$2.5B Minecraft Deal With Microsoft Confirmed

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After a week of rumors and speculation, it is now official, Microsoft is buying Mojang for $2.5 billion. As part of the deal, Mojang's founders are leaving the company, presumably to have fun spending all that money. :)

As you might already know, Notch is the creator of Minecraft and the majority shareholder at Mojang. He’s decided that he doesn’t want the responsibility of owning a company of such global significance. Over the past few years he’s made attempts to work on smaller projects, but the pressure of owning Minecraft became too much for him to handle. The only option was to sell Mojang. He’ll continue to do cool stuff though. Don’t worry about that.
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Everyone has their price. We just found found how much it was for Notch. Amazing how his anti-Microsoft attitude changed.
 
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The three who remained as founders (I believe) have already left. Laughing all the way to the bank like we all would.

Jesus christ Microsoft. Same suits behind this were the ones behind the idea to buy RARE?

If Minecraft 2 can capture the magic and become a success that pays for itself, nice job.
If $100 million spent developing the Xbox One joypad pays off, good job at that point also.
If they ever sell enough Xbox One units in Spain to pay finally pay for the advertising campaign for its launch there, that'll be about time.
 
ir0nw0lf said:
Everyone has their price. We just found found how much it was for Notch. Amazing how his anti-Microsoft attitude changed.
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He got tired and wanted out, so he could leave Minecraft behind for good and get working on smaller projects, and for that money who wouldn't - he's free to work on new things together with his closest developers and engineers.

His personal "goodbye" letter made him sound pretty darned Phil Fish about it, stating that if an upcoming project of his gets too popular he'll leave/shut down. Notch.net went down so I cannot grab a quote.
 
ir0nw0lf said:
Everyone has their price. We just found found how much it was for Notch. Amazing how his anti-Microsoft attitude changed.
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Bingo.

Farewell Minecraft, you were wonderful while you lasted.
 
So upcoming Minecraft v2.0 changes:
- Entire game ported from Java/OpenGL to Visual C++/DirectX 11.2
- Windows 8.1 now required to play
- Modding support elimanted
 
MrLonghair said:
The three who remained as founders (I believe) have already left. Laughing all the way to the bank like we all would.

Jesus christ Microsoft. Same suits behind this were the ones behind the idea to buy RARE?

If Minecraft 2 can capture the magic and become a success that pays for itself, nice job.
If $100 million spent developing the Xbox One joypad pays off, good job at that point also.
If they ever sell enough Xbox One units in Spain to pay finally pay for the advertising campaign for its launch there, that'll be about time.
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Mojang was looking to sell. If it hadn't been Microsoft, someone else would have written them a 10 figure check. Maybe not for quite as much, but heck maybe even more. There just wasn't any way that Microsoft couldn't do this deal if Mojang was going to sell regardless.
 
Not a damn one of us would have turned down this deal over stupid idealistic reasons related to a game. A game.
 
What about those Microsoft employees that got laid off. I know Barnacules Nerdgasm has to be pissed.
 
Smashing Young Man said:
Not a damn one of us would have turned down this deal over stupid idealistic reasons related to a game. A game.
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Even if you had the "I'm not a sell out. Fuck corporate America." attitude, 2.5 Billion dollars would change my mind. I'd be out of there in a hot minute. Fuck yea, I'd be a sell out. That's a lot of money.

Now I wonder about the future of Minecraft. Especially on the Playstation and other devices. I have it on PC, Xbox 360 and One. But, Playstation owners shouldn't get the shaft. Maybe as it's still a separate company they can keep it separate and still do multi-platform... Similar to how Sega games were ported to the Nintendo through Tengen and others. If not, pretty shitty of a move.

I just don't think they will have the success with future games. They may have the name, but I don't think they can recreate another Minecraft success. They are just riding the Minecraft wave, and I doubt that will get them a good ROI at this time. Maybe they will, but I don't think they will...
 
