The Confusing History of Minecraft.com

Brings a new meaning to 'my dad works at Minecraft'

Tbh it's more likely that Microsoft offered MineCraft Consulting a pretty penny for the domain, as they wouldn't have any legal basis for pursuing a court ordered takedown. Cheaper and easier to just buy the domain off them as they clearly weren't using it to its full potential anyway

"So, where do you work?"
"Minecraft."
"Oh, so you're a Mojang employee?"
"...No."

I remember going to this site as a kid, felt like a jump scare at the time.

I still found it funny that an consulting company had the same domain name as the game minecraft.
It's a shame that they had to give up on that domain. It was very funny not gonna lie.

In all likelihood Microsoft probably offered Minecraft Consulting a large sum of money. And the firm didn't want to budge, but as time went on got tired of dealing with it. So they ultimately accepted the offer.

That minecraft consulting worker/father using the domain to review his favorite games is honestly so wholesome

I certainly hope that Minecraft consulting wasn’t threatened to force them to give it up, and they were actually compensated fairly. Surely Microsoft would have no legal basis to demand the domain be handed over

Hi @SalC1 one point you missed in this is that MineCraft is part of the Glencore group - a company which would rank at the same level as Microsoft on global power.

The really interesting part of this story is the site changing to game reviews! Would love to know what the hell that was all about. Enjoyable topic this one Sal.

Huh, the children really do yearn for the mines...
Also I love the fact a company can just legally bully people into giving up something they rightfully own, solely because they now own something that shares the same name

MineCraft Consulting presumably has a legal trademark on MineCraft in Australia in the domain of, idk, engineering consultation, so they couldn't just be totally forced to hand over the domain. More than likely they just got paid to hand it over.

0:37
The best quote:
"Why play a game to mine when you can do it IRL!"
L O L

As a real Minecrafter, I really root for the Mining Company

This is one of the main reasons I love the internet. So many small and highly interesting pieces of history and things that are just there somewhere for us to find and document. Great video as usual mate.

Yes I do think the mining company should have held on to it. There were completely in their right to do so.

Knowing Notch, he didn't mind that the company used the same website name but different domain.
Now, Microsoft though..

My opinion is that the consulting firm should have been allowed to keep the domain. Yes, it was neglected and deliberately used poorly for many years, they did end up using it 'properly' well before the Microsoft buyout. That's not even considering it was acquired before Minecraft was a thing at all. 0% chance it was intentionally domain-squatted, but maybe opportunistically at worst - which I don't really think is the case anyways. I like to imagine if they weren't based out of AU, it would be potentially damaging for the business. I don't think there's a '.country' for America, and having to sacrifice the domain would suck.

Really, though, for the average person them losing the domain is probably for the best. Minecraft is so well known even outside of gaming communities, that if they just had a website called minecraftconsulting or something it wouldn't seem out of place, and it would prevent the most incorrect website visits.

I'd bet 99% of people who accidentally visited the consulting website had no use for it, so there was no business opportunity by having extra traffic. (compared to something like, let's say, a hobby store that stocks things for arts, crafts, and yardwork?)

Nice video, Sal.

I think MineCraft Consulting should have been able to keep their domain. They owned it way before Minecraft was a game, and they were using it for a little while before Microsoft was even involved in Minecraft. MineCraft Consulting should have gotten original ownership priority or something because they owned it for such a long period of time before the game was even made

Edit: grammar mistakes, screw you comments >:(

I live in Australia, so when I first saw this as a kid I assumed they'd replaced minecraft with some random mining business and got super confused when I could google minecraft and get the correct website. Interesting to see that they did finally buy it out, I thought the domain was still up, but maybe I get redirected to the australian version because it makes more sense.