WSJ is reporting that Microsoft may be close to purchasing Mojang AB (Minecraft)

CatInABox

Have to admit, this is coming out of left field, but from Microsofts perspective, this might actually make sense.

Notch hasn't really said anything negative about Microsoft in a while either...

Wall Street Journal article is paywalled, so here's Polygons link.

Otacon

Not sure I see the appeal. Yes, Mojang own Minecraft but seeing as it is already available on all the major platforms, it seems a bit pointless now.

super_furry

Minecraft is a huge, huge franchise now but it was a bit of a lightening strike - how do you replicate it? Don't get me wrong, a Minecraft 2 on the Xbox One is a bona fide system selling for possibly millions of people if it comes out today but will that audience still be there in three or four years when it possibly could be ready?

heebusjeebus

Ah jesus MS. Why do they have to spend so much buying existing software houses and just spend a fraction creating new first party studios.
I hope Mojang wont go the way of Rare. Notch will probably leave when his contract with MS expires and leave a husk of a studio behind.

Otacon

Wait, Mojang don't own the Minecraft IP? They just licence it from Notch?

http://www.allabolag.se/5567597686/Mojang_Synergies_AB

So are MS just buying the developer then?

super_furry

super_furry wrote: »

Minecraft is a huge, huge franchise now but it was a bit of a lightening strike - how do you replicate it? Don't get me wrong, a Minecraft 2 on the Xbox One is a bona fide system selling for possibly millions of people if it comes out today but will that audience still be there in three or four years when it possibly could be ready?

Of course it will, not sure what else to say. It's a sequel so of course there's an audience for it.

I myself don't understand the fascination with Minecraft as it doesn't appeal to me but this looks like a smart move by MS to be fair.

Nody

Sorry but I don't see it happening; Notch has made it very clear that he does not want to be owned by a third party studio and has declined a ton of money over the years for even partial ownership and spend a ton of money on his staff (i.e. he's not someone who's greedy and insist to keep every cent he gets). I could see them doing a timed exclusive or similar but outright buying it I simply don't believe in simply because it goes directly against what Notch believes in (and he got more then enough money not to need to worry about it ever again).

dreamers75

MSft have such a good track record of buying studios and closing them after about 5 years.

BeerWolf

Nah, I say Mojang to sell off to EA...!

*Runs*

CatInABox

Interesting. Further update here on Eurogamer that Notch is the one that instigated it.

Perhaps he just wants to have a swimming pool full of cash. Can't say I'd blame him either.

I think the fact that he hasn't come out and denied it speaks volumes.

EoinHef

Very strange if true imo,ive always had lots of time for Mojang and Notch. One of the only dev/developers to really care about the fan base and there honesty and fairness over the years have been commendable. They have not charged people a penny more for the game than the entry price over the years and its updated regularly.

Id be with Nody on this one,ill believe it only when i see Notch himself say it. If it were true id struggle to see what MS had planned for it other than to keep it going in its current form and maybe make updates platform exclusive,id certainly see it as a massive platform seller. Especially if they introduce mods on console,which ive been hoping they would on next gen consoles.

the_syco

I'd be wondering if Notch has something in development, and wants to offload the current Minecraft before he announces his newest venture to ensure he gets top dollar for it?

Shiminay

Mojang are the company who charged people to come and speak at their Minecon event. They're selling panels with community figure heads and YouTube channels of note and then they're charging those people who are providing their convention with content to turn up. Hungry bastards.

Notch is the guy who came out and lambasted the Yogscast guys for getting rich off his creation without once acknowledging the fact that thousands of people only bought his product because of them. Notice how Mojang don't let him do a lot of talking anymore? He was the king of foot in mouth to the detriment of his own company. So I call BS on all this "isn't Notch great?" stuff - he's prone to wild bouts of lunacy.

Microsoft buying Mojang - not a terrible idea as long as they're handed a stack of XBone units to develop with, a pile of money to keep everyone paid and then they're left alone to do their thing

EoinHef

Shiminay wrote: »

Mojang are the company who charged people to come and speak at their Minecon event. They're selling panels with community figure heads and YouTube channels of note and then they're charging those people who are providing their convention with content to turn up. Hungry bastards.

Notch is the guy who came out and lambasted the Yogscast guys for getting rich off his creation without once acknowledging the fact that thousands of people only bought his product because of them. Notice how Mojang don't let him do a lot of talking anymore? He was the king of foot in mouth to the detriment of his own company. So I call BS on all this "isn't Notch great?" stuff - he's prone to wild bouts of lunacy.

