Microsoft May Buy Minecraft Studio For $2B

elian440 said:
so the $2billion from facebook to oculus was bad, but this $2billion is good?
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Both are bad, because good IPs are going into the hands of shit ownership, which, in turn, will undoubtedly ruin said IPs.
 
Red Falcon said:
Both are bad, because good IPs are going into the hands of shit ownership, which, in turn, will undoubtedly ruin said IPs.
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Gather 'round y'all, and put on your tinfoil hats:

What if I told you that these 'big companies' and 'shit ownership' buy these wildly successful IPs for ridiculous/inflated evaluations, with the sole purpose to run them into the ground to avoid 'competition', and gain market share. :eek: :eek::eek:

Why spend the capitol to compete when you can just throw some cash into it one time and dissolve it? Dun dun dunnnnnnnnnn!
 
Advil said:
So if that's any indication of the company's PE ratio, it explains why Notch isn't feeling like doing much else. He's likely made way more money than he has publicly let on.

It might also explain Minecraft's slow development. They're likely terrified of changing anything too much, since it's still making money just the way it is.

Why dilute a cash cow with a sequel or trying to clean up the code or get off of JAVA when it's made you company worth a possible 2B deal with MS?

It all makes more sense now.
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Since when in the last 5 years have any of these buyouts ever had even a remote shit worth of anything to do with a PE ratio?
 
The best use of MInecraft would be to just have the Microsoft Logo on it so that the name doesn't become completely irrelevant to the nextcoming generation raised on google or apple smartphones and chromebooks.
 
jpm100 said:
The best use of MInecraft would be to just have the Microsoft Logo on it so that the name doesn't become completely irrelevant to the nextcoming generation raised on google or apple smartphones and chromebooks.
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Don't worry they won't. Once the next coming generation gets in to the workforce they will be lost once they realize that most places use Windows. :D
 
03grandam said:
Don't worry they won't. Once the next coming generation gets in to the workforce they will be lost once they realize that most places use Windows. :D
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With all of the mistakes and challenges that Microsoft has made and faces on the consumer side since the rise of mobile, almost the opposite has been happening on the enterprise, server and cloud side. The disparity between the success levels of Microsoft consumer and business sides have been a major reason why some investors have called on Microsoft to leave or spinoff their consumer offerings. I think that would be a mistake because the consumer side is still critically important and it does drive a lot of developer mindshare and spending.

As far as Chromebooks are concerned, as much hype as they get the market reality of them thus far has been somewhat less substantial. Certainly Microsoft isn't ignoring, neither are the OEMs that are producing ever larger lineups of them. But with the downward trend in price of Windows devices at the low end, Chromebooks are going to have offer more than low prices. Android app support is an interesting step and somewhat ironic that it follows Windows 8 in the idea where the reception of tablet oriented apps on a desktop has been mixed at best.
 
fdiaz78 said:
What a waste of good capital. Minecraft is worth 2 billion? With a B? Is our dollar that worthless?
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Pretty much. Just look at hardware or grocery costs these days versus just a decade ago. Inflation = motherfu*ker
 
So is there any shred of confirmed truth to this, or are people committing mass suicide over another fifteenth-party rumor?
 
Red Machine D said:
So is there any shred of confirmed truth to this, or are people committing mass suicide over another fifteenth-party rumor?
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This is being reported by the Wall Street Journal which doesn't typically report these kinds of stories just on thin air.
 
What heatlesssun said. This is being reported on numerous business news channels, and Notch even tweeted that for 2b dollars they can do whatever they want with him/the game. I think people need to understand that Microsoft stock has gone up so much in the last 6 months that they now have over 80billion extra dollars they didn't have before that they can use to acquire stuff like this. The nokia employee layoff was by choice and not necessity or because they had no money or something. Mojang makes hundreds of millions of dollars per year, so this is not totally spec like the occulus purchase or something either. I honestly don't think they would try to change the game that much. If anything maybe they could straighten out all of the EULA related issues with pay to play 3rd party servers and the issues/difficulties with modding, and bring that into a proper marketplace or something. That and maybe speed up development a bit. Also, based on its success, if they released a minecraft 2 a year or two from now, even if it was a huge turd, it would still sell millions of copies so the purchase is not such a crazy idea IMO.
 
