Minecraft creator Markus “Notch” Persson has “basically announced minecraft 2”, surprising fans of the thirteen-year-old game. The creator confirmed that his next game will be a spiritual successor to the hit survival-crafting game.

At the start of the new year, Persson put up a poll on X (via Eurogamer) asking his fans to vote on whether they wanted him to work on a new game or a Minecraft sequel.

Persson’s idea for his new game would have been a “traditional roguelike (i.e. ADOM, nethack, etc) mixed with a tile based first person dungeon crawler (ie Legend of Grimrock (esp 2), Eye of the Beholder).” The game maker asked his followers to vote on whether he should pursue the new idea or make a spiritual successor to Minecraft.

After 286,000 votes, the majority voted for him to “make Minecraft 2 boomer.” Persson followed up with a new post where he confirmed plans to start work on the game.

“My intentions are to be clear and honest about it, saying that spiritual successors are usually kind of… you know… washed up. Tragic,” said Persson. “The things I’m fearing my next game is going to be anyway and try to push myself to avoid. So why not do the thing that people DO want and are willing to give me, somehow, even MORE cash for [?].”

As for whether he legally can create a Minecraft successor with similar gameplay elements, given that Microsoft Persson is no longer working at Mojang, he said that it wouldn’t be an issue. The creator confirmed there was a “one year period where I couldn’t make a game with modifiable terrain or something like that” but the clause has now expired.

Of course, the new game won’t actually be called “Minecraft 2” or use any officially trademarked assets from the original. Since the game has just been announced, don’t expect it to be released anytime soon.

Minecraft is available on PC, iOS, Android, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo consoles.