THE ongoing Minecraft computer game phenomenon has resulted in a Scottish software developer planning to double in size.
4J Studios, founded by entrepreneur Chris van der Kuyl and long term collaborator Paddy Burns, has already developed the conversion of the game for the Xbox 360 console.
That version sold 450,000 copies just a few hours after going on release and reached more than one million sales within five days.
Minecraft, where players can build their own worlds, was initially developed to be played on personal computers and is owned by Swedish company Mojang. Mojang was recently bought by Microsoft in a deal worth $2.5 billion.
At the moment 4J is gearing up for further Minecraft launches on platforms including Playstation 4, Xbox One and the portable Playstation Vita.
As a result it has taken on larger premises in its bases in Mr van der Kuyl's home town of Dundee and the village of East Linton in East Lothian, where Mr Burns lives.
It is looking to grow staff numbers in both locations in the coming months.
Mr van der Kuyl said initially that is likely to see the business increase headcount from around 20 to 40 although he insisted there was not a set upper limit.
He said: "4J has taken an approach from day one that we only want the best people, both in terms of their ability to programme or do animation or art, but also in terms of the best people that fit with us in the right way.
"We have been pretty sensible but over the next period of months we are really going to put a bit of a campaign together to get some talent which wants to work with us on what is I would say is likely to surpass Tetris as the most successful game of all time."
Mr van der Kuyl, who is also the chairman of the Entrepreneurial Scotland organisation, has spoken with executives from both Mojang and Microsoft since the deal was announced and is hopeful 4J will continue to be a partner in taking Minecraft forward.
Fuelling his confidence is the fact that Microsoft initially introduced 4J to Mojang with the Scottish business still the Swedish group's only software development partner.
He said: "The minute we met the guys at Mojang in Stockholm and saw the PC version and early mobile phone versions of the game we knew it was something pretty exceptional.
"It didn't look like anything else and you could see how players were reacting to it. We were really excited to get the chance to work on it.
"In our experience of the games industry a really strong game will sell for six to 12 months and then you do a new version a year or two later.
"Three years on and [Minecraft] is like nothing we have ever seen. It has just been magical to have been involved as something as successful as it is. Creatively it has been fantastic and business wise it is a great place to be."
Mr van der Kuyl confirmed the additional staff at 4J would be working on Minecraft and said that will be the focus of the company for the foreseeable future.
He said: "When you get the chance to work on the world's biggest game franchise I don't think you need to think much further than keeping it going."
The most recent annual accounts for 4J show a turnover of more than £10 million.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article