Marcus “Notch” Persson has officially stepped down as Lead Designer on Mojang’s block-building sim, allowing Jens Bergensten the title that goes along with the job he’s been doing for a while now.  We’ve been waiting for this for quite some time, so today’s official word on the passing of the Minecraft torch really isn’t a surprise.  Since word reached the Interwebs about Scrolls (including their strange conflict with Bethesda) Notch has been side-stepping into the background on Minecraft and focusing his efforts on their upcoming RPG – as well as other projects he hasn’t announced yet.

I have an issue with how Mojang is handling Minecraft development, but it’s not something I’m going to get them to change.  Essentially they’ve focused their efforts on pushing out a product rather than building the game as a service, which means that now it’s launched we will see less in the way of actual additions to thegame.  Notch’s news today confirms this philosophy, despite their promise of weekly prerelease patches.

I wish they didn’t consider themselves done with the game, since there’s so much that the title is missing, so much that it could be, and so much that it won’t receive now that is primary creative head has moved on to play in more interesting playgrounds.  I guess this is a consequence of being a truly Indie developer, and not planning on creating long-term release projects.  Then again, I suppose it’s a game developers prerogative to get bored with one project and move onto another.  I just feel as if this is ultimately a disservice to their community, who have supported them through the game’s development in ways no other fans have before.