Notch does everything in Java. Realistically, for developing a heavily simulated real-time 3D game like this or Minecraft, how many options does he have? Maybe C++, maybe C#, but that's about it.
Everything else is either too slow or doesn't have the up-to-date gamedev ecosystem.
Pure C is a fine choice, too. As is Objective-C. I'm pretty sure Objective-C will outperform Java and C# both. And there's no question that the best choice would be C, for its efficiency and its versatility.
If you use Objective-C just like C, then maybe. Otherwise, no.
And you'd have to be insane to write a game these days in C. It's just not a productive enough language for that. Whatever little speed you give up for Java pays off many times over in speed of development, debuggability, etc.
It would have disadvantages from the point of view of rapid development though, especially considering his team are going to be much more experienced in Java now.
Would be interesting to know if he is using Scala for any parts of it though.
It makes sense, but it means when they went to make Minecraft Pocket for iOS they had to re-write. Must have been a tough decision to force themselves into another re-write when they inevitably want to bring 0x10c to iOS.
Well, Android runs a javaesque language, and still they had to rewrite... because Mobile isn't Desktop.
So not matter what language they choose... they'll have to rewrite for mobile.
That's not right at all. If you write a game in C++/OpenGL you can share >95% code across Win7, OSX, Linux, Android, and iOS. Even if you use DirectX it's not hard to write an OpenGL wrapper.
More impressively if you use C# you can release cross platform using mono.