I don't see the problem here. I think this will be a good purchase for them. Game does well multiple of their platforms. It isn't a public company so if it sells it is because they want to sell, not because of a take over. Microsoft has been working with them closely on the ports to their systems. By getting Microsoft as the owner you might actually see the PC and console versions come together faster. I would expect to see the PC version rewrote from being a java based game to being an actual DirectX game, which means that the single version could then more easily be ported over to the consoles.
 
jhambi said:
The nokia employee layoff was by choice and not necessity or because they had no money or something.
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The recent layoffs were a business direction and efficiency issue. Phone hardware is simply never going to be a huge business for Microsoft. It certainly isn't going to have the same importance to a conglomerate like Microsoft compared to a division that's main business was making phone hardware. And Microsoft stopped production of all of Nokia's non-smartphone devices. In this day and age, what would have even been the purpose of continuing production of those devices?
 
BladeVenom said:
Microsoft put another knife in the back of PC gamers. How long before it's a console, and metro app only game?

RIP Minecraft. My condolences to all those who work at Majang, who wanted to make good PC games.

Congratulations to Notch, for the $2 billion.
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Sure, because that makes so much financial sense. "Let's shell out $2 billion dollars and then lock out 2/3 of the market!". Granted if Ballmer was still at the helm, I'd probably be right there with 'ya.

Newest rumors are also that Notch is the one who approached Microsoft after their dealings with releasing Minecraft for the XBox One.
 
Kagato said:
Sure, because that makes so much financial sense. "Let's shell out $2 billion dollars and then lock out 2/3 of the market!". Granted if Ballmer was still at the helm, I'd probably be right there with 'ya.
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That's what they did when they bought Bungie. Bungie made PC and Apple games.

It's what they did to all their gaming studios they owned or bought, they made them Xbox exclusive studios or shut them down.
 
BladeVenom said:
That's what they did when they bought Bungie. Bungie made PC and Apple games.

It's what they did to all their gaming studios they owned or bought, they made them Xbox exclusive studios or shut them down.
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The Bungie purchase had a different purpose then this one. Microsoft wanted Halo for its signature Xbox exclusive. That certainly wouldn't be the purpose for Minecraft. What Microsoft needs in the gaming space right now, more than anything, are titles for its mobile platform. And I don't think that Microsoft at this point would stop supporting other platforms. Nadella seems to much more willing to offer Microsoft software and services on other platforms than Microsoft has been in the past. Who would have thought with the launch of Windows 8 two years ago that the first tablet version of the suite would be on the iPad? I think Microsoft is simply acknowledging what you like to mention all the time, how Android is the #1 OS in the world right now while that's obviously not good for Windows, Microsoft is a lot more than Windows these days and there's no point in not seeking opportunities on other platforms.
 
Honestly I don't think this deal will go down, because actually minecraft could sell for more than 2 billion. It has been said that total revenue from mine craft has cleared $1 billion / year. If you think that is true than the typical purchase price for a large company is 2-4 x their yearly revenue. So we are looking at 2-4 billion. And really that is very reasonable given how big minecraft is and at present almost nothing is done to support the game. Its basically a pure cash cow, very different from whatsapp and all the other free services which companies are blowing billions on that have no profit.

I also honestly think all of you are too paranoid. Notch made a lucky hit, there was next to no skill and no art talent in building the game. It was just a fun sandbox joke that achieved popular culture in a new genre. He is basically the counter strike of this decade. That type of luck and market timing only comes once in a very long time and in a single genre on a single platform you don't get a second chance. And as far as I know there is only one company EVER that has pulled it off twice. And that company is blizzard. So if you are going to make a bet, you would bet that notch will not amount to shit in gaming ever again, just like most other one hit wonders. And thus far despite rolling in cash notch has not done anything other than get in the news for making controversial remarks. Minecraft has pretty much stagnated paralyzed by its own success. other games notch has tried to make have amounted to nothing. Lets get a reality check this guy is no prodigy. The best thing he can do is sell the franchise and let someone else with run with it. I liken what is about to happen here now to something similar to what happened to counter strike. A lucky guy is in the right place at the right time developing a game when the genre blows up. But because he lacked the skill and vision the IP just stagnates achieving almost nothing for another decade. And eventually because it was not put in capable hands and allowed to evolve call of duty supplants it as the defacto most known realistic shooter. Even battlefield becomes more popular overall. If notch doesn't sell minecraft now someone else will copy the idea and make it more relevant to the next generation as well as implementing more features. And then we will all look at minecraft as the old has been game just like we do with counterstrike.
 
