Dictator93
Member
Ugh, it would be quite annoying if this happened. I don't play minecraft but I like the idea of the game being available on as many platforms as possible.
WSJ: ''Mojang to be bought by Microsoft'
- Thread starter Thomper
- Start date
My faith/money put into Minecraft alpha could very likely become Microsoft dollars. I hardly see any difference.
An an avid Minecraft player, this news is both very exciting and very worrying. Assuming all this comes to pass, I would say Minecraft updates will come much faster than they have been, which is both a good thing and a bad thing.
I'm all for more content, especially as a primary user of the Mac/PC version of the game, but I worry that Microsoft will overdo it, or focus mostly on Xbox versions of the game. I use a Mac, and am very worried that a Microsoft takeover would mean the chance of less support for me.
I'm also worried that Microsoft will milk the franchise and try to add more features than are necessary (like adding more tutorials, which actually take away from the exploring nature of the game). However, in the end it will likely mean more content and that's rarely a bad thing.
If this rumor is true and future Minecraft updates (for consoles) will be Xbox exclusive, it is the biggest megaton for Xbox One yet. Bigger than Halo, or any other game announced so far. Minecraft, thanks to Youtube and other social sites, is this generation's Mario and Pokémon. If true, this means Microsoft has taken a massive step towards capturing the children's market, and may even have done so already.
I'm all for more content, especially as a primary user of the Mac/PC version of the game, but I worry that Microsoft will overdo it, or focus mostly on Xbox versions of the game. I use a Mac, and am very worried that a Microsoft takeover would mean the chance of less support for me.
I'm also worried that Microsoft will milk the franchise and try to add more features than are necessary (like adding more tutorials, which actually take away from the exploring nature of the game). However, in the end it will likely mean more content and that's rarely a bad thing.
If this rumor is true and future Minecraft updates (for consoles) will be Xbox exclusive, it is the biggest megaton for Xbox One yet. Bigger than Halo, or any other game announced so far. Minecraft, thanks to Youtube and other social sites, is this generation's Mario and Pokémon. If true, this means Microsoft has taken a massive step towards capturing the children's market, and may even have done so already.
BibiMaghoo
Member
One required crowd funding to be an existing product. The other did not. They are not the same.
Castef
Banned
Uhm...
1: Buy Mojang
2: make agreements with 3rd party developers. When you buy their games on Xbox One or Xbox 360, unlock related content in Minecraft on those platforms (skins, objects, worlds...)
3: enjoy!
Basically they can use Minecraft as some kind of Xbox's Home.
Alternatively:
1: Buy Mojang
2: Give Microsoft lawyers a good amount of energy drinks
3: Have them sue every single Minecraft-clone developer
4: Money!
1: Buy Mojang
2: make agreements with 3rd party developers. When you buy their games on Xbox One or Xbox 360, unlock related content in Minecraft on those platforms (skins, objects, worlds...)
3: enjoy!
Basically they can use Minecraft as some kind of Xbox's Home.
Alternatively:
1: Buy Mojang
2: Give Microsoft lawyers a good amount of energy drinks
3: Have them sue every single Minecraft-clone developer
4: Money!
statham
Member
Dude is cashing out and moving on. Good on him for making a ton of money. Hopefully he doesn't spurn all of his faithful fans by doing this. I think he is raking MS over the coals for that amount of money, but good on him if he can get them to do it. Use the money for good dude.
We all know Phil Spencer kidnapped his Fedora and held it to ransom.
Bolts-n-Rays1109
Banned
So Notch started the talks? Talk about a plot twist.
Pie and Beans
Look for me on the local news, I'll be the guy arrested for trying to burn down a Nintendo exec's house.
If Microsoft genuinely drops 2 billion on a studio that is already on their platform, already cash rich, and whatever, I'm not sure I can continue to support them. Its just... stupidity at that point. Stark raving money madness.
The sheer quantity of entire studios and games that could be made for that price. Essentially the entire fucking Bucket List of Dead Projects would be feasible with Shenmue 3, Psychonauts 2, Megaman Legends 3... anything you can think of, all in there. Top talent that you could squirrel away for 10 years to work on the next big thing. Oculus was 2 billion for fucks sake. That makes sense, thats industry changing tech. Minecraft is one game that snowballed and went huge, an Angry Birds situation but with more of a complex core game concept.
Notch would presumably never tweet again because every single response would be calling him out as a huge hypocrit.
The sheer quantity of entire studios and games that could be made for that price. Essentially the entire fucking Bucket List of Dead Projects would be feasible with Shenmue 3, Psychonauts 2, Megaman Legends 3... anything you can think of, all in there. Top talent that you could squirrel away for 10 years to work on the next big thing. Oculus was 2 billion for fucks sake. That makes sense, thats industry changing tech. Minecraft is one game that snowballed and went huge, an Angry Birds situation but with more of a complex core game concept.
Notch would presumably never tweet again because every single response would be calling him out as a huge hypocrit.
Compare that to two billion though... You can see Notch just wanted to cash out. He's set for life and more.
Ha. I could just imagine how the initial negotiations went if any of the suits had a sense of humor.
You must be new to the world of business.
Yep, absolute insanity. Apparently the XBox division still has carte blanche with their money and unfortunately, are choosing seemingly insane things to spend it on.
Funny after all the talk about MS getting their dirty tendrils into another dev, it turns out the dev actually approached them.
Funny people keep assuming this. Also didn't MS put a few billion into the gaming division?
Yeah this is kind of ridiculous.
Banjo-Kazooie
Member
Who said the Xbox division was in charge of this purchase? But wow, 2 billion, what a dman insane price when you think about what xbox division could do with that.
