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Microsoft purchases Minecraft maker Mojang for $2.5B
Allforce
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
http://online.wsj.com/articles/microsoft-near-deal-to-buy-minecraft-1410300213
I don't even know what the point is. Shouldn't they have made this deal 3 years ago?
54 million copies of Minecraft sold to date. I'd say the bubble is due to burst at some point once this thing releases on every platform ever created (except WiiU)
Microsoft Corp. is in serious discussions to buy Mojang AB, the Swedish company behind the popular "Minecraft" videogame, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
The deal would be valued at more than $2 billion and could be signed as early as this week, this person said.
I don't even know what the point is. Shouldn't they have made this deal 3 years ago?
54 million copies of Minecraft sold to date. I'd say the bubble is due to burst at some point once this thing releases on every platform ever created (except WiiU)
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They know they missed out on the Minecraft money train; they just want to absorb them before they become another serious competitor.
MS wants Scandinavia. What's next? Rovio?
"We have years of struggle ahead, mostly within ourselves." - Made in USA
It would be deeply ironic given Notch's previous stance on the matter of buyouts, but I wouldn't be surprised if his more business-savvy cohorts talked him into it.
"We have years of struggle ahead, mostly within ourselves." - Made in USA
I feel like Microsoft would want to lock down some of the mod scene though. Be interesting to see how that plays out.
Or like when they bought Bungie, and basically caused them to give their computer fanbase the middle finger.
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So...whatever I guess.
"We have years of struggle ahead, mostly within ourselves." - Made in USA
But requires a Gold subscription to access multi-player functions.
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WIndows 9 or Minecraft?
You can be against buyouts like that until someone comes along and says they're going to give you and all of your workmates a cool hundred million dollars each.
Another crazy fact: despite the PC version's massive popularity and head-start, as of June the console versions have sold more.
I know that the most frustrating thing for me in Minecraft, historically, has been negotiating who is responsible for the server, whether we're renting or someone is hosting, etc.
If Microsoft has built-in, "Get your cheap server on Azure" as part of the Minecraft interface, that could drive a LOT of people to their racks very quickly and increase value perception for gamers.
Edit: I mean, obviously that's not the ONLY thing. It's a valuable as fuck IP and they paid out the ass for it, but Notch wanted to sell to be free from the burdens of his successful company and MS could certainly find a way to make it happen.
Yeah--in the end of the day, the other companies can politely tell the console warriorz what they want to hear, but Azure potentially solves a huge number of headaches and really ups server quality for something like Minecraft, and MS has been perfectly content to push it across corporate lines.
And honestly I wouldn't blame anyone for taking the money.
I do agree with the sentiment that Microsoft is a few years too late to be buying out Mojang now. My best guess? Minecraft 2 with a much larger budget and Microsoft exclusive. Which, IMHO, has a 50/50 chance of either being really awesome or the worst thing since Hitler-AIDs.
Quite possibly, but I also think that there was no "being on time" for a Mojang buy out, short of holding the hole company at gunpoint with pens handy. Even now, a potential sale is still surprising, when Minecraft's development direction has already been finalized for years (or at least it seems that way). No way would there have been an opportunity during early development, I think. Not for Mojang.
He might be against corporate buyouts of vision, but he's already done Mojang. I don't think he ever wanted to run a huge company, he wants to make games. Selling Mojang and getting to start fresh probably suits him more, and apparently working with the MS team made him feel comfortable handing over the old stuff. He hasn't been working on Minecraft in a couple years anyway, sounds like.
But I am genuinely wondering if this is going to happen and what effect it will have for the non-Xbox versions. If you thought the whole controversy over Tomb Raider was ridiculous....
From what I recall, the mobile version was doing about as well, or better. And it would never have occurred to me to even bother with a mobile edition. Ultimately you could make $2 billion back just re-releasing it on new platforms in perpetuity.
I just don't see this happening. Microsoft doesn't have nearly the history with it as do, say, Activision.
Microsoft is very much engaged right now in trying to get people using their servers and OS's. I don't think this is at all a move to insert weird micro-transactions or something into Minecraft, it's a move to get better brand recognition for their gardens.
And having really, really easy servers for Minecraft would be something I'd love and which would probably greatly benefit the less niche community around Minecraft. People who would love to play on servers with their friends vastly outnumber people who are actually willing to put in the effort to set up a server.
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Maybe there will be some special content exclusive to MS platforms, but I don't think it'll be a plug pulling.
I doubt that's going to be the case.
Make no mistake, if Microsoft will keep updating them people would still scream holy hell about it anyway.
I could certainly see whatever the sequel to Minecraft is being an exclusive--that's kind of common sense--but a cut-off to the existing game? I don't think that's going to happen.
It *is* Microsoft, though. 30% of their business plan runs on spite.
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They need to take a hint from Sony back during the PS2--get that up to 60%, minimum.
I said this very thing. I can all but guarantee Microsoft looks at Minecraft as a multiplatform service, not a "Windows game". All the fears of "No more linux/mac/PS4 support" can be mostly put to rest. Microsoft wants to build a service ecosystem around the game, not drastically modify what the game is. That's going to mean click and go Azure server support (with a fee of course), most likely some kind of content market (likely in the mode of Dota 2 with fans making a lot of the content and keeping some of the revenue), and possibly exclusive bonus content on MS platforms.
This is not 1999 Microsoft anymore and they have no problem supporting non-MS platforms anymore. We see it pretty clearly in the professional development world, as we see Microsoft embracing technologies like Node.js and Unity, and putting a lot of money and muscle behind .NET on alternate platforms. Even the fact that you can run several Linux variants in Azure is a huge departure for Microsoft. They are very much a software and service company today, versus a pure software business who's sole goal is to sell Windows.
https://mojang.com/2014/09/yes-were-being-bought-by-microsoft/
Hopefully MS send in some engineers and put together a decent moding system so next time I'm asked to install some mods for my nephews/nieces I don't have to muck around with Forge versions again.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
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