Microsoft buying Mojang - not a terrible idea as long as they're handed a stack of XBone units to develop with, a pile of money to keep everyone paid and then they're left alone to do their thing

Mojang are also the company that enforce the rules that people cant charge for mods/texture packs on PC,and keep it exclusively on a donation basis and give all the updates to the game for free. Also the company that allow a free upgrade from last gen to next gen on console. Thats fairly fair imo. I paid €11 for the game years ago and have not had to pay a penny since(besides donating to FTB when it started,but i didnt have to)bar buying the game again on console,id say thats looking after your community

If they want to charge people who MAKE MONEY off their game to talk at their convention thats up to them imo. You mentioned the Yogscast,they havent done minecon in a long time and still make plenty of money from the game on there channel.

As for notch,i agree he can be a bit batty and its a personal thing as to what you and i think of what he says but id credit him with starting the above,and imo,very fair policies. So for that id thank him,as for his sometimes ridiculous comments i just ignore them

Shiminay

I've no beef with them enforcing the "pay to win" ban on servers. They're well aware that it is the gigantic community that has built up around this game that keeps it going and pissing that community off means game over. The game was written in Java, anyone could have taken that code and created any number of clones (and some tried) had Minecraft not kept itself relevant by thinking community's needs first. For that, we do indeed own Notch some thanks - he's an old skool PC gamer and he makes no apologies for that. He was also hugely opposed to people modding the game at first but realised it was the main thing that held people's interests whilst he kept working on it and whilst he started Mojang to manage it. This is why on the PC, where it is culturally unacceptable to charge for things like mods and skin-packs, they don't, but if you look over at the peasants, not only do they get a stripped down version of the game, they also have to pay for skins and they don't get to mod. Modding is a vital part of the Minecraft experience on PC - without it we have no Bukkit which was so successful in delivering a platform for further mods, Mojang bought them out. Without Bukkit, you have fk all public multiplayer servers where rules and locks and various other necessary tools can provide the experience people want.

You do have to pay (albeit a heavily reduced rate) to "upgrade" the game from 360 to XBone, but they do at least transfer any content you've already paid for to the new platform too. It's a remarkably fair deal I think, won't argue it or criticise any part of it.

MadYaker

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/microsoft-to-buy-minecraft-developer-mojang-report/1100-6422220/

Interesting. I probably wouldn't like to see it happen for $2 billion you can hardly blame the guy if he does go for it. At first I was wondering how it could be worth so much but when you think about it they aren't just buying a game, they are buying exclusive access to the minecraft community, and apparently there are over 100 million registered users, not sure how many of them actually paid for the full version though. A lot of the people playing minecraft are young children who may be the gamers of the future so maybe Microsoft is hoping to turn these kids into potential future customers. Interesting stuff.

And yes I know there is already a thread on this in the minecraft forum but I thought we'd get a better discussion going here.

Shiminay

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057287232

MadYaker

I can't think of anything I wouldn't do/sell for 2 billion dollars, my soul, my lifes work, anything. Your family would be rich for generations.

Pixelbastardo

So if MS buys, what happens to the minecraft servers on playstation network ? Are all servers shut down ?.

ShadowHearth

I dont like MS doing it, but at the same time Notch is one trick Pony. Yes, he did minecraft, but thats about it.

cloud493

Its worth noting MS bought Rare (arguably one of the greatest studios around at a certain time period) and that studio now makes mediocre fighting games and stuff for xbox live avatars. For my mind nothing good can come of this.

CatInABox

cloud493 wrote: »

Its worth noting MS bought Rare (arguably one of the greatest studios around at a certain time period) and that studio now makes mediocre fighting games and stuff for xbox live avatars. For my mind nothing good can come of this.

Yeah, but that certain time period was a little before Microsoft bought them. They seemed to lose direction after releasing Perfect Dark, with Conker being woeful(in my opinion, I know it's not universally held).

I just don't think that it was Microsoft that brought them into the gutter initially, but they probably did keep them there.

Still sad that Goldeneye hasn't been re-released

Akrasia

CatInABox wrote: »

Yeah, but that certain time period was a little before Microsoft bought them. They seemed to lose direction after releasing Perfect Dark, with Conker being woeful(in my opinion, I know it's not universally held).

I just don't think that it was Microsoft that brought them into the gutter initially, but they probably did keep them there.

