Mojang to Require a Microsoft Account to Play Minecraft | Hacker News Reader

Mojang to Require a Microsoft Account to Play Minecraft

minecraft.net

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Discussed recently:

Last call to voluntarily migrate Java accounts - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30278313 - Feb 2022 (105 comments)

Through terrible process and QA on their end, MS essentially stole a copy of the game back from me with this change.

My son got an email saying he needed to migrate our Mojang account to an MS account and he clicked through like the email said. Problem was the Microsoft account he migrated to already had a Minecraft purchase. Now I essentially lost a copy of the game because we technically have two Minecraft accounts with the same email. We can only log into one of them.

I contact MS with the best link I could find but it was not actually linking me up to a MS employee, but cycled me through four different "experts", each of which I had to re-explain the issue, and each said they didn't know how to help me before bouncing me to another expert. It was a terrible experience and still unresolved.

My kids are unable to use their game because Microsoft is sending password reset to email that no longer exists.

And that's is all that Microsoft support is willing to do to help - send a code to non-existing email address. It does not matter that we have proof of purchase or activation code.

Simiar story, already posted it last time this came up. Bought a gift code for a 13yo 10 years ago. They lost their email address from back then, as in, don't even remember what it was. But well, I wasn't really The sharpest tool in the shed either at 13. The FAQ say if you have the PayPal transaction id, you get the account back.

Support replied after a week saying they lost PayPal transaction IDs for that time period and unless I can provide the email address the account is registered as, it's a "no can do".

To be fair, it sounds like you didn't the email it was sent to, the PayPal id (receipt), and it was never chased in as an account... What does support even have to go off of then?

He has the PP ID it sounds like - MS lost the PayPal IDs on their end, so they cannot corroborate the veracity of what he provided.

Was this before MS bought Mojang?

Yes, 10 years ago it was still Mojang only. I contacted them about a year ago, when that now 23yo got nostalgic and wanted to play again.

wow I thought it was just me with the problem!

I've been torn because I really want to play the game after almost a decade, but out of principle have not wanted to pay them twice.

> Problem was the Microsoft account he migrated to already had a Minecraft purchase.

When I specifically tried to do this, the migration page said "Sorry, this account already has already been migrated".

Reminder that there are two Minecraft licenses - one for bedrock/"Minecraft for Windows"/Windows 10 Edition[0], and one for the "Java edition" of the game[1]; you only needed to migrate Mojang->Microsoft to keep access to your Java Edition purchase via a Microsoft account. The Windows edition has always been a pure Microsoft Store license.

0: https://www.xbox.com/en-us/games/store/minecraft/9nblggh537b...

1: https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/store/minecraft-java-edition

I had endless trouble with Microsoft phone support telling me they'd successfully cancelled my Xbox Live Gold member ship only to get another bill the next month. Turns out there were two Xbox accounts linked to the same Gmail account, one with a "." and one without.

This is the "gmail fullstop" problem.

This is a massive security oversight and has already made its rounds already.

Xbox accounts have been compromised, but really, anything can, if you own first.last@gmail.com, you better be careful about everything you do.

People who know your email know your name, and can cause services to email you things, using two accounts, one your's the other, not.

Indeed. What made it harder to detect was I'd made them myself at some point in the long history of xbox live, so all the account details were identical between the two.

At least you've cost MS more money through four experts than them giving you the game back directly. So there's that, I guess.

Now I wonder if fixing such edge cases would be more expensive for them than making users go through these "experts" again and again...

Someone should automate the cycling process so the user's time isn't wasted as well. Some audio recordings and a chatbot might actually be enough given how formulaic such interactions are.

Yeah it’s a mess, when you’re on Linux you buy Java initially without caring much, then you are in for a surprise and some interesting reads when the kids want to play with friends… I don’t understand why I can’t just have both on the same account, prevent the unpleasant surprises. I mean it’s the same game (from the outside).

Well, if your kids are slightly older, you have the opposite problem: everyone older than 12-13 tends to want to play on Java. My oldest is right on the cusp where his friend group is split down the middle.

It's super dumb.

