WSJ: ''Mojang to be bought by Microsoft'

SneakyStephan said:
kekeke


Imagine how many games this could have funded (and I mean fund development, not fund exclusivity)



I've never even seen this thing or heard of it:p


OT: this thread is moving so fast

Seems weird to me that notch would sell out, he's a frigging billionaire he can't spend the money he has in his lifetime.

At 2 billion dollars this reeks of another KING or zynga style bubble fueled by speculation and greed.
There is no guarantee or even any reason to suspect that any future game by mojang will be as popular as minecraft. Minecraft fills a niche that wasn't filled before, it is a cheap and creative version of legos which makes it a popular gift for children, , it has a thriving community due to mod support.
It was also a total fluke for notch, he had no idea that there would be such a demand for this game.

Why would he or his studio know about any other untapped market to fill with their sequel.

They can't even put them to work on kinect games what are they going to do with them? (rip rare:p)
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Personally I dont think it compares to zynga, Minecraft IP has shown that despite clones it dominates. Its like the Tetris Company at this point.
Notch could fire everyone and still make a truck load with outsourced games.
 
BlackBuzzard said:
I think part of why Minecraft is successful, is the free updates/content no DLC and the low price, take that away and i think the brand will die very fast.
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People are willing to buy consoles and handhelds for Minecraft. Paying for DLC would not be a problem for most users. The low entry price point was a great selling point at first, but could easily be bumped up to 60 to 100 euro with DLC without all that much issue. This is one of those games which will keep people busy for years.

I think Microsoft should have bought them earlier if they were going to do it, unless they are privy to information on Minecraft 2. They should have done it before it launched on PS4 and if possible launch it with the One and market the console as the Ultimate Minecraft experience box. Throw it in for free with every console sold, add some DLC and it would have been a completely different situation right now.
 
brett2 said:
People say stuff like this as if they know what it's like to be offered $2 billion. You and I can't even understand what that feels like.
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What you have to remember is that Notch is already rich beyond his wildest dreams. The 2 billion offer from Microsoft would make the world of difference to someone like you or me. However if you already have a bank account with hundreds of millions in the bank then the 2 billion inducement isn't that tempting. Notch has more money than he will ever be able to spend in his lifetime, why would he care about some extra zero's in the bank ?

Having said that if this rumour is true then clearly Notch is pretty much the hypocrite I always imagined him to be. I also have a hard time believing that Minecraft will continue on any other platform outside of the Xbone. I believe MS will kill support for all versions out there INCLUDING the PC version and make this Xbone exclusive.
 
Duxxy3 said:
What has sold more: everything that capcom has ever made... or minecraft?
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Probably minecraft right? Not really a fan of the game but I understand how popular it is. Not sure if it's worth 2 billion tho.

Edit: I'm completely wrong, but we're comparing one game vs capcoms whole catalog.

Minecraft could be bigger with Microsofts advertising.
 
George Claw M.D. said:
Totally random thought without any evidence to go by, but Minecraft VR for Morpheus would be a highly probable Morpheus/PS4 seller which would also incidentally seriously dampen Xbone sales. Microsoft could be playing defense and keeping Minecraft off of Morpheus. And they'd also be able to have Minecraft for their own VR solution if they're secretly working on one. Basically a huge counterpunch to a blow that would have nearly knocked Xbone out. Think about it. How huge a threat would Minecraft VR be to Xbone if it was console exclusive to PS4/Morpheus?
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I think that this makes lots of sense.
 
Zornack said:
Minecraft 2 and Minecraft: The Movie would probably easily make up the cost.
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How do you figure? Is Minecraft The Movie going to be directed by James Cameron? Those things are going to cost money to make themselves, as well.

Then again, I figure there's also plenty of merch sales and licensing, but still...this seems like a very risky endeavor. If I'm Notch I take the money.

Amir0x said:
There's no way Notch would sign something that would prevent him from permanently making any more games. It'd be more like a traditional clause, something like he can't make anything for a year or two after the deal is signed.
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Oh, no doubt. Part of the reason I would certainly take the money. I just wonder how long it would run for. MS definitely has to take that into consideration with an offer like this.
 
jay23 said:
Probably minecraft right? Not really a fan of the game but I understand how popular it is. Not sure if it's worth 2 billion tho.
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Resident Evil alone has 50+ million sales across the series according to wiki. Street Fighter 33+ million etc.
 
It would be really, really interesting if they bought Mojang but kept Minecraft multiplatform, though. I've wondered if MS might move in that direction as sales of Xbone peter off. Imagine if Halo 6 launched on both Xbone and PS4. Sales would be astronomical.
 
Pie and Beans said:
Respect would be in the toilet for Notch if this occurred. After his weird tweets about Oculus, and the freedom he supposedly always wanted for Mojang, tying them to the most 'studio destructive' of the console makers would be unmatchable hypocrisy.
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Disagree here. This seems like a borderline retarded move from Microsoft. Minecraft is almost certainly approaching market saturation and as you'd think companies would learn stuff like Minecraft is because the game itself was just a very good idea, not because Notch is an incredible game design hyper genuis that in any way can be expected to be able to replicate his own successes.

It's a shame that the game will undoubtedly end up getting dragged through the mud by Microsoft via Minecraft 2 - now packed with DLC and microtransactions. Please be hype!! But I think taking the money is a great way to take a piss on the whole "We can buy anything, including success!"
 
speculawyer said:
What did Rare have the pipeline? Fuck all from what I can tell.
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Ghoulies, Kameo & PD Zero were all being worked on for Gamecube before Microsoft purchased them.

