Pirating games? I never did. I would not even know how to do it. And if I know, I would be afraid of being ‘caught’. So I just don’t do it. It is a discussion that has been on for years, is piracy theft, or not? Minecraft assistant Markus Persson has his opinion about that …
Minecraft assistant Markus Persson, better known as Notch, is not exactly known for his diplomacy. For thirteen years he has regularly been heard with pronounced statements about the game industry and social issues.
In 2012 he even advised a fan to download Minecraft illegally if this could not afford it: “Just pirate it. If you like it later and you can pay for it, then buy it. But feel a bit guilty.”
At the Game Developers Conference in 2011, Persson went one step further: according to him, piracy is not theft. “If someone steals a car, there is one less. But a game pirate? Then there is an extra copy, and maybe even a new fan.”
Now Notch is mixing up again in the debate by the Stop Killing Games-actie, a petition Those developers and publishers want to prohibit online games to get permanent offline. EA recently announced that from January 12, 2026, Anthem is no longer playable. The petition is growing rapidly and has collected nearly 1.3 million signatures.
Publishers are already warning that such a law would be ‘priceless’, which, according to many, is a disguised threat to even higher prices. Persson responds fiercely: “If buying a game is not a purchase, then piracy is not theft.” Are advice to the industry? Just let players run their own servers, as in the past. That keeps a game life, even when the official servers go offline.