I have had Bedrock kids over and they crossplayed with my Java kids using GeyserMC [0] on my server, which tickles the inner nerd, but there are always minor glitches.

[0]: https://geysermc.org/

We currently use the linux minecraft launcher which has worked pretty well up to now running bedrock on linux. It's the best bedrock experience, but this change is concerning.

So I just got the message that I’m getting bedrock for free with Java, that’s nice! What launcher are you using exactly?

This [1] here. Sadly, the maintainer has had enough. It still works for the latest minecraft I think. It runs so nicely on linux - far more processor efficient than the java version, and runs even better than bedrock on Win10. I'll be sad when it stops working, but will probably just 'hold' on an old minecraft version at that point.

[1] https://mcpelauncher.readthedocs.io/en/latest/getting_starte...

Why would they suddenly want to play on Java? Is it the mods?

Mods is part of it, but the biggest reason my 12 year-old insisted on switching to Java is because he says redstone behaves differently.

He'd try to recreate a cool build he saw in a book or online, and get super frustrated when it just wouldn't work in Bedrock edition.

However, I feel that also highlights the importance of network effects. There's a huge amount of content in guide books, wikis, online tutorials, YouTube channels, etc., and the majority of it is targeted at Java edition.

Probably because the older version is Java, so if you grew up being intrroduced by people older than you, the Java would have more staying power.

Wait - it's not Java anymore? Can people still self-host servers?

I checked out of Minecraft in like 2012.

You can host Bedrock servers, in fact, it is a single argument in my docker-compose.yaml to flip between a Java or a Bedrock server [0]. Not sure about the plug-in situation.

[0]: https://github.com/itzg/docker-minecraft-server

The cross platform (as in consoles) Version is written in C++ called bedrock edition, but they are both still actively developed on.

Sounds typical of modern support. Nobody knows how anything works and even if they did they are not actually empowered to help you anyway. Best way to get results is to complain loudly in public (Twitter) and hope someone at MS is annoyed by a barrage of retweeted negative mentions.

If there’s a good way to reach you (add email in your bio maybe?) I can give you a phone number for someone who can help.

Do you have an email address I can reach out to you at?

The whole Mojang/Microsoft account migration thing has been a nightmare. I got two kids, and purchased different versions of Minecraft (don't get me started on that fiasco) over the years. I also work in tech, and have Microsoft accounts. Lastly I've dabbled with Xbox Game Pass etc. Determining which account to use and login with is a nightmare. I don't play Minecraft enough to stay current with all the ins-and-outs which means I ultimately don't play as much.

Edit: Another commenter reminded me that I also "lost" a license when merging accounts. Or at least I have no idea how to get back into an account that had a purchased license. Oh well, they (MS) lose out in the end as it's 3 less Minecraft gamers with disposable income.

Microsoft gaming is a pretty terrible compared to other marketplaces/launchers. I sub to xboxgamepass and have had so many silly issues that im considering canceling. Team/group based games are seriously problematic. I thought multiplayer was a problem that was worked out years ago.

Jeez. Microsoft account management is absolutely trash. They try to do clever things, but they don't really think things through.

As an example: while trying to get excel installed on a Windows VM, running on a Linux host, I found that if your user agent shows you're running Linux, their admin panel will show you a completely different set of already-purchased applications available to install. Took somewhere between 5-10 calls to their support before I figured that out on my own.

Why would your user agent show you're running linux in a VM?

I was trying to figure out the account nonsense from a browser on the host machine, not the VM.

I gave up on Microsoft in the 90’s. Couldn’t be happier now outside of their ecosystem.

Maybe you failed to understand the issue, let me explain it clear: I run Linux, I bought Minecraft from Mojang but now it is owned by Microsoft. Also MS bough a lot of game development studios so many games are now owned by Microsoft.

When I bought Minecraft I was outside of their ecosystem. Now this crap gets forced down my throat. I guess I'm not doing the migration and just play offline/"cracked"

Same here. There was talk a few years ago about Mojang open sourcing it, but clearly they went with the money. And now Microsoft are adamant to squeeze every bit of money and future custom from us.

