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Mojang was collaborating on a now cancelled first-person shooter

Wishes to stay "as independent as possible."

Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson revealed that his studio Mojang was working on a first-person shooter with an unannounced company, but ended up cancelling the project in its prototype phase.

Evidently this wasn't due to the quality of the game, so much as it was about wanting to remain autonomous. In remarks to Joystiq, Notch said, Mojang "did not want more external dependencies... The success of Minecraft meant we could focus on projects fully owned by us."

This isn't to suggest that Mojang will only work on entirely independent project, and Notch stated that if there are other reasons to collaborate besides making money he would consider it.

Earlier this week Notch spoke of his desire to remain "as independent as possible" in an interview with PC Gamer. "As much as I love Steam, I do somewhat worry about the PC as a gaming platform becoming owned by a single entity that takes 30 per cent of all PC games sold," he said.

"I'm hoping for a future where more games can self-publish and use social media and friends to market their games. Perhaps there's something we could do to help out there? I don't know. If nothing else, we might work as an inspiration for people to self-publish."