„If buying a game is not a purchase, then pirating them is not theft.” Minecraft creator joined campaign against „killing” games

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Ubisoft received significant backlash when they shut down the servers for The Crew, leading to a surge in the use of the phrase “If owning a game isn’t buying it, then pirating them isn‘t stealing.” Notch, the creator of Minecraft, recently echoed this sentiment, lending his support to the anti-piracy campaign called Stop Killing Games.

Notch is against “killing” games

Lately, Notch has been quite busy on X, putting out numerous posts and comments. One of his earliest ones was a playful dig at Pirate Software, a content producer who publicly disagreed with the Stop Killing Games initiative. This initial move seemed to negatively impact Pirate Software’s popularity.

Hey guys, just got back to Gaming after a brief break.

…hang on, what’s the reasoning behind this apparent favoritism case for Jason Hall, who seems to be gaining more opportunities?

Moving forward, Notch reaffirmed his stance on violent video games by suspending players’ access to them, echoing his earlier statement: “If obtaining a game isn’t considered buying, then illegally downloading them isn’t stealing.” This declaration garnered a lot of praise from the gaming community.

One player pointed out that making developers keep managing servers even when they’re facing financial losses is a very poor decision that could potentially damage the entire gaming sector. However, Notch correctly countered by saying that players actually prefer creators to abandon using servers and instead let fans host their own games, similar to how it was done in the past for all types of games.

Should I end up being unscrupulous or fail to cover the server costs, causing my game to vanish online, I’d be incredibly grateful if someone could step in to keep it alive, provided that it continues to bring happiness to others.

It’s intriguing that despite the creator advocating against violent games, he failed to put his name on the official petition. Yet, there’s an explanation behind this omission.

Rather than aiding AAA, I prefer to challenge them by offering superior benefits to our users instead.

Despite the Stop Killing Games initiative accumulating enough signatures for submission to the European Commission, it’s crucial to remember that this doesn’t signal an end to our efforts. Each new signature adds significant value, given that there’s no such thing as a comfortable margin in this fight. In fact, the opposition from publishers makes every additional voice even more important.

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2025-07-10 13:02