I think any future efforts on minecraft for other platforms are done if this goes ahead. Maybe mobile versions would continue as Microsoft is already present on Android and IOS
WSJ: ''Mojang to be bought by Microsoft'
- Thread starter Thomper
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I think any future efforts on minecraft for other platforms are done if this goes ahead. Maybe mobile versions would continue as Microsoft is already present on Android and IOS
zomgbbqftw
Banned
PlayStation?
PS4 just hit 10m at record pace, faster than the Wii. It is growing in places like Asia and Eastern Europe, usually where consoles have found it tough going.
You are making the mistake of thinking that Mojang will be integrated into the Xbox division. Skype is available on PS Vita and there is a PS4 version in the works by all accounts. It would be better to think of Mojang as a completely separate business unit that has the freedom to push its software wherever it wants like Skype.
But isn't that what they've already been doing with the main game through a regular stream of updates? The current version is worlds apart from the original alpha. What could they do in a sequel that couldn't be realistically patched in, or hell, modded in by the PC community? The only thing I can think of is do something like No Man's Sky, where you can explore different planets or something.
Yea, I just saw it lol. It took them years to do it though. I still cant see MS publishing a game on the PS4, so i think it will be console exclusive.
I'm not sure I agree about notch being creatively done, but what he does after his contract expires would be one of the more interesting parts of the story.
In one way, this would be a way for him to leave Minecraft behind. I think its been weighing on him about how escape from its shadow, and there are worse ways to cap that chapter in his life I guess.
Oh I agree, he has been gone for a good minute... but now it feels like it will be official with this deal. He can make a clean cut while bolstering his already massive bank account. Yeah, it doesn't paint a pretty picture of his character, that's for sure. Quite duplicitous, I think.
Miles Quaritch
Member
Have to agree with zomg, if this is true, MS won't be looking to make the IP exclusive to their platform. This is about having a solid revenue stream, not about trying to make the XB1 more appealing through MC exclusivity.
killer rin
Member
New dimensions, New Mobs, new Animals, new Block Pieces, new Craftables... maybe planets, How would you like to be able to officially go to the moon? How about an actual storyline mode?
They could easily roll this into their school programs. Sign a contract to purchase Surfaces as school computers and we'll throw in Minecraft preloaded for free. Teachers would love it considering the educational use that some of them have found in Minecraft.
I highly doubt that. The contracts are already in place and MS would be doing significant damage to their new IP by angering existing fans.
MC had sold a good 11m copies before it went to Playstation. I just can't agree that MS will publish actual videogame software on the PS4.
Pound_lb003
Member
As a wider kind of question, how relevant will Minecraft 2 be when you can't play it on an iPad/iOS, Android or Mac? How many of those 50 million sales are accounted for by platforms other than those comprised of the Windows eco-system?
Can you inherently limit a brand by making it exclusive?
Can you inherently limit a brand by making it exclusive?
Wiktor
Member
That is a new console though .Starting from scratch. Take both Ps3 and PS4 and it's not growing anywhere near as fast as PC is.
Disagree. The existing titles will be treated as a revenue stream / offset against the purchase, but they'll leverage toys and software for the sequel to boost the Windows and Xbox business even if it risks damaging the brand. It's digital lego, the 'mario' for today's generation of kids (except it probably won't live as long) - Microsoft won't see this as a risk, they'll see it as an opportunity to create an exclusive, long lived IP imo.
But my point is, couldn't all this stuff (aside from maybe planets) be patched in? Considering where Minecraft started from I'm not sure stuff like new biomes, mobs, blocks, craftables etc is enough to justify a sequel when that's the sort of stuff they've been constantly adding to the game since it launched at alpha. And if that sort of stuff is never patched in, there's a huge modding community for the PC version that could add it anyway.
New planets is the only realistic thing I can think of so far for a proper sequel.
exmachina64
Banned
"Hey, kids! Grandpa Microsoft can be cool too. C'mon over to the latest version of Windows and play with your favorite Minecraft toy!"*
*exclusive to DX12.2
Even if MC 2 only sells half of what the first game sold, you're still talking about 20m copies which is a tonne of revenue.
Well here's the thing: They wouldn't patch it in so that there would be demand for a sequel.
BlackBuzzard
Banned
Yeah that's gonna work... If they stop patching people will move on.
NemesisPrime
Banned
That is true... I think they will just, at some point, market it as MC2 and probably up the graphics engine. Anyway... I am sure Notch has many ideas to expand MC... with MS behind it, it might happen faster.
Yea the Minecraft brand is huge. And if MS considers making a movie like LEGO did then we're probably looking at a box office hit too. Lots of potential left in MC
I'm looking at it from "gamer", not business standpoint. Sure, they will get their money back in couple of years, but I would rather see MS spend money elsewhere (and no I'm not talking about buying timed exclusives or content).
NemesisPrime
Banned
No... but some serious sites are reporting this now. 90% true I would guess.
MS has enough money... they are ALSO *gasp* spending that money elsewhere.
That probably wouldn't go down well. And like I mentioned, there's a huge modding community for the game that could fill the deficit.