The only sense I can make from this deal is that Mojang have some super secret project going on and Microsoft has seen it and wants in on it.
(Minecraft 2?)
 
CharmingCharlie said:
What you have to remember is that Notch is already rich beyond his wildest dreams. The 2 billion offer from Microsoft would make the world of difference to someone like you or me. However if you already have a bank account with hundreds of millions in the bank then the 2 billion inducement isn't that tempting. Notch has more money than he will ever be able to spend in his lifetime, why would he care about some extra zero's in the bank ?

Having said that if this rumour is true then clearly Notch is pretty much the hypocrite I always imagined him to be. I also have a hard time believing that Minecraft will continue on any other platform outside of the Xbone. I believe MS will kill support for all versions out there INCLUDING the PC version and make this Xbone exclusive.
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Again, when we are talking about these amounts of money we really can't truly understand. If you want to speculate though, think about not just Notch but everyone else involved in a deal like this. There are probably hundreds of people part of the company that don't have Notch's wealth and would love to see this deal go through to strike it rich. Don't you think that would put just a little bit of pressure on mogul Notch and his now much less wealthy friends that stand to gain? Would you want to tell a a whole group of friends that you won't help them become multi millionaires just by signing a few documents? At this level this a whole different game and we really can't understand.
 
King Tubby said:
Oh, no doubt. Part of the reason I would certainly take the money. I just wonder how long it would run for. MS definitely has to take that into consideration with an offer like this.
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To me if Microsoft is willing to shell out 2 billion for this, Notch probably has a lot of leverage in what he wants. 2 years is not so long to be out of the development game, and he can take swims in olympic pools filled with hundred dollar bills. He can imagine up lots of sweet concepts in that time and then when the 2 years is up (or whenever) he can get right to developing it.

Man, if I were Notch I'd be pinching myself everyday. Minecraft. Minecraft turned into THIS size phenomenon!
 
So the virtual reality that's not even out, that doesn't have any type of merchandise or any real full games out. Is not on console or PC games, or anything... that's ok to spend 2 billion on or whatever it was that Facebook paid... yet a game that is proven... that has sold like gang busters.. that just brought down PSN again last week because everyone was buying it.. that continues to chart in NPD numbers month after month ...

all of a sudden that game is not worth it. Hell, I didn't even mention the merch that is with it... now all of a sudden Minecraft is not a hot, big game that people love to buy and now part 2 would never be worth it and people won't think when they hear Minecraft 2 being announced.. people won't be interested because hey... they have the first one.


Right.
 
hawk2025 said:
...Resident Evil alone has sold more than Minecraft, at around 61 million copies:


http://www.capcom.co.jp/ir/english/business/salesdata.html
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Even with all those sales, and the much higher price point the RE games have sold at, they still haven't brought in revenues of 2 billion let alone profit have they? Assuming they brought in an average of 30 dollars per sale. I'm sure the franchise, including movies and licensing, has brought in more, but that took decades.
 
miDnIghtEr20C said:
So the virtual reality that's not even out, that doesn't have any type of merchandise or any real full games out. Is not on console or PC games, or anything... that's ok to spend 2 billion on or whatever it was that Facebook paid... yet a game that is proven... that has sold like gang busters.. that just brought down PSN again last week because everyone was buying it.. that continues to chart in NPD numbers month after month ...

all of a sudden that game is not worth it. Hell, I didn't even mention the merch that is with it... now all of a sudden Minecraft is not a hot, big game that people love to buy and now part 2 would never be worth it and people won't think when they hear Minecraft 2 being announced.. people won't be interested because hey... they have the first one.


Right.
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That's the thing it has already sold gangbusters. You get on things on the ground level, not when there's a big of it declining.

2 bil is a ton of money to recoup....
 
This is interesting news. If I were Microsoft I wouldn't buy Mojang for Minecraft, I'd buy it, push for a MC sequel, and make it Xbox only. Duh, right?
 
They could use that money to give 400$ to anyone who bought a Xbox so far.

Would work just as well as Buying Zynga and making Farmville 2 when Farmville was a success.
 
Loch Doun said:
Ghoulies, Kameo & PD Zero were all being worked on for Gamecube before Microsoft purchased them.
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Donkey Kong Racing was also in the works. It became Sabreman Stampede, a later cancelled Xbox game. We know Banjo-Threeie was also in the works for Xbox because Rarewarecentral found the game in a very early state, and unbootable. They were able to rip these broken Mumbo models from it though.

ayv6Uus.png


xBClhoF.png
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-MD- said:
Resident Evil alone has 50+ million sales across the series according to wiki. Street Fighter 33+ million etc.
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And yet if you gu by Wikipedia, Minecraft has made Mojang 2.069 billion SEK (Swedish krona) in revenue for the year of 2013. Which is somewhere around 290 million US dollars. It really outweighs both Resident Evil and Street Fighter combined.
 
I don't have much interest in Minecraft, though I had an okay time with it for a bit, but I find this really hard to believe. Mostly, I find it difficult to believe Microsoft would spend that much on Mojang.
 
I think it is a pretty strange idea. Not only could they fund lots of games for that kind of money but also if they alienate the PC community from the next minecraft or updates the game will surely lose a lot of the hype surrounding it and I never believe they will generate the money back. Also it will yet again make MS look like the bad guys in the yes of gamers by removing multiplats that didn't even start on their console.
 
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