Thought I’d share this in case there are people who are unaware or have been pending off the migration process.
Starting September 19, 2023, at 11:00 am EST/17:00 pm CEST, unmigrated Mojang accounts will not be able to sign in to Minecraft.net or the Minecraft Launcher to migrate. We’re doing this to ensure that everyone is playing using accounts with improved security and player safety.
Source: Minecraft.net article
What will happen to unmigrated accounts?
Once the deadline for migration is reached, players will no longer be able to access unmigrated accounts. All unmigrated accounts will be deleted at a future date.
Source: help.minecraft.net
What if you don’t have access to the email address associated with your Mojang account, or have any other queries?
The details are unclear. The Minecraft help center link says “Minecraft player support will no longer be able to help with migration-related issues after September 5, 2023.” whereas the minecraft.net article states “[…] starting September 19, 2023, Minecraft Support will no longer be able to assist in any MSA migration-related tickets.”
What do you get for migrating to a Microsoft account?
Microsoft claims improved account security, and 2FA. You will get a Migrator cape and access to Minecraft for Windows (Bedrock Edition) on the Microsoft account chosen at the time of migration.
I tried to recover my Mojang account and migrate it three times. Each attempt gets a stock response asking for certain info (receipt, email, username). When I provide this, I get a response from a different support user asking for the same thing I just provided. After three to five back and forths (with the same questions and the same answers) I get busy, frustrated, and leave it for a few weeks.
Once I have time, I start over and the exact same thing repeats again.
I wrote it off as a loss last year with an asterisk of “another reason to fucking hate Microsoft”
This is bullshit. What could it possibly matter to them, other than to force people onto their miserable platform. Bastards.
Authentication servers do not run themselves, they need babysitting and patching and upgrading because this is users’ passwords and secrets. Microsoft obviously does not want to keep managing this old login system because it’s miserable unrewarding janitorial work for a sysadmin or a developer.
Oh gosh, they bought a computer game company and they don’t want to pay to support existing customers? They don’t want to maintain accounts that represent HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of hours of creativity, a long-time faithful user fanbase, because they now feel it’s miserable unrewarding janitorial work?
It’s MINECRAFT! Do you even know what people do on Minecraft? It’s not saving progress we’re talking about here. It’s destroying an ARCHIVE. It’s a life some kid has lived in there.
You make it sound like it’s perfectly reasonable to ditch this community because it’s an expense and an inconvenience. Get lost with your Microsoft defense. They don’t need you. They don’t give a shit.
The players still have their stuff and their user ID, just under a new login process. They’ve been pestering users to make this migration for years and years.
Edit: also, this is Java edition, meaning the worlds they built are just Minecraft save files that a new user could access. The cloud-based one was Bedrock Edition, that’s the one where you’d have cloud-based worlds that you could lose if you lost your account.
What’s getting destroyed? You wouldn’t be able to login to the server but the data would still be there. Transfer the account (or make a new one) and the data’s still there as well.
I’m more annoyed that Microsoft split off Java Edition and Bedrock into two pieces of incompatible software, but I’m honestly surprised they’ve supported the old auth services for this long.
For anyone left behind, Minetest is a community-developed alternative.
It’s more of a game engine/launcher + highly moddable, so the base game is rather minimalistic, but you can simply install more extensive games. For example, for a very Minecraft-like experience, MineClone2 is your best bet.
So when do I get my refund?
Never. Microsoft says fuck you.
I will say it sounds like a lovely lawsuit waiting to happen though, especially in countries with good consumer protections. I wonder how Canadian law would feel about this? 🤔
I paid like, 10 dollars what’s gotta be 15 years ago now.
Like if there’s a class action lawsuit over this I wouldn’t turn down the settlement but I’m not losing any sleep over it
Microsoft is a trillion dollar company. Unfortunately I doubt any country is going to meaningfully harm them over accounts like this. (I am one of the people that cant migrate because the email I had associated with it is gone and the game was gifted to me so long ago that I wouldn’t be able to easily prove it was mine)
You’d be surprised, EU fines and consequences to shitty anti-consumer actions like this are built to hurt. There’s a reason why the new iPhone has USB-C, and it’s not out of the kindness of their heart.
Does this mean we’ll need to pay for the game again if we don’t do it in time?
Sidenote, I have a feeling that’s straight up illegal under contract law. IANAL though.
Edit: Just so ppl have something specific: you bought access to the service. It’s probably gonna be limited in the User Agreement as “if this service has to be shut down, you agree to lose your access and you don’t sue to get your money back”. But this is a backend migration and I’m fairly sure this is not something they had in their original contracts. That’s why sniff a broken contract and when they don’t refund your money, I sniff broken laws.