heatlesssun said:
The Bungie purchase had a different purpose then this one. Microsoft wanted Halo for its signature Xbox exclusive. That certainly wouldn't be the purpose for Minecraft. What Microsoft needs in the gaming space right now, more than anything, are titles for its mobile platform. And I don't think that Microsoft at this point would stop supporting other platforms. Nadella seems to much more willing to offer Microsoft software and services on other platforms than Microsoft has been in the past. Who would have thought with the launch of Windows 8 two years ago that the first tablet version of the suite would be on the iPad? I think Microsoft is simply acknowledging what you like to mention all the time, how Android is the #1 OS in the world right now while that's obviously not good for Windows, Microsoft is a lot more than Windows these days and there's no point in not seeking opportunities on other platforms.
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RARE continued to develop Nintendo games even after becoming a Microsoft owned company.
 
BladeVenom said:
Only for handhelds. All games being developed for the Nintendo 64 were soon cancelled.
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They were just ahead of their time, now all games for the Wii / Wii U not made by Nintendo have been cancelled ;)

Same rumor mills saying that Microsoft put the offer out there is also saying that they stated if they buy it they would still continue the development for all the current platforms it is on. Of course that could change, or it could be that they end up falling behind everything else and yes they keep making it for the PlayStation platform but that gets 1/5th the updates of the PC and Xbox versions. Or maybe they bring the Xbox version quickly up to par with the PC version and then just leave 4J taking care of the PlayStation version at their rate and ability and leave them well behind in that way.

Which if this did happen, 4J would be the one person I would feel bad for as they lose 1/2 of their install base.
 
lol they could say they would continue development because there is almost no development going on.

Also for the record MS doesn't have to halt development to win. They can simply charge a higher price or have deals or promotions that drive people to xbox. Imagine minecraft 2 for $50 on every console but it constantly goes on sale for $30 or less on xbox one. Then it shows up free with gold, etc.....
 
Semantics said:
Rare was proped up by Nintendo IP without it it fell back to where it should have been all along, it also never made a ton of money because it was so tied to nintendo prior to microsoft's buyout.
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Creatively, I'd say they suffered under MS's watch. With Nintendo, they put out gems such as Goldeneye, Banjo Kazooie, and Conkur's BFD. Under MS, they re-released Conkurs, spun out Kameo, and then what? In the last few years, they've done almost nothing other than Kinect games. Does anyone honestly believe that had MS not taken over Rare, that they would be churning out nothing but Kinect games right now? They're as good as dead.

LionHead was butchered into just the Fable Studio it should branch out more as it was great for it's creative take on games.
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Fable's not even half bad, but MS has them making only Fable games (9 of the last 14 releases were Fable games). It's a shame; Black & White will always be one of my favorite games of all time. In the meantime, MS will continue to cash-in on the casual action RPG market to which Fable caters.

Microsoft made Bungie what it is and they aren't owned by microsoft haven't been for years i think 2008? As for Ensemble all they did before microsoft bought them out was Age of Empires I and II. It's hard to say microsoft killed the studio or simply the studio didn't have anything past that and floundered on it's own.

Microsoft gets a bad rap because it tends to favor buying out studios instead of starting them on their own. They also favor buying IP off studios as opposed to creating them on their own, overall it's because they seem to lack vision or try that they get bashed.
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Ensemble Studios was leading the charge in RTS games at the turn of the century. Even when MS took over, they continued their streak with AoM (and arguably AoE3, though I wasnt a fan). Then we saw Halo Wars, AoE: Online, and then dead. Under MS's watch.

Bungie apparently wasn't too thrilled with MS either. Once they tore away, they ran off and got in bed with Sony for some exclusive Destiny content and advertising rights. Perhaps they were lucky to get out like they did, instead of end up dead like the rest.
 
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