Minecraft was a better game under the original developer. Just recently saw that I can buy Minecraft coins at a tank stop. A really sad development of an awesome game which had an insurmountable amount of free content. Don't know what I expected with the acquisition though.

I don't think I will migrate my account, currently in the process of migrating away from Windows for good.

Honestly I'm in the same boat, I bought a copy of MC 10 years ago and love the game. Watching it grow just as a game and in the speedrunning community, SMPs, builds, Let's Plays, etc has been staggering. But now I'm left questioning what this move means and if the game is taking a different turn from the creative freedom that made it successful in the first place.

To be honest I haven't played it in ages, but there was a time when I enjoyed it with some friends on our self hosted server.

It is still successful and it is probably a completely transformed game by now, but ultimately I think they want to lure people into their environment. I also wouldn't want my kids playing it because of the monetization.

The version you like is still available... you can play the game and run a server in any version you want. Java has no monetization.

But is still being pulled into Microsoft accounts.

Enough is enough, I'm done with this.

The only game that I'm willing to play with a Microsoft account is the MCC - and that's because I bought it knowing I would need an account, then made a throwaway email and MS account to play it with.

> Don't know what I expected with the acquisition though.

A business buys a product for 2.5Bn, there's going to want to make 10Bn in return.

To clarify, the original Java version of Minecraft is essentially the same game with more gameplay features, the Bedrock version is the one with the microtransactions. Plus, the Java launcher lets you use any version going back more than a decade, so if you're not happy with the new features you can just pretend they never happened like some parts of the modded community do with versions after 1.7.10.

Wait so literally EEE. I thought MS was done with that.

Until you get rootkitted from Log4J

It looks like they brought the security fixes to all versions via the launcher. https://help.minecraft.net/hc/en-us/articles/4416199399693-S...

Ever since Microsoft took the lead they've kept adding and adding. New blocks, items, mechanics. Minecraft was supposed to be about simplicity. MS has pushed their own agenda for the game and torched everything it used to be. They reworked graphics just because they didn't like them.

> Minecraft was supposed to be about simplicity.

...redstone circuits aren't exactly the definition of simplicity.

My kids seem to love all the new mechanics and items, and spend hours building things or fighting Orcs in a LOTR mod together, so I'm getting a lot of value from three MC licences.

"Minecraft was supposed to be about simplicity."

Minecraft was supposed to be a toy project Notch wanted to mess around with. Simplicity has never been a target, since every major release, including during the in/infdev days has had major changes.

I will always be nostalgic for 2011 Minecraft. Sandstone was cool, dogs were cool, pistons were cool, villagers not so much, IMHO. Less was more, man.

In preparation for the transfer, I've been playing with friends the last few weeks and I don't know that I agree that it was a better game. It feels like there's still not a lot of other games out there quite like it--often imitated, never duplicated.

That said, I do agree that I likely won't be migrating my account. It's a good excuse to go through another cycle of addiction with the game.

Created a new account, got locked almost immediately. Requires a telephone number to unlock it. Thanks Microsoft! Thanks Mojang!

Had the same happen.

Haven't tried to fix it yet, too scared they'll lock my primary ms account as well, and then I lose Xbox and office...

Hmm. I have like a dozen Minecraft accounts but only one or two phone numbers. I wonder how this is going to play out :/

I had the same problem, you can verify an account every 24 hours per phone number. Cause.... that somehow helps for security

When I was making accounts for my kids, I used friends phone. Cause my kids did not had own phone. It was ridiculous.

They make it a huge pain to buy the damn game and actually get it working for your kid's account (yes, that's another step or two) if you don't already have accounts. And their account management pages make Teams look well-organized. I was shocked at how hard it was when I did it. I guess they don't want anyone buying the Java version anymore (I assume the other kind is easier to buy?)

I went through their account creation process, was no longer able to start Minecraft. It wanted me to buy a new copy.

After contacting MS, they recommended I downgrade to the old version of the launcher, and that worked. I assume upgrading will be forced at some point, and I'll probably lose access again.

