Mojang says licensing remains a small part of its Minecraft business

The business of Minecraft will remain very much in improving and developing the game, creator Mojang has claimed.

Minecraft merchandising and licensing is becoming an increasingly common sight on the High Street, and the presumption is that Microsoft’s $2.5bn acquisition of Mojang was very much made with one eye on these assorted revenue streams.

This is not the case, however, Mojang’s chief operating officer Vu Bui has told The Guardian.

Licensing is a small portion of our business, and we want to keep it that way,” he said. We’re a games studio, and I don’t think that’s going to change any time soon,” says Bui.

But people do want to have something physical in their life when they’re not in front of a screen. When we make merchandise, we’re thinking about making something for the people who want it and love it, not just as a source of revenues.”

There’s some decent and very strong selling stuff out there, too, such as Egmont’s 1m+ unit sellingofficial guide.

Every product that exists out there officially, they have gone over pixel-by-pixel, and for the books, page-by-page,” Bui added. We keep all our approvals in-house – we don’t use any licensing agents – and we are very hardcore about those approvals, to make sure each product is something we believe in.”

Angry Birds creator Rovio has previously said that 47 per cent of its 2013 income was derived from its consumer products division – but then again, things aren’t going so well over there right now with profits halving and job losses being considered.