The future of Minecraft servers (after EULA)

12.22.2022

Barnier says that once there was a free market, and, to be fair with you, a mature user base, now you have a closed garden that has very strict restrictions on what you can do. Barnier says that there may be changes to these limitations without your consent. It would surprise me if Minecraft sees a revival of excellent multiplayer server mods such as MineZ and Dungeon Realms.

Many of Minecraft's older players feel that Mojang/Microsoft has abandoned those who made the game so popular. These are the people who spent hours creating content and nurturing the community that made Minecraft what it is today.

Microsoft's approach to this is also difficult to accept, considering that they borrow heavily from the community to create new games and push an alternative hosting model. Many feel abandoned by Mojang and Microsoft after years of leaving large portions of server responsibility to private owners.

Although Minecraft's owners hope they can eradicate non-compliant servers with minimal impact, this could be detrimental to the future development of the game. Pre-2014, Minecraft's server environment was rich in mods, maps and game modes. However, innovation has slowed significantly today. Many community luminaries, such as the Yogscast team, have moved on to other areas. [Correction – 3:26pm] CPW was initially identified as one of the Minecraft developers that is no longer involved. This is incorrect. We are sorry for this error. It is possible that players who once inhabited these communities will move on to other games or to compliant servers, as they shrink or vanish.

Many feel that Minecraft is moving to a more corporate, structured model as Microsoft pushes Pocket Edition and console editions. While there are some advantages to this model, such as more polish, better support and frequent updates, it is not clear if they are worth the loss in diversity that made Minecraft such a huge success. While Minecraft may not go away, it's possible that Minecraft will not remain the same.