I just knew this had to be a hoax...but a little voice kept telling me that it was so insane it might just be true. $2.5B for a kiddie game of graphical Lego blocks. Java, OMG. Quick math: $2.5B would have allowed an entity such as the defunct Microsoft Studios to create *50* (fifty) AAA games in all genres @ an investment of $50,000,000 each (HL2 cost Valve $40M, as a reference.) So 50 AAA games never see the light of day because of...Minecraft & Microsoft's stupidity. You cannot buy your way into gaming success and I thought Microsoft of all companies would have understood this. You have to develop your way there. Microsoft is proving once again that for one of the strongest suits of using Windows--AAA games--the company barely has a clue. Indeed, while I'm on a roll, here, if Microsoft was really smart it would start deemphasizing xBone and pouring the R&D into a PC-centric gaming studio--oh, and bury GFWL deep at the same time. Ah, if wishes were pennies...
 
Ur_Mom said:
Even if you had the "I'm not a sell out. Fuck corporate America." attitude, 2.5 Billion dollars would change my mind. I'd be out of there in a hot minute. Fuck yea, I'd be a sell out. That's a lot of money.

Now I wonder about the future of Minecraft. Especially on the Playstation and other devices. I have it on PC, Xbox 360 and One. But, Playstation owners shouldn't get the shaft. Maybe as it's still a separate company they can keep it separate and still do multi-platform... Similar to how Sega games were ported to the Nintendo through Tengen and others. If not, pretty shitty of a move.

I just don't think they will have the success with future games. They may have the name, but I don't think they can recreate another Minecraft success. They are just riding the Minecraft wave, and I doubt that will get them a good ROI at this time. Maybe they will, but I don't think they will...
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Notch did not "sell out"--he simply sold his already-has-been-worn-out Lego blocks game for kiddies to Microsoft for $2.5B. Notch walks away an entirely free man who can do what he pleases. Man, the corporate chumps (or is that "chimps"?) at Microsoft are amazing....Good for Notch.
 
caddys83 said:
What about those Microsoft employees that got laid off. I know Barnacules Nerdgasm has to be pissed.
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@caddys83 those layoffs were due to redundancies because of the Nokia merger, so they have nothing to do with this. When two big companies in the same field merge they always have to trim their employee base. It is sad but it always happens.
 
Doesn't matter much to me. Look at Skype, that hasn't really changed because of MS.
 
Smashing Young Man said:
Not a damn one of us would have turned down this deal over stupid idealistic reasons related to a game. A game.
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It's not just a game. At some point your work, your creations, become a part of you and your identity. Giving that up in tantamount to selling a piece of your soul.
 
GaryJohnson said:
It's not just a game. At some point your work, your creations, become a part of you and your identity. Giving that up in tantamount to selling a piece of your soul.
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He decided becoming a billionaire should be part of his identity instead. He'll always be known as the maker of Minecraft regardless.
 
GaryJohnson said:
It's not just a game. At some point your work, your creations, become a part of you and your identity. Giving that up in tantamount to selling a piece of your soul.
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Yup. Pride in creation and ownership seems to be a dead concept.
 
Game aside I really do wonder how much money they make in other areas. They make t-shirts, stuffed toys, and probably a lot more stuff. Also they have a deal with Lego to make Lego Minecraft. There certainly is a lot of potential in just the marketing situation around the game. I could see the Minecraft brand being more important than the game itself.
 
Skripka said:
Yup. Pride in creation and ownership seems to be a dead concept.
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I think he is still proud of what he made, and it is not going away. He is just free to do whatever he wants now.
 
Anyone that walks away from $2.5B just to preserve a piece of your own soul is a fool.

Pride. The deadliest of the seven sins.

See Groupon.
 
Unless you invented something that was going to change the course of human history you would be an idiot not to take that money and run.
 
GaryJohnson said:
It's not just a game. At some point your work, your creations, become a part of you and your identity. Giving that up in tantamount to selling a piece of your soul.
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No. You can formulate a statement like that about anything.

"At some point, my shoes, my running, that moment of the day where it's just me and the asphalt, that's when i feel myself. That's why I always buy Asics"

According to your statement you should never sell or throw away anything ever.
 
