Earlier this morning, Markus 'Notch' Persson slammed Microsoft this morning after the company reached out to him to offer their support for certifying Minecraft for the new Windows 8 operating system. The outspoken developer took to Twitter to declare his frustration with Microsoft and their attempts at "ruining the PC as an open platform."
"Got an email from Microsoft, wanting to help "certify" Minecraft for Win 8. I told them to stop trying to ruin the pc as an open platform," Notch said. "I'd rather have Minecraft not run on win 8 at all than to play along. Maybe we can convince a few people not to switch to Windows 8 that way."
Software certification is nothing new for Microsoft. The company has been doing it since at least Windows XP, as a way to ensure certain applications reach a quality and compatibility standard across the operating system.
"Customers trust the Windows brand on your product because it ensures that it meets compatibility standards and performs well on the Windows platform," Microsoft says of the Windows 8 Desktop App Certification Program which allows developers to display the Windows logo on their product.
"The Windows App Certification Program is made up of program and technical requirements to help ensure that third-party apps carrying the Windows brand are both easy to install and reliable on PCs running Windows," the document continues. "Customers value stability, compatibility, reliability, performance, and quality in the systems they purchase."
We're not sure what exactly Microsoft is requiring for Minecraft, but we all know Notch has never been one to shy away from confrontation, particularly when it comes to his creative babies. Just last year, Notch's company Mojang went to court with ZeniMax/Bethesda in a case over the Scrolls trademark. Needless to say, Notch won.
Whether or not Notch and Microsoft reach some sort of agreement remains to be seen, but I wouldn't count on Microsoft winning this one either. Notch made his views on Windows 8 known last month in a Reddit Q&A, and it was basically the same stance he took today.
"I hope we can keep a lot of open and free platforms around. If Microsoft decides to lock down Windows 8, it would be very very bad for Indie games and competition in general," he said at the time. "If we can keep open platforms around, there's going to be a lot of very interesting games in ten years, mixed in with the huge AAA games that we all love."
As of right now, it looks like consumers will have to play Minecraft on Windows 8 "at their own risk". Risk from the Enderman! Ah thank you!