Minecraft could be in line for some big changes as Mojang hires former Ubisoft exec as new 'head of Vanilla'

Minecraft Vanilla is the purest vision of Mojang's block-building sandbox you can find these days. No mods, no graphics updates, no changes to the core gameplay that made Minecraft the behemoth it is today. There's a reason that it's a stalwart on our list of the best survival games on PC, and that's because of the rock-solid foundation that the vanilla version built all those years ago. However, players are worried for its future as Mojang's new hire, Katie Scott, who will start as the developer's head of Minecraft Vanilla in February, has years of experience implementing microtransactions in Ubisoft titles.

"Even with all that Minecraft has achieved, we still have so much more to offer and my goal will be to support the team as we capture that potential," Scott writes in a LinkedIn post announcing her new role. 'Capturing potential' is a broad statement that realistically could mean anything, but her previous experience suggests expertise in adding microtransactions to live service games.

Scott left Ubisoft in November, but her role as vice president of the company's global creative game office saw her specialize in "competitive, live service, and free to play experiences to create games with lasting impact, high retention, and monetization results." She also writes that she focused on "live service strategies and ambitious retention and monetization" in Assassin's Creed and Rainbow Six games.

Ubisoft has a reputation within the industry for its aggressive monetization, and Scott claims to have had a hand with that. Her previous experience at Gears of War developer The Coalition Studio also saw monetization as one of the key responsibilities under her purview. Some Minecraft players are also citing her experience with EA as more evidence of her experience implementing predatory 'surprise mechanics' into games, but her role at the developer was as a game designer rather than an executive.

I'm not going to judge anyone based on their CV, because Mojang may want Scott to utilize a different aspect of her skillset in her new role. However, it would make sense that she doubles down on her experience shaping live service games.

There's no way of knowing whether this will be the end of vanilla Minecraft as we know it, and players are catastrophizing because they've seen the words, Ubisoft, EA, and monetization, as if Minecraft isn't monetized already and Scott's work at EA isn't entirely irrelevant to this conversation.

Minecraft is already monetized. They need staff, including executives, to manage that. It's too early to say whether the industry's more predatory practices like loot boxes will rear their heads in vanilla Minecraft, but hiring someone with knowledge of those services is something that Mojang clearly believes to be important. Whatever Scott's role ends up involving, 2026 is a year to watch for Minecraft.