control, as that's precisely why it's succeeding.

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This may be a good thing ultimately, but if there was a gaming company I'd consider working for, it'd likely be Valve. They seem very community focused, and I imagine they'd give this guy the freedom to run the game how he likes, considering its his 'baby'. Plus, they'd give him some risk-free (to him) resources to build a second game if he needed it, and they probably have way more experience handling multiplayer side stuff that he could benefit from. But this is pure speculation. As it is, him keeping it is probably a good thing for the community.

Entirely agree. But "good for the community" = "good for me" :)

And, given his success, he's likely near-guaranteed a job at high-profile companies for life if he ever wants one. No reason to jump now.

Just look at the game that the team they purchased made: portal. The indie game was very ugly. The final game was polished, funny, and fun. If he were to bring his game to valve they could probably improve it a lot.

How do you know it wouldn't be better and more successful if it was a Valve product?

More successful (assuming a sales-metric): quite likely, given a guaranteed advertising budget. But less of it (%-wise) would go back to Notch.

Better: depends on your metric. Fewer customers = less feedback = more likely to get your idea implemented. More customers = more employees = more code backing the game (overall better), and likely more bugfixes and better-performing graphics. More control in the hands of one person = more personality-driven design decisions = ? (and I wish to point out that Apple works largely this way with Jobs - though again, "better" is still subjective)

But, at an absolute minimum, being part of Valve will put more pressure on sales than there currently is. Even if they explicitly say "do anything, we won't even look", there's an implicit push in that direction. He's now made enough money to do literally anything he wants with this game, with no pressure to make more sales. I count that a purely good thing, because there is no game for everyone, and without pressure to appeal to more people it's more likely (IMO, also still subjective) to become better in its niche.

"being part of Valve will put more pressure on sales than there currently is"

Valve seems like one of the companies least pressured by sales. They could push out HL2: Episode 3 tomorrow and it would sell a million copies, even if it were dreck (but they wouldn't, of course). They've always had a huge bankroll (even at the beginning), and have taken the time to refine each and every one of their products before release. It's no surprise, then, that every single thing they've release has been a huge success and considered among the best games ever written.

With that said, I don't necessarily believe Minecraft is "Valve material," but I would definitely be curious to see how it would turn out with Valve's energy, artistry, and pure talent behind it.

> But, at an absolute minimum, being part of Valve will put more pressure on sales than there currently is.

Really? Do you know anything about Valve? If they had so much pressure on sales, why no ep3 yet? Why no new Counter Strike? Why no Half Life 3? Why a free Alien Swarm? Why Portal to start with (it was released as a pretty minor freebie of the Orange box, there were few things hinting at it getting such a cult following)? ...

Valve is Gabe's company, and as long as Gabe is there Valve's main focus will not be "pressure on sales" but "pressure on good games". They know sales come from that.

I wouldn't see Minecraft fit in Valve's universe and structure well, but I don't think it would change anything to Notch's control of his baby.

Valve couldn't even offer him anything near 100k/day

Which is entirely unsustainable, so not much of an argument against working for another company. If they can offer, say, a million per year, what will the ultimate amount he gets be at 20 years from now? 40 years? Reliability has its uses.

There is no such a thing as guaranteed employment.

Really, there's no way he's going to accept a job offer in the month where he makes $100+K a day. All Valve has to do is sit around and wait three months or six months or a year or however long it takes for the revenue stream to dry up, and then say "So, how about that job, then?"

Of course he'll probably be rich enough to never have to work again by then, but an offer of his own uber-well-funded development team working on whatever the hell he feels like might well be tempting if he's the kind of guy I think he is.

Then again maybe he'll take the money and retire to bonk supermodels in Tahiti. Who knows?

I think that people that don't need to work, but instead do it for the passion of the work are the exact type of people that should work at Valve.

An astute acquirer would leave him to do pretty much as he pleases, while providing the infrastructure to support him.

E.g. Buffett / Berkshire are famous for letting their subsidiaries be run by the original, passionate management.

Does that actually happen in the game industry? Admittedly, to some extent that's the treatment Will Wright got from EA when Maxis was acquired (they weren't 100% hands off, but he could win basically any concessions he cared enough about), but there aren't very many people with Will Wright level freedom at big studios.

See - Portal

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