Microsoft acquires Mojang

[Dark Drakan]

As it was rumoured last week Microsoft have purchased Minecraft creator Mojang for $2.5 billion. The founders: Notch, Carl, and Jakob are leaving & Notch has said the following:

"I love you. All of you. Thank you for turning Minecraft into what it has become, but there are too many of you, and I can't be responsible for something this big. In one sense, it belongs to Microsoft now. In a much bigger sense, it's belonged to all of you for a long time, and that will never change.
"It's not about the money. It's about my sanity.

SOURCE - CVG

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[Quistrix]

 

[Gikoku]

It's sad how easily companies can be bought out these days in the industry, but money talks. I miss when the games mattered more than the paychecks.

Also, $2.5 billion for Mojang?.. Youtube, Twitch, Bioware, etc. weren't even bought out for half that, with Oculus being short of $500 million in comparison. I hope Minecraft was worth it all, because personally that money would've been better spent on the development of many fresh innovative IPs, rather than a single buy of one developer's talents. They did this same thing with Rare and we all know how that turned out.

 

[Dark Drakan]

It's still selling like hot cakes & they are keeping it multi-format. With Notch wanting to move on I think it might actually help keep Mojang going forward & pushing onto next step. Will generate a hell on an income for Microsoft to have the rights after how popular it had become & Notch didn't want it anymore.

 

[Gikoku]

It's still selling like hot cakes & they are keeping it multi-format. With Notch wanting to move on I think it might actually help keep Mojang going forward & pushing onto next step. Will generate a hell on an income for Microsoft to have the rights after how popular it had become & Notch didn't want it anymore.

Yeah, but that's the question. What exactly will they come up with or do once Minecraft runs its course? Minecraft 2? Something original? It's their only successful game and despite its massive success, $2.5 billion for a one game developer is just mind-boggling. Notch wasn't the only creative mind to leave in the wake of the buyout, so who knows how things will be for Mojang in the long run.

Sky's the limit now for whatever budget they want for their next game, and good for them. But I still feel building new innovations would be more rewarding for everyone than simply buying out success.

 

[Dark Drakan]

Minecraft will no doubt have a sequel of sorts with more tools & more possibilities that weren't incorporated into original. I personally never got into it, Jack loves it but maybe in future with more tools, better interface etching consoles it could become even bigger.

 

[Tsuyu]

Beyotch be set for life now.

They'll have more money than they could possibly spend in a lifetime!

 

[Gikoku]

Minecraft will no doubt have a sequel of sorts with more tools & more possibilities that weren't incorporated into original. I personally never got into it, Jack loves it but maybe in future with more tools, better interface etching consoles it could become even bigger.

Yep. As much as I wish for more original creativity, when you get to swim around like Scrooge McDuck every morning it tends to spoil one from making new amazing things. Which is why I'm pretty much expecting them to go on cruise control with a series of Minecraft sequels and/or spin-offs, history has repeated too much with this.

 

[Dark Drakan]

Most of my thoughts Gary from Rust said in his article on his blog...

 

[Gikoku]

Most of my thoughts Gary from Rust said in his article on his blog...

Selling out can be wonderful at first, but it doesn't always benefit everyone in the long run.

One of the things that often stands out to me is when a company gets bigger/richer the employees tend to become more expendable, especially when a company fluctuates with expansions and downsizes. He mentioned Blitz in his post, another example would be Ken Levine who shut down Irrational Games for a new studio after Bioshock Infinite just because he wanted to make smaller games, all those people lost their jobs that easily except for a small handful, when he could've simply stepped down. Dick move. I said before, anything's possible right now and we'll see where they go from here, but given the track record of company's like Microsoft, EA, and Activision... they don't fill me with much confidence.

Microsoft bought Rare 12 years ago for $375 million and allowed them to continue developing for other platforms for awhile, they were one of the best devs in the world and many believed for that much Microsoft wouldn't do anything stupid with them. We all know how that turned out, which is why I hope Microsoft won't repeat the past with this. They've shown they're capable of changing after all with the Xbox One fiasco.

 

[Dark Drakan]

Selling out can be wonderful at first, but it doesn't always benefit everyone in the long run.

One of the things that often stands out to me is when a company gets bigger/richer the employees tend to become more expendable, especially when a company fluctuates with expansions and downsizes. He mentioned Blitz in his post, another example would be Ken Levine who shut down Irrational Games for a new studio after Bioshock Infinite just because he wanted to make smaller games, all those people lost their jobs that easily except for a small handful, when he could've simply stepped down. Dick move. I said before, anything's possible right now and we'll see where they go from here, but given the track record of company's like Microsoft, EA, and Activision... they don't fill me with much confidence.

Microsoft bought Rare 12 years ago for $375 million and allowed them to continue developing for other platforms for awhile, they were one of the best devs in the world and many believed for that much Microsoft wouldn't do anything stupid with them. We all know how that turned out, which is why I hope Microsoft won't repeat the past with this. They've shown they're capable of changing after all with the Xbox One fiasco.

They admitted to mismanaging Rare some time ago & lots of Rares faults were their own. They would be long dead & buried if it wasn't for Microsofts funding. Shame they were sidelined to Kinect titles but they had loss so much cash that it seemed Microsoft didnt know what to do with them.

It's in Microsofts best interests to keep Mojang & Minecraft churning out the sales & increasing their revenue so let's hope they don't end up mismanaged. When you are owned by a big studio expectations are high & if a product doesn't deliver then people can lose jobs, it's all a risk/reward system.