Mojang’s COO Emphasizes Commitment To Minecraft YouTube Community

Many Minecraft video creators have been on edge the last few months, believing that changes surrounding the game’s studio of origin, Mojang, only foreshadow a tighter grip on licensing rights. But Mojang’s COO Vu Bui is here to tell the YouTube Minecraft community that the studio’s fully supportive of creators and their videos.

In an interview with The Guardian, Bui assures the YouTube community the studio will stick to the approach outlined early on by the game’s creator Notch (who recently announced his imminent departure from Mojang). Since the game’s inception, Notch allowed YouTube creators to upload any Minecraft footage and assets they wanted, without having to ask permission or provide Mojang a share of the ad revenue from the videos.

“We have a whole slew of people who are making their entire living just off making videos about Minecraft. Just the economics of that – how many people are making a living off this one IP – is pretty awesome,” says Bui to The Guardian. He notes that “there’s no damage to us from YouTube,” and the videos from creators actually add to the Minecraft property and its overall appeal. The only restriction Mojang has is that creators may not sell the videos they upload directly to fans via on-demand services like iTunes

“We want people to be creative,” Bui tells The Guardian. “As I said [earlier in the interview], we want to make most of our money from selling games. We’re not here to penny-pinch the creatives out there using our property to create cool content. We have this massive group of people creating amazing things. Why would we want to hinder that in any way?”

So, according to Bui, Minecrafters can rest assured that Microsoft’s acquisition of Mojang for a cool $2.5 billion won’t interfere with any kind of end-user license agreement or the status quo. YouTubers who have made a killing from posting Minecraft gameplay footage (like StampyLongHead, TheDiamondMinecart, CaptainSparklez, iballisticsquid, SkyDoesMinecraft, and basically every other gaming channel on this list) will be able to continue to make a killing from posting Minecraft gameplay footage when the title is officially owned by Microsoft.

And if, for whatever reason, Microsoft does significantly alter the relationship Mincecraft has built with its players, you can also rest assured Satya Nadella is going to have to deal with a situation much more complicated and ugly than a bunch of exploding Creepers.