Fez developer Polytron feels that Mojang is getting “preferential” treatment from Microsoft, pointing out the immediate announcement of Minecraft’s sales figures and being granted free updates.
When Markus “Notch” Persson tweeted that Minecraft 360 turned a profit in just an hour, Polytron, headed by Phil Fish, replied in consternation, ”How did you get those stats from MS? We still don’t know exactly how much Fez sold almost a month later. You get stats in 24 hours?
Polytron went on to complain that the ”standard procure (sic) is: you find out how much you sold when you get your first check 3-4 months later,” and added in a later tweet, ”You’re also getting free updates, which is something every other developer on the platform is told is simply not an option.”
Notch replied, ”We had to fight for that, and we got a limited number of them. Not sure why they don’t like it.”
Another explanation is that Microsoft likes to crow about record-breaking, since they announced that Trials Evolution broke the XBLA day one sales not long after it had accomplished the feat. Microsoft may have also relented on updates due to the fact that Minecraft is an MMO.