Still sad that Goldeneye hasn't been re-released

It was re-released on the WII back in 2010.. different developer though. Not a bad game at all actually. probably the best FPS on the WII (and I actually liked FPS games on WII because the controls work surprisingly well)

RasTa

This will be announced tomorrow according to Reuters. $2.5 billion.

Dave_The_Sheep

PC Gamer reporting it as a done deal.

maximoose

Just announced by MS. No plans to remove the game from any other platforms.

Otacon

BBC have also confirmed it.

Microsoft has bought Mojang, the Swedish firm behind the popular video game Minecraft, for $2.5bn (£1.5bn).

The best-selling title, which boasts 100 million users, allows players to build structures with retro Lego-style blocks, as well as explore a large map and battle others.

The deal was announced by Xbox chief Phil Spencer.

Mojang, whose three founders will leave the company, assured fans that "everything is going to be OK".

Some analysts have speculated the deal is designed to attract more users to Microsoft's Windows Phone devices.

humanji

I still can't get my head around why the company is worth that much. Surely MS haven't a hope in hell in recouping that cost for a decade or two with what I can only imagine being Minecraft spinoffs and merchandising?

BeerWolf

1) Buy the IP
2) Develop MineCraft 2...
3) ???
4) PROFIT

richymcdermott

The new direction Phil Spencer has taken Microsoft is so much better than in the past , for one I welcome. they are ticking all the right boxes. It only makes sense to buy a studio that holds the one of the most popular ips and given they have no intention on taken it away from other platforms is smart.

http://www.develop-online.net/news/phil-spencer-minecraft-will-continue-to-be-available-across-platforms/0197627


Allowing the community to continue to grow and not remove the creativity with any outrageous cooperate business decisions then microsoft will recoup its money back and then some.

ScumLord

humanji wrote: »

I still can't get my head around why the company is worth that much. Surely MS haven't a hope in hell in recouping that cost for a decade or two with what I can only imagine being Minecraft spinoffs and merchandising?

There's a user base of young soon to be consumers they could be targeting. They may see it as an advertising platform as much as anything else and if they want to go down the road of exclusivity it would sell future consoles.

In reality microsoft shouldn't have to pay for the game itself, I'd assume a company like them could produce a knock off easily enough, so all they're really getting out of it is the name and current user base.

Gran Hermano

humanji wrote: »

I still can't get my head around why the company is worth that much. Surely MS haven't a hope in hell in recouping that cost for a decade or two with what I can only imagine being Minecraft spinoffs and merchandising?

I really don't think it is about the software side but rather the existing user base.
The game has a large and loyal user base, more importantly a large young install base.
If MS can have these people logging in to play Minecraft (on any device) and start to use an outlook.com email account and other MS services and products I'd reckon they'd feel their investment was worth it. It is similar to how it is speculated Apple bought Beats not for the hardware but for the install base of subscription customers of streaming music.

CatInABox

ScumLord wrote: »

There's a user base of young soon to be consumers they could be targeting. They may see it as an advertising platform as much as anything else and if they want to go down the road of exclusivity it would sell future consoles.

In reality microsoft shouldn't have to pay for the game itself, I'd assume a company like them could produce a knock off easily enough, so all they're really getting out of it is the name and current user base.

This is probably the most important part for Microsoft. The user base is meant to be around 50 million active users, and surely Mojang/Microsoft have plans to monetise those users. Perhaps opening a kind of Mod Marketplace? You create a mod and then sell it for ten dollars, of which Mojang gets 3 dollars.

ScumLord

CatInABox wrote: »

This is probably the most important part for Microsoft. The user base is meant to be around 50 million active users, and surely Mojang/Microsoft have plans to monetise those users.

It seems to me that the user base is typically young too. So it's a bit like banking a consumer base for the future.

RasTa

Nice send off from the creator, seems solid

I don’t see myself as a real game developer. I make games because it’s fun, and because I love games and I love to program, but I don’t make games with the intention of them becoming huge hits, and I don’t try to change the world. Minecraft certainly became a huge hit, and people are telling me it’s changed games. I never meant for it to do either. It’s certainly flattering, and to gradually get thrust into some kind of public spotlight is interesting.

A relatively long time ago, I decided to step down from Minecraft development. Jens was the perfect person to take over leading it, and I wanted to try to do new things. At first, I failed by trying to make something big again, but since I decided to just stick to small prototypes and interesting challenges, I’ve had so much fun with work. I wasn’t exactly sure how I fit into Mojang where people did actual work, but since people said I was important for the culture, I stayed.