This transition doesn't seem to be well handled, although I was glad that I was able to actually get hold of a human support rep.

You've described the account management experience of Microsoft's forays into gaming in a nutshell. Still the same shit as it has been for the past 15 years. Fortunately, you can console yourself that in two years, they'll abandon this system, and switch to something else that's broken in a different way.

It's clear that there's an annual OKR to hit some account creation # or other, but there's no OKR for having those accounts provide any value to the users.

If you're on Windows, Microsoft is edging (read 'diving headfirst into') towards requiring a Microsoft account just to log in.

The kicker is that they are extremely bad at mixed account scenarios, you know like needing a certain account for work and another account for private stuff. Enjoy the entropy!

>The kicker is that they are extremely bad at mixed account scenarios, you know like needing a certain account for work and another account for private stuff. Enjoy the entropy!

I never really thought about that Google is surprisingly good at this, despite being more complicated: On some services you can have multiple identities even within the same Google account (like on YouTube).

They have a "Switch Account" button and it just lists all of your Google Accounts with all of your identities (YouTube channels) below them. It's really comfortable to work with and I hardly (well, not never) mess this up. The identity icon in the top right that is also repeated in every place where you're submitting something with that identity (like next to the comment box) helps to keep you oriented.

Typically I give Google a lot of shit, but they've got this figured out at least.

My YouTube account was before the acquisition, when I linked it to my Google account I ended up with two YouTube account linked on the same Google account. Anytime I connect to YouTube it asks me which account to use, I am still using my old account.

In 2010 I first got into Linux because of Microsoft making (what seemed to me at the time to be) user hostile decisions: my netbook came with "windows 7 starter edition", which did not allow you to change the wallpaper. They claimed that this was to accommodate the less powerful hardware of the netbook... but they went out of their way to enforce it. If you found the default wallpaper file and modified it, they would detect it and show a black screen.

Now 12 years later I have many Microsoft accounts, because I don't really use their services, I think they just strongly pushed me into making one when I setup windows laptops over the years. I also probably have one for Skype, I've created a few when playing Halo MCC on a new computer (every damn time it asks me to log in, even if I just want to play single player). Oh and another from when I played Xbox 360 a long time ago. Plus a few from high school when I used MSN messenger.

I've never actually tried to clean this up and merge them, and your comment has scared me from even trying. And more on topic, I'm sad that a game like Minecraft is likely going to be lost in this mess. It's the kind of game that I might open every few years and mess around for an hour. Now it will likely be like my experience when trying to recover my old Microsoft accounts... Extremely painful, mandatory phone number, new login from suspicious location, security questions... Ugh. At least with Minecraft it will be for a game that isn't already tied to another account that I actually use, like steam.

Maybe people don't want their game accounts to be attached to an email account and their OS. Hell, I don't want an account on my OS at all-- what is the benefit, if I don't use Outlook or OneDrive or any of their devices? If anything it's probably a liability, could I get locked out of my own PC if my (otherwise unused) Microsoft account was compromised?

> Microsoft is edging (read 'diving headfirst into') towards requiring a Microsoft account just to log in.

Apple is also extremely persistent about asking you for an Apple id. It prompts me for my Apple ID maybe once an hour.

Now I'm sure that this is behavior that could be turned off in some setting, but the fact that it is somehow not difficult to get it into this state is evidence enough.

This seems to happen a lot during the first ~5 days or so of buying a new iPhone. You get prompted for Apple ID login every few hours and sometimes repeatedly in quick succession. Maddening.

> diving headfirst into

Well, precisely: https://www.theverge.com/2022/2/18/22940517/windows-11-pro-r...

MS screwed up my 2 Skype account migrations. For single player probably a cracked launcher should work but if your kids play multiplayer you might have no choice and maybe create a Minecraft-only MS account and hope MS is not link it behind your back with your other accounts and skype.

F.U. MS, you could let us use the stuff we paid without forcing us into your shit again, some business person really wanted to simplify his spreadsheets or get some bonus because he pushed for new MS accoutns to be created then phase 2 link a credit card and phase 3 add dack patherns so kids buy skins?

