Makers Of Minecraft Documentary Put It On The Pirate Bay, Despite High Profile Launch With Xbox

from the you-can-watch-it-if-you're-not-in-a-country-that-banned-it dept

Last week, I got an email from 2 Player Productions, the video game documentary filmmakers who have done a documentary on Mojang (makers of Minecraft) and who are working on the documentary about Double Fine making their new adventure game, which was part of super successful Kickstarter campaign (the Minecraft movie itself was also a successful Kickstarter project). The email was to talk about the release of the Minecraft documentary, and they promised that backers of the Double Fine project could watch a free stream -- which seemed like a cool way to thank those fans. Reports also came out that Gold Members on Xbox Live could watch the film debut for free as well.

But, then, they took lots of folks by surprise and announced that they had put a copy up on The Pirate Bay as well. Even though they're selling it as an $8 DRM-free download, you can also get a copy at The Pirate Bay, where the 2 Player Production folks left a nice note:

Greetings Pirate Bay!

This is 2 Player Productions here, and we hoped we could be the first to upload our new movie "Minecraft: The Story of Mojang". We've never uploaded a torrent before so hopefully this isn't all screwed up.

We wanted to come here first because we knew the movie would end up here eventually, and the best thing to do seemed to be opening a dialogue. Torrents and piracy are a way of life and it probably won't be going anywhere anytime soon. There are many people that want to punish you for that, but we have a more realistic outlook on things.

We've been there. We've all needed to do it at some point. Maybe you don't have the money. Maybe you want to try before you buy. Maybe you're pissed at us for premiering the movie on Xbox Live. These are all fine reasons. But if you feel that piracy is, in Gabe Newell's words, "a service problem," please consider that we are selling DRM free digital downloads that you can watch in whatever manner you please.

We're just three guys trying to make a living doing what we love. We love the world of video games, and we love making it real. If you buy the movie, you support those efforts. The reason we Kickstarted this movie in the first place was that we didn't have enough money to make it ourselves, and even then, we still put A LOT of our own money into it. Not to mention nearly two years of work.

Watch the movie. Hopefully you'll like it, and understand what we're trying to do. Please consider supporting us by buying the $8 DRM-free digital download of the movie at www.theminecraftmovie.com, or the $20 DVD from www.fangamer.net.

We've worked with a lot of amazing people in the games industry and had the incredible fortune to make some great films the way we wanted to make them. Please consider helping us continue on this path. The best has yet to come.

-2pp

Seems like they're taking a page straight from Louis CK and being open, human and awesome. I know it got me to hand over my $8 to them, and I imagine many others will do the same as well. Of course, if you live in the UK, where they've decided that nothing good could possibly happen on The Pirate Bay, you're not even supposed to see that message or apparently you might do something evil... even if they're saying it's fine to download it. Seems silly.