2 billions dollars makes sense for an industry-changing technology like Oculus, not for something like Minecraft.
If anything, Notch has to be applauded because he's basically tricked Microsoft out of two billion dollars.
Anyway, like I said, he's a hypocrite overall for going on that tirade over the FB buyout of Oculus and then doing this. The very definition of sell-out pretty much but good get for MS.
Holographix
Banned
Did you miss the part about Phil Spencer going out there to "woo" him?
thekiddfran
Member
This is the best you can do Spencer?
Even shill king Don Mattrick wouldn't make a deal so redundant as this.
Even shill king Don Mattrick wouldn't make a deal so redundant as this.
When I said 'this is kind of ridiculous' I meant that they are paying 2billion dollars for a single game studio that's made a single game instead of investing it in something diverse and interesting.
Banjo-Kazooie
Member
I did actually, which article is it in?
kruis
Exposing the sinister cartel of retailers who allow companies to pay for advertising space.
It can't have been the server, windows or office division ...
Yeah when it's put that way, it is rather disheartening. They could've at least through us a bone and remastered Crimson Skies. Game was great.
Losing iOS would be a big deal. Losing PS4 would be a much smaller deal.
It really depends on 1) if this is actually happening, and 2) what their overall strategy with Mojang is, but I'd bet on Sony's consoles getting the cold shoulder in the future.
Bolts-n-Rays1109
Banned
Banjo-Kazooie
Member
No, but it could be the "device and services" division and not specifically the xbox division within that group. If Phil Spencer personally has this much power where he can sign a $2 billion deal for Mojang then wow. I'd like to think it was a couple steps above him.
I guess what I'm getting at is... did Phil Spencer allocate strictly Xbox budget towards this, or did Elop allocate Device and Service overall budget to this? I would like to think the later since this isn't a product for just Xbox systems. Elop would have been the deciding factor if it fits into the other device strategies in the division.
PanicFreak
Member
I think what would happen is that PC/Mac would become PC/Mac/Xbox. They would outsource the development on other platforms to other developers.
I wonder what would happen to Project Spark under this scenario.
GHG
Member
It was obviously the cloud division.
Handy Fake
Member
I could only assume that there's some long-standing agreement between Mojang/Sony/"Minecraft" which couldn't be negated by a company sale.
Could it?
George Lucas ruined Star Wars. Big difference. Also, Star Wars encompasses so much media, movies, games, books, etc.
It's completely different.
I think MS just wants to buy access to the next generation of gamers. Minecraft is the King of the schoolyard and playground. Now that Nintendo is not converting people into gamers MS will grab the opportunity with Minecraft. Making Shenmue 3 will not get you relevancy with the new audiences, as much as I would love that game.
I don't think this is a revenue-generating venture, I think this is strategic. Risky as hell. Supercell was only 1,5 billion, and it has far more revenue and higher profits. Mojang deal is over 500M more.
Will be interesting to see how this pans out. But the complete twitter blackout by Mojang staff and Notch is telling -normally they shoot down all rumors.
polygon.com said:
And people thought that with Nadella and Spencer Microsoft would have changed attitude. LMAO
1st Course
Member
Except Mojang hasn't peaked? They've increased their revenue every year since they were founded, and there are plenty of indications that the same is the case for 2014 so far.
Minecraft PC sales already slowed down compared to past years. Eventually sales are going to slow down on consoles/mobile too (if they haven't already). After that what? $2B is a ridiculous amount of money for a company that has yet to prove they are capable of delivering new hits after another.
Seriously, I can't think of why they'd spend so much for it so late, they should've bought it years ago if they wanted to milk it for what it was worth. The game's probably hitting its peak soon if it hasn't already.
Congrats to Notch by the way, I probably would've done the same. I just hope he realizes he's more or less done with making games, lightning doesn't strike twice and the fans will abandon ship after this. Not that he'd need to do anything ever again to earn money.
Ray Wonder
Founder of the Wounded Tagless Children
I think it would be a waste of money on MS's part. What could you possibly do with minecraft at this point. Where do they make money after minecraft? Mojang is not some masterpiece creator. They made one bomb, they're not a bomb factory.
The only single thing I could see them doing is making Minecraft moddable on Xbox One. That's the only benefit I see out of all this.
Also, I read that MS will keep Minecraft on other platforms if they do acquire Mojang.
Still, it doesn't make sense. They could probably pick up From Software, Insomniac, or get Bungie back for $2 billion. I don't see the logic here. Big mistake in my unprofessional opinion.
The only single thing I could see them doing is making Minecraft moddable on Xbox One. That's the only benefit I see out of all this.
Also, I read that MS will keep Minecraft on other platforms if they do acquire Mojang.
Still, it doesn't make sense. They could probably pick up From Software, Insomniac, or get Bungie back for $2 billion. I don't see the logic here. Big mistake in my unprofessional opinion.
Banjo-Kazooie
Member
PanicFreak
Member
Microsoft had a three game publishing deal for Mass Effect at one time.
Bolts-n-Rays1109
Banned
What does this have to do with a possible changed MS attitude? Notch went to them, so MS is just there for the ride trying to get the deal done.
Handy Fake
Member
Not exactly the same I guess.
If the alpha didn't become successfull enough who know what the real end product would have been in minecraft case, no one know.
But in the end, in minecraft and oculus case, people spent money to get a product, and did get it.
Then one creator got bored of it's creation, while the other is still trying to make it acheive it's full potential.
Castef
Banned
Does this phrase actually make sense?
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