I've been running a server for 11 years now. It was always in online mode as well, I didn't want to hurt some indie studio and most importantly, it made banning griefers manageable.

I've already looked into how I can run the server in "mixed mode" so in addition to still allowing registered players in just as before, I can create a separate login process for arbitrary players that use a modified launcher that doesn't talk to MS servers. Probably gonna involve some trial and error, but then I can just hand out accounts manually to friends who don't want to migrate either.

Maybe running an offline Server with custom account management is the best way going forward for people with kids. ;)

That post looks like Orwellian satire.

Starting with the header image literally telling the viewer what to do. APPLAUSE

Two authoritative figures standing on stage, delivering the good message to the crowd. APPLAUSE

Followed by a dose of gaslighting; `So if you find yourself feeling like this transition is a hassle (but let’s be honest, it really isn’t...`

Written by: Staff

I have 5 java MC accounts, OMG the amount of work I need to do to migrate them. Microsoft your authentication regime sucks. It is a total pain. Can I get a refund?

I bought Java Minecraft a couple of years ago, early enough that I was able to redeem a free Bedrock account, after an astounding shitshow of authentication loops. I'm pretty sure I was only able to complete the process this time because I knew what to expect and had my dev tools window open.

I can't imagine how mere mortals could be expected to navigate this process.

Key Takeaway:

> Now just to be clear, migrating from Mojang to Microsoft accounts is mandatory. If you don’t make the move, in several months you won’t be able to log in anymore – which means you won’t be able to play either.

Link to their announcement video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9cqIwrgz7w

I bought Minecraft when it was just about to go to beta and I changed over to a Microsoft account a few days ago. I can't say it went smoothly or that I am happy about it.

Lately when I have time to game I've been messing around with Veloren instead: https://veloren.net

Veloren looks promising. I've played it a bit just trying it out. I know it's supposed to be an open-source community built game, and I hope it continues to remain so, but I am also hoping they get some altruistic funding soon just so that perhaps the main maintainers can turn it into a serious game development project.

With the in-game currency and mandatory Microsoft accounts, unfortunately one can see self-hosted Minecraft Java server development halted as well in foreseeable future. I would not be totally surprised if they have been strategically placing bugs (to ruin the experience for those who bought the game but don’t want to be locked in) already.

> unfortunately one can see self-hosted Minecraft Java server development halted as well in foreseeable future.

As someone who's an idiot and doesn't know what they're talking about, how hard would it be to make Minetest compatible with Minecraft servers?

Edit: I recognize you're talking about 1st party Minecraft server development now, there are 3rd party implementations though, correct?

Presumably there would need to be modifications to the Minetest engine, but it seems easier than re-implementing Minecraft from scratch - and would be a great screw you to M$.

The official Minecraft code is very well reverse-engineered, so it’d probably be easier to try to update that rather than creating one from scratch or from a different project like Minetest.

Interesting. I wonder if the presumably more questionable legality would outweigh that or not, though I suppose it could get clean-roomed like WINE or IBM PC's...

It would take an insane amount of work.

Minetest is not remotely close to feature parity with Minecraft.

Minetest has the Dreambuilder mod.

What I'm thinking is that everything already happens on the serverside in Minecraft right?

IIRC, even local/singleplayer games start a server on your machine and then the client renders whatever the server tells it too - so it seems like maybe not as much work as it looks on the surface, especially with as well understood as Minecraft's client/server protocol is.

When you look at some of Microsoft's actions they can seem really solid (for example doing away with Bethesda's launcher, keeping many Bethesda/Mojang/Activison games multi-platform), but if 5 years from now a Microsoft account is required to play Bethesda games and they develop a Microsoft Launcher... No thanks.

They already have a Microsoft Launcher; the Windows Store or the Xbox app (which is basically just a better UI layer on top of the Windows Store).

Yes, I meant more in terms of requiring it in order to play their games (like EA Origin or the Epic Games Launcher). Currently I see Halo Infinite on Steam so it appears that hasn't come to pass

Halo Infinite on Steam does not currently require any launcher, but other games (GTA V for example) do require launchers even when bought on and launched from Steam.

