Notch Scraps Minecraft 2 Just a Week After Teasing Its Release

Instead, he and his team are turning their attention to their previously-announced retro-style roguelike. 🎮

Earlier this month, Markus "Notch" Persson, the creator of Minecraft, sparked a firestorm in the gaming world when he made what many perceived as a "basic announcement" of Minecraft 2. This caught the attention of fans and critics alike, but also raised doubts. Some skeptics, familiar with Notch's track record, speculated that the project might eventually be shelved, pointing to his absence from the game development scene since selling Mojang to Microsoft in 2014. A lot of people expected that Minecraft 2 would quietly fade into oblivion after a few months. What they didn't anticipate was how fast Notch would decide to pull the plug. He has seemingly speedrun the "100% project cancellation" category, canceling the much-discussed spiritual successor to Minecraft in less than a week. ⏳🚫

Notch took to Twitter to explain the sudden shift in focus. After consulting with his team at Bitshift Entertainment—his independent game studio that was launched just last April—the decision was made to double down on Levers and Chests, a retro-style first-person roguelike that was announced alongside the studio in 2024. This game will feature dungeon-crawling mechanics and the kind of nostalgic aesthetic that many retro game lovers crave. Instead of focusing on Minecraft 2, the team will now pour their energy into this new project. 🏰💀

While Persson hasn't come out and explicitly stated that the Minecraft 2 project is dead, his interactions with followers make it very clear that the idea of a spiritual successor to the iconic sandbox game is not a priority at the moment. When one fan commented, feeling "betrayed" by the news, Notch responded bluntly: "Trust me, the spiritual successor would be way less fun than the dungeon roguelike. They're always kinda sad nostalgia dumps." 😞💭

Fans of Minecraft and those who were hoping for a sequel may feel let down by this announcement, but Levers and Chests is shaping up to be a whole new adventure. It’s a reminder that Notch is always looking ahead, and while Minecraft will always be a massive part of his legacy, he's now ready to tackle something different and maybe even more exciting for him and his team. 🕹️