Notch made Minecraft. He'll always be the creator of Minecraft. He didn't sell that part. He's still got the pride of what he created. He created a damn empire. Like someone said - t-shirts, Lego, games, toys, etc.. He started all that. The name on the box is different (now Minecraft... From Microsoft), but that was his creation. Kind of like when a daughter takes the husbands name. That's still his daughter. Just living with her new family. :)
 
Shmee said:
I think he is still proud of what he made, and it is not going away. He is just free to do whatever he wants now.
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My money is on Minecraft being a dead franchise in 1-2 years. Or the project being forked.

Seriously selling your own self-made brand is simply a death knell for the brand. Schwinn is still around, but they make shit compared to when someone named Schwinn was at the helm-no one associates them with a quality American product anymore. Motorola is still around, long after anyone related to the founder checked out-and they're bouncing around playing hot-potato of who wants stuck with it no longer does anyone associate them with a tech innovation giant. I have difficulty of thinking of single ownership sell-off of a brand that did not end in the immediate QA/QC downfall of the product.


Lots of people like to think there's more driving people than the pursuit of $$$ signs. Of course where idealism and reality meet on the road, it is never reality that backs down.
 
Ur_Mom said:
Notch made Minecraft. He'll always be the creator of Minecraft. He didn't sell that part. He's still got the pride of what he created. He created a damn empire. Like someone said - t-shirts, Lego, games, toys, etc.. He started all that. The name on the box is different (now Minecraft... From Microsoft), but that was his creation. Kind of like when a daughter takes the husbands name. That's still his daughter. Just living with her new family. :)
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A damn empire that is going to evaporate overnight.

Brand sellofs result in the seller getting rich quick...and the brand going to shit and a handbasket practically overnight. Notch in 5 years will be remembered as the maker of that game no one plays because Microsoft trashed it.
 
mastaBlasta said:
No. You can formulate a statement like that about anything.

"At some point, my shoes, my running, that moment of the day where it's just me and the asphalt, that's when i feel myself. That's why I always buy Asics"

According to your statement you should never sell or throw away anything ever.
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You can always get more shoes, you can't ever get more Minecraft IP (or any IP) once you let go of it.
 
GaryJohnson said:
So upcoming Minecraft v2.0 changes:
- Entire game ported from Java/OpenGL to Visual C++/DirectX 11.2
- Windows 8.1 now required to play
- Modding support elimanted
Click to expand...
Xbox One exclusive staring Master Chief in a linear game that destroys blocks in one direction with an amazing story line that lasts for a weekend worth of time.
 
GaryJohnson said:
It's not just a game. At some point your work, your creations, become a part of you and your identity. Giving that up in tantamount to selling a piece of your soul.
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Not really.

Naive statements like this are hysterically funny though.
 
Even if Minecraft brand is destroyed and the game and everything it stands for is burnt to the ground, he still wouldn've taken the deal and so would you.

That's an insane amount of money. It just makes me think that at least he worked hard and created something. Unlike these 'social' apps like WhatsApp, SnapChat etc which are barely web frontends with millions of teenage users, and are sold for 10x more. That I think is true insanity.
 
Skripka said:
My money is on Minecraft being a dead franchise in 1-2 years. Or the project being forked.

Seriously selling your own self-made brand is simply a death knell for the brand. Schwinn is still around, but they make shit compared to when someone named Schwinn was at the helm-no one associates them with a quality American product anymore. Motorola is still around, long after anyone related to the founder checked out-and they're bouncing around playing hot-potato of who wants stuck with it no longer does anyone associate them with a tech innovation giant. I have difficulty of thinking of single ownership sell-off of a brand that did not end in the immediate QA/QC downfall of the product.


Lots of people like to think there's more driving people than the pursuit of $$$ signs. Of course where idealism and reality meet on the road, it is never reality that backs down.
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It is no longer his brand though. Most players won't even know there was a change. If Microsoft can do cool things with Minecraft it will be fine, just like they did with Bungie. It doesn't usually work, but sometimes it does. Microsoft has the cash to give it a try and why not.
 
Makaveli@BETA said:
Unless you invented something that was going to change the course of human history you would be an idiot not to take that money and run.
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The way some people around here talk about the game, it might possibly have changed human history. :p
 
Bah, he'll buy it back for pennies in 5-10 years once Microsoft has destroyed it and is desperate for money.
 
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