Also, the Xbox app is the only way I know of to do cross-platform voice chat when playing Halo Infinite.

Anyone old enough to remember how many times we've been here? Every five or so years, Microsoft re-invents its own idea to force players to make MS accounts to log in to games. Later, when they inevitably drop the initiative, the players are left wondering if their game will be inaccessible when the account service goes offline.

Reports of people being locked out and other troubles. Microsoft soils everything they touch. They have the money to get things right, they just somehow don't. I just don't get it.

>They have the money to get things right, they just somehow don't. I just don't get it.

They have enough money that they don't need to get it right. What are you gonna do, go running to the competition? They can just buy the competition.

I have an ancient minecraft account (so old I paypal'ed 9 euro to Mojang) that doesn't have an email associated with it. Does anybody have experience with MS helping recover an older MC account?

I'm in a similar situation. From what I could find the easiest way to resolve the issue is to report the original transaction ID [1], if you still have access to it.

They list the instructions for PayPal:

> The PayPal transaction ID is a seventeen-character alphanumeric code: 1AB23456C7890123D

> To locate this transaction ID, log into your PayPal account and find the ID in your transaction history. If you no longer have access to your PayPal account, or if you made a purchase that doesn’t appear in your transaction history, you must contact PayPal to request the ID.

[1] https://help.minecraft.net/hc/en-us/articles/360029977371-Wh...

I tried this process twice in the past two years. Despite providing them with the original PayPal receipt and transaction ID, and still having control of the original email address that the receipt was sent to, and even knowing the original UUID of my user account, I was told that they were unable to verify my identity because:

> we've had some issues with searching for PayPal transaction IDs lately. We may not be able to use the PayPal transaction ID alone.

Sucks to be me, I guess. It would probably make more sense to just pay for a new account than to try arguing with them again, but I'm stubborn enough to stand on principle.

I had to do that A few years ago. (Same thing, early PayPal). I had an old email attached to it I no longer had access too. I was able to email support and give them some information such as purchase date (that was frankly not super specific but was worth a shot. I'm talking very, very vague dates) and they were able to transfer the account to me.

I'm in that boat (it's my only OG nerd cred). I did that process. Reach out to their support. They'll have you provide the paypal transaction ID, purchase dates, and a new e-mail. They take it from there.

It really wasn't that hard.

A quirk that I experienced: My email is d@<my domain>.io, and thanks to Microsoft's weird password policies, I cannot use any passwords with the letter d in them.

"Now just to be clear, migrating from Mojang to Microsoft accounts is 'mandatory'."

Whoever made the poor word choice of "mandatory", rather than "required", ought to leave marketing altogether and instead teach in a middle school.

Coming from Spanish it took me a while to learn/grok "mandatory"/"compulsory" (in Spanish we use the way simpler "hay que"/"tienes que", which would be like just "there is"/"have to"), so I thought that phrase was totally fine!

Why would it be better "required" in this situation instead of "mandatory" if you don't mind me asking?

As a native English speaker, I don't see anything objectionable either.

The only thing I can guess at is OP thinking that mandatory means you have to do it, even if you have no interest in playing Minecraft again, but you could read the same into required if you wanted.

Or maybe they think this page is being read by kids, and not their parents, and that kids won't know what mandatory means? But you're supposed to be 13 to have an account, and I'm sure 13 year olds know the word mandatory.

"mandatory" from Latin mandātor (“someone who orders”), compare: "commandant"

"required" from Latin requīrō (“i seek, ask for”), compare: "request" and "aquire"

Today the words are mostly interchangeable, but mandatory is more often used in context of laws and government while "required" is seen mostly in tech and engineering.

"mandatory" comes across as a bit more condescending. It's really unusual phrasing for public messaging.

Nothing linguistically wrong with it though.

I don't understand the difference?