Yeah, they will support the original for all platforms for a certain period, but they'll pretty quickly shift momentum over to sequel(s) on just their own platforms. I'm sure they're thinking and hoping that Minecraft is strong enough to both bring audience to their platform and sustain the success of the franchise for the long run on those platforms alone.
So a lot will be riding on that first sequel for MS, and whether it can carry the audience over.
killer rin
Member
They could be patched in...but the same can be said for many games. Why does the Sims need a new game every 5 years? Why not just release a graphics pack instead of redoing the entire game again with less features? Its pretty much the same concept.
Also another big thing is that Minecraft is a Java Game, a language which Microsoft competes against with C#. If the purchase went through, you can bet they will begin the porting process to native C++ to reap the massive performance increase. Then while they are at it, they might as well add in all the new features and by the end of the day its a massively upgraded game both performance and feature-wise.
With the better performance, they could advertise better modding support for the PC versions because now modders wont have to worry about Java crashing when it hits its virtual memory gap. Textures can get much more HD, pretty much about everyone would be able to put on those ultra-realistic shader packs without worrying if Java would Crash.
Although sadly they are shutting down Xbox Entertainment Studios so any potential movie will take ages to happen.
Well, Notch said from the very start that alpha users get everything and later buyers would maybe have to pay for expansions and such. They just never enforced that, possibly because they didn't want to split the community. However they could just phase out development of Minecraft. We are now at 1.8 - maybe their plan all along is to do one more update after that and we're at 1.9 - Minecraft 2 would be the logical assumption for after that. And having spent 2000+ hours in Minecraft on three platforms for 35 I would not be mad having to pay full price for Minecraft 2. Mojang has 40 employees and only 1/4 is working on Scrolls. Five employees work on Minecraft. So what is the rest doing?
NemesisPrime
Banned
Indeed... I see this as a VERY good thing for MC, that we, as gamers, should be happy about. In the end we will probably get a much better MC version (and throw in some cloud processing... something that can really help with MC).
acheron_xl
Member
Maybe they should also buy Hasbro. The world is clamoring for Magic: the Gathering 2. And they have a strong relationship with the NFL. Maybe they should aquire them and get to work on NFL 2.
Triggerhappytel
Member
Microsoft prefer to buy things that are already successful than build it themselves.
Earthpainting
Member
As the mods have shown, there are countless areas you could take this into. People have added insane amounts of really in-depth systems, worlds, enemies, hats and mechanics. Especially for the console crowd, all of these things would be game-changers. I think the big thing vanilla Minecraft is currently missing is that your constructions are mostly static. Being able to construct a boat or an airship that you can use would would be pretty desirable and complements the spirit of the game.
If nothing else, they could just double down on what's already there. More worlds, biomes, animals, crops, trees,... Just more variants of existing stuff. If there's one thing I noticed from the modding community, it's that people love farming and making food. If they could expand on that, a lot of people would already be happy. Getting rid of the Java and legacy code would also be a nice benefit.
exmachina64
Banned
Maybe Notch will have enough money that he doesn't mind investing in Psychonauts 2.
killer rin
Member
Its not that. Building up studios is really expensive. Not only do you have to ramp up hirings to get 60+ new people to work on a AAA game, you also have to either purchase or build an office to put said people in. Then it will take at least 4-5 years before you maybe have a product which you can put out (going by a typical 3 year development period, and a 1-2 year business buildup period)
Then comes the hard part of putting many more millions behind getting the new Brand recognizes. By the end of it all, they've spent at least a Billion alone.
Yes. A corporation that let Ensemble Studios fall apart. That tried to force shitty ass anti consumer drm on us with the xbone. That forced a Halo 2 direct X 10 exclusivity just to push windows vista. That turned a legendary studio like Rare into a kinect game mill.
Microsoft is totally the right corporation to take control of Minecraft. I mean look at their track record with such decisions!
Fuck. That. Shit.
Castef
Banned
There's no gurantee the game this new studio makes will be a success either, if it fails, then a shitload of money has been lost.
As an observer, I've just personally always seen Minecraft as a sort of platform. And in that way, it's never been something like the Sims, because patches for MC have fundamentally changed how parts of the game play and added a shit tonne of substantial stuff in (mainly for the PC). It's a constantly evolving, changing game (or has been, don't know when the last patch was), and like I said, it's not the same game as it was in alpha. I just don't know what they could do with a sequel that would be more substantial than some of the big patches they've made. Aside from aforementioned different planets to explore, which could be cool.
Though you do make a good point about performance.
Swedish game journalist Thomas Arnroth tweeted the following today (my translation):
This might actually be happening(.gif?).
Arnroth is the author of the book "A Year with Minecraft: Behind the Scenes at Mojang", so it seems reasonable that he would have access to sources "very close" to Mojang.
This might actually be happening(.gif?).
Nightengale
Member
AAA game development are all about taking massive risk.
There's no guarantee that any new game idea will be a success.
Dunno. It will still sell very well by power of the brand, but the one thing unproven about Minecraft is whether or not it's a repeatable franchise or more an evergreen "one game a generation" type of title.
Triggerhappytel
Member
