Consumer_Action_Taskforce

Minecraft account migration: Difference between revisions

← Older edit
VisualWikitext
No edit summary
 
(10 intermediate revisions by 7 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{StubNotice}}
{{StubNotice}}


== General ==
==General==
Minecraft's developer, Mojang, was bought by Microsoft in 2014.<ref>Microsoft pays $2.5bn for Minecraft maker Mojang: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-29204518</ref>
Minecraft's developer, Mojang, was bought by Microsoft in 2014.<ref>[https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-29204518 "Microsoft pays $2.5bn for Minecraft maker Mojang"] - bbc.com - accessed 2025-01-29</ref> At the time of the acquisition, the computer based version of Minecraft edition was known as "Minecraft Java Edition".  Before the acquisition and at least through the end of 2019, customers who wanted to purchase Minecraft Java Edition would do so by creating a Mojang account and buying the game under that account's name.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20191219131419/https://my.minecraft.net/en-us/login/ "Archived Minecraft Website from December 19, 2019 showing Mojang Accounts were the exclusive method of signing in"] - archive.org - non-functional as of 2025-01-29, please someone else test this archive</ref> Minecraft Java Edition owners would then play the game by signing into the game's launcher with their Mojang Account.   


Mojang announced on October 21 2020 that Minecraft player will need to migrate their Mojang account to a Microsoft account. Players either had to create a new Microsoft account or migrate to an existing account.  
Mojang announced on October 21, 2020 that Minecraft Java Edition players will need to migrate their Mojang account to a Microsoft account.<ref name=":0">[https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/article/java-edition-moving-house "Java Edition is moving house"] - minecraft.net - accessed 2025-01-29</ref>  Those who migrated their Mojang accounts to Microsoft accounts would maintain access to their username, cosmetics, player worlds, and earn an exclusive cosmetic cape.<ref name=":0" />   


Players who would not migrate their accounts, were going to lose access to Minecraft.<blockquote>"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."<ref>Announcement Java Edition is moving house: https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/article/java-edition-moving-house</ref></blockquote>Migration started June 2021<ref>Last call to voluntarily migrate Java accounts: https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/article/last-call-voluntarily-migrate-java-accounts</ref> with the deadline being December 18th 2024.<ref>I Missed My Chance to Migrate. What Happens to My Account?: https://help.minecraft.net/hc/en-us/articles/19633473939981-I-Missed-My-Chance-to-Migrate-What-Happens-to-My-Account</ref> After this deadline Mojang gave a 90 day extension to give you a new copy of the game while losing your original account. After the 90 day period Mojang ignore migration complaints and would be forced to buy a new copy of the game.
Mojang's staff wrote wrote the following about the account migration: <blockquote>"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."<ref name=":0" /></blockquote>Account migration started in waves or "batches" sometime in early 2021.<ref name=":0" /> Initially, account migration was voluntary, and users with Mojang accounts could play Minecraft Java Edition without needing to migrate their accounts. On February 2, 2022, Mojang announced that on March 10, 2022 the voluntary migration period would end and that Mojang account users would be unable to play Minecraft Java Edition without migrating their account. On May 8, 2023, Mojang announced that Mojang account owners would have until September 19, 2023 to migrate to a Microsoft account or permanently lose the capacity to migrate their account.  Following this September 19, 2023 deadline, Mojang gave Mojang account owners who missed the deadline a three month grace period through December 18, 2023 to migrate their account.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20231210202436/https://help.minecraft.net/hc/en-us/articles/19615552270221 "Post-Migration Process FAQ"] - help.minecraft.net - archived 2023-12-10</ref> Mojang account owners who exercised their option under this three-month grace period would not have access to the cosmetics associated with their Mojang account or the certainty that they would enjoy the username associated with their Mojang account under their Microsoft account. After December 18, 2023, Mojang account owners who had purchased Minecraft Java Edition from Mojang would need to purchase Minecraft under a Microsoft account in order to play the game.    


== Relevant Changes to the Game ==
On a page titled "I Missed My Chance to Migrate. What Happens to My Account?" on the official Minecraft Help Center, Mojang explains:  <blockquote>"To continue playing Minecraft, you will have to buy  Minecraft: Java & Bedrock Edition using a Microsoft account.<ref>[https://help.minecraft.net/hc/en-us/articles/19633473939981-I-Missed-My-Chance-to-Migrate-What-Happens-to-My-Account "I Missed My Chance to Migrate. What Happens to My Account?"] - help.minecraft.net - accessed 2025-02-01</ref>    </blockquote>Even during the migration period, it was not made easy to ether contact the people behind Minecraft about this. support was not replying to questions about the migration process and issues with it.


===== July 12th.2022 - Version 1.19.3: (First seen in Snapshot 21w38a (September 23rd 2022): =====
With this Update Mojang/Microsoft introduced non-optional data-collection.<ref>Release Notes "Minecraft Java Edition 1.19.3": https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/article/minecraft-java-edition-1-19-3</ref>


Data is collected every time a user joins or leaves a single- or multi-player game.
Users who could not figure out how to migrate their accounts that they bought in the pre-release era had to re-purchase Minecraft with a different username for a post-release price (Alpha costing 9.95€, and Beta costing 14.95€ and the full release being 29.99€).


This can not be disabled, only switched between required data or all data being send.
In https://web.archive.org/web/20210813083726/https://notch.tumblr.com/post/2175441966/minecraft-beta-december-20-2010 Notch promised in his blog that all purchasers of the Alpha version of the game would get all purchases of the game for free, even saying ''"a promise is a promise"'', as he removed it from purchases made after the release of Beta.


The "required" data contains:
==References==
{| class="wikitable"
<references /><!-- Reference 2 seems non-functional on my end. -->
|+
[[Category:Incidents]]
!Data-Point
|-
|user_id
|-
|client_id
|-
|game_version
|-
|minecraft_session_id
|-
|operating_system
|-
|platform
|-
|client_modded
|-
|event_timestamp_utc
|-
|opt_in
|-
|world_session_id
|-
|server_modded
|-
|server_type
|}
and if leaving a game:
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Data-Point
|-
|seconds_since_load
|-
|ticks_since_load
|}
This is in direct contradiction to the language used in the account migration announcement:<blockquote>"Don't worry – everything about your game and how you play will remain the same, including your in-game username, progress, creations and skins. The only change is how you'll log in. Plus, we'll give you a special cape just for migrating!"</blockquote>
 
== References ==
Retrieved from "https://consumerrights.wiki/wiki/Minecraft_account_migration"