"When something is required, it is necessary to complete an action or achieve a goal. When something is mandatory, it is obligatory, usually because some law or rule imposed it."

https://thecontentauthority.com/blog/required-vs-mandatory

As a native speaker, I don't understand the distinction. If you want to achieve the goal of playing Minecraft, it is (or will become) obligatory to use a Microsoft account because Microsoft changed the rules to impose this.

Is the nuance maybe that something that is mandatory must be done even if you are not in the process of completing a goal? It's possible that Microsoft will kill the migration process at some point (either intentionally or through neglect), so maybe this must be done if you want to play again without paying again.

It's somewhat nuanced. You're missing the human aspect of it. If someone tells you an action is mandatory, it implies that they have some sort of power over you (boss, police, government, etc.). If someone tells you something is required, it has more of an air of "you need to do this to access this product".

One is far more aggressive and off-putting than the other.

In rare good news this actually restored a purchase I thought I had lost!

I purchased minecraft back in the alpha days, when the contract said you get it forever including all updates.

Over the years I lost that account.

Well, when Microsoft sent out this email I discovered I had been using the wrong email address - it was forwarded from an ancient email address I stopped using ages ago. I was able to go sign in (using the forgot password process), link it to my current microsoft account and now have my ancient purchase working again on a modern account!

Yah, this is very specific to me, and troubling to require it, but I did get something good out of it.

Another Microsoft forcing strategy. I think Microsoft just might be capable enough to ruin this incredible game.

I've said it before and I will say it again. Their account system is a joke. Some time ago someone compromised my account (and I am 99.8% sure it was not because of a weak password). I only noticed because I got an email saying "password got changed, confirm? (etc)". I manually navigated to minecraft.net, reset my password, logged in only to find out my legacy account name got changed. Apparently "Schinken" is offensive, who would've thought. Support was more than unhelpful. I later found out that for every "minecraft.net" account there is also a "mojang.com" account. I never ever used this one and I am very sure the "attacker" got in through that somewhere. This one actually lets you setup 2FA.... Would've been nice. I am actually quite annoyed at the loss of my account, the mandatory microsoft account is the final nail in the coffin for me.

Let's hope minetest gets a big boost from this. Maybe I'll contribute too.

Microsoft forced me to add a phone nunber for "security reasons" because of "supspicious login activity". It was the first time I logged into the Microsoft account after I created it one day ago. There was nothing listed in the login activity section.

That was exactly my experience after posting an unrelated technical question on some MS forum. Wanted to delete my account immediately because I didn't want to deal with their botnet flagging accounts. Could not delete my account anymore without providing a telephone number. Their dead database entry then...

I guess they flagged it because I didn't provide contact information in the first place.

I have one phone number and two minecraft accounts... What's the betting using it twice will lock both and fuck me out of office and Xbox?

I'm doing this process now and it is a total pain due to how long their emails take to arrive.

So far I needed to:

- Reset my password

- Answer security questions I created as a kid, had no idea to the answers, had to reset them

- Finally, need a code to begin the migration

Each step requires an email confirmation or code, which takes 5-10 minutes to arrive, and for the last step, the session seems to timeout around 10 minutes. This is pretty frustrating as it has taken 30+ minutes to do, I can't imagine kids will have much patience or even understand what the purpose of this is.

Microsoft doesn't use security questions. IIUC then, your complaints are about Mojang's pre-Microsoft system. Then, would you consider this announcement a net positive, as it resolves the issues you described?

> Microsoft doesn't use security questions.

You sure about that? https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/account-billing/set-up-s...

Edit: but yeah, the GP is probably talking about the Mojang account

:) technically correct is the best kind of correct. Microsoft allows IT admins to use security questions for their employees in the enterprise world by config if they so choose. Microsoft doesn't use security questions for its consumer users, like Minecraft players.

I'm describing the transition from a Mojang account to MS account, as this thread is about.

Guess I won't be playing Minecraft anymore. At least not in online mode.

Pretty gross how they gave a cape to everyone to shut them up. (historically capes were a rare privilege to own)

Wow, this has to be some of the most weaselly writing I've seen in a long time. I think my business english professor would be proud. Or maybe the markeing prof?