I was at home with a bad cold a couple of weeks ago when the internet exploded with hate against me over some kind of EULA situation that I had nothing to do with. I was confused. I didn’t understand. I tweeted this in frustration. Later on, I watched the This is Phil Fish video on YouTube and started to realize I didn’t have the connection to my fans I thought I had. I’ve become a symbol. I don’t want to be a symbol, responsible for something huge that I don’t understand, that I don’t want to work on, that keeps coming back to me. I’m not an entrepreneur. I’m not a CEO. I’m a nerdy computer programmer who likes to have opinions on Twitter.

As soon as this deal is finalized, I will leave Mojang and go back to doing Ludum Dares and small web experiments. If I ever accidentally make something that seems to gain traction, I’ll probably abandon it immediately.

Considering the public image of me already is a bit skewed, I don’t expect to get away from negative comments by doing this, but at least now I won’t feel a responsibility to read them.

I’m aware this goes against a lot of what I’ve said in public. I have no good response to that. I’m also aware a lot of you were using me as a symbol of some perceived struggle. I’m not. I’m a person, and I’m right there struggling with you.

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.

super_furry

Minecraft 2 is by no means a guaranteed 50 million seller in the same way that Minecraft is. It’s success was very much an organic growth that, like the Wii, brought in non-traditional gamers and there’s no guarantee that the same audience will be there in three or four years time when Minecraft 2 does come out.

Shiminay

The only thing I could think MC2 might have as a bonus is better graphics, a completely rewritten engine (in a proper language like C or C++ which is, I believe, the basis of the console ports anyway) and maybe a scripted story/mission system. I think they're probably better off never releasing that sort of thing as a new game but as DLC for the existing (and locking them as exclusives on their platforms because if you're spending 2.5bn then you'll want to start seeing a return).

EoinHef

I just hope they leave the game alone on PC to be honest,there is no doubt in my mind its the best platform to play the game on by quite a distance. Like most im struggling to see how they can make a quick return on the investment. Can only really see long term gain in it for them.

Access to the user base is a good point,but mojang have gained that user bases confidence over the years,well mostly,MS will have to do a lot of work to gain the same level of trust from me.

Im skeptical and the moment but i hope MS prove me wrong and take the game to newer and better heights.

I would agree they have done a lot in the last while regarding what i would consider bad policies,making them better imo,so hopefully they stick to that

ScumLord

Big companies are always looking for the next big thing. Look at the money Facebook dropped into the oculus rift and the rumor seems to be they'll heavily subsidise it so it's basically going to be sold at cost. They won't be making money back on the hardware in the short term but they could be a big player in VR into the future.

I wouldn't have thought minecraft was the next big thing. It seems a bit late to try and take advantage of it unless they're looking for their own Mario to aim for a younger market.

Big well established businesses like this have to look to new ways to increase their market share, they've already saturated the traditional marketing avenues.

MadYaker

$2,500,000,000. Fúck me thats a lot of cash. I can totally understand why he went for it in the end. I think over time there will be changes, but nothing drastic. The main reason microsoft bought this was for access to the user base so I doubt they'll be stupid enough to alienate that user base by charging for updates or disabling modding or some other nonsense.

Ravenid

BeerWolf wrote: »

1) Buy the IP
2) Develop MineCraft 2...
3) Only barely survive the avalanche of cash that a Minecraft 2 would 100% bring to whoever owns the Minecraft IP
4)Profit
5)Profit Again
6)Even More Profit
7)Profit Profit Profit Profit
PROFIT

There is no ????????? in this one.

Sieghardt

They could have revived every franchise you ever loved

they could have localised everything that ever went unlocalised

they could have made hundreds of games, new IPs and old

such a waste

CatInABox

Here's some further reporting on it, which might help make more sense of the cost of Mojang:

Essentially, Microsoft expects to make more money from Minecraft than it would make if that $2.5 billion sat in the bank for a year and generated $25 million in interest. And yes, given the sales of the game — which just launched on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 — not to mention the merchandise licensing that Minecraft has seen to date, $25 million sounds like a very, very doable number.

I've taken that from here.

It does put it into a better perspective. Also, a lot of the 85 Billion that Microsoft has in cash is overseas (i.e. Ireland), and it's money that can't be brought back to the states without taking a massive tax hit, hence why American tech companies invest their cash pile in Euro companies (Nokia, Mojang)