When I finally migrated my account on a computer I hadn’t used minecraft on before, I had to log in to my Microsoft account on the MS store to activate the app before I could launch the downloaded installer. If I tried to launch the installer without having done that, I’d get an esoteric error. This whole migration has been janky and unnecessary. Yet another reminder as to Microsoft’s incompetence

Top 10 Best Selling Video Games of All Time:

10) Red Dead Redemption II (43M)

09) Wii Fit (43.8M)

08) Pokémon Red & Blue (47.5M)

07) Mario Kart 8 (51.8M)

06) Super Mario Bros. (58M)

05) PUBG: Battlegrounds (75M)

04) Wii Sports (82.9M)

03) Tetris (100M)

02) Grand Theft Auto V (160M)

01) Minecraft (238M)

My theory on Minecraft is that because it's java-based and ultra portable, most people have bought it lots of different platforms. I know that I have personally bought it on 7 different systems for myself and for my kids over the years.

For me it was that my kids want to play it together, and it runs on old hardware easily. If they wanted to play GTA V together, that's some expensive kit.

I've owned Minecraft on PC for over 10 years now, but this change really makes me just want to use the cracked version and switch over my Minecraft server to offline mode, just to avoid Microsoft's bullshit. Unfortunately, that would come with too many security risks, as far as my hobby server admin knowledge takes me...

Since I see many people asking questions about the migration process, here is a link to their FAQ:

https://help.minecraft.net/hc/en-us/articles/360050865492

Not migrating. I put the servers I’m hosting into offline mode so everyone can play with unauthenticated clients. Using MultiMC instead of the original launcher, but still need to find a reliable way to download the latest clients when we want to update. Minecraft without Microsoft

Any security concerns with using offline mode? I also host a server but I feel like I'd have more issues with those bots that scrape the internet looking for cracked servers to grief, for example. Would a whitelist even solve such a problem..?

Ugh I recently tried to recover a MS account to use Teams (only begrudgingly), was a nightmare.

As for Minecraft, I got an account ages ago (long before Notch sold) and at this point I'll consider it lost and simply play Minetest whenever I feel like Minecraft...

written by: staff.

this should tell you everything you need to know. if i had to pen an ultimatum to a dedicated fanbase that they either join or i steal their copy of a paid game, I would choose staff as my pen name as well.

I can't make it work.

I login, it demands I answer security questions ... I don't know those.

The link to reset security questions demands I LOGIN.

I opened a support ticket days ago... nothing.

And this all when I KNOW my username and password.

Take a look at and support development of optional products like Veloren, https://veloren.net/

I can’t play Flight Simulator anymore because the app launcher is so buggy. I guess I’m done with Minecraft. Hopefully someone will come up with a suitable clone soon enough.

Try Minetest with the Dreambuilder mod.

If you want a MC clone, get Mineclone 5.

well THIS was a total surprise...

I've effectively been locked out of minecraft now. Have had nothing but problems with Microsoft accounts.

This was announced over a year ago. Plenty of time for people to get ready or migrate voluntarily.

So, if MS wants me to create new accounts daily I should do it? It is not a smooth process and you nothing to gain and many things to lose(time, maybe your account), we do not forget the past with Skype and read the other comments, MS are incapable to do it right.

I purchased something it should continue to work even some shit at MS has different plans, they should be forced to unlock the launcher and not brick products.

At least Microsoft didn’t buy Wordle. Dont need no account or Wordle Service Pack or a TPM there yet

Edit: s/tpu/tpm/

I think you mean TPM, a TPU is a tensor processing unit - an artificial intelligence coprocessor - developed by google.

thanks, late hours here ooops! (fixed)

from what i can tell, mojang is not requiring anybody to do anything. microsoft, however, is making people migrate from mojang accounts to microsoft accounts.

Wellp, time to get into MineTest.

Well, never playing I guess.

I personally have given up playing Minecraft the official way (this coming from someone who paid for the game 10 years ago and has hosted multiple private servers.)

First they destroyed the launcher, replacing with some Chrome based garbage that had more dependencies than the game itself and now this. Microsoft just eats things and their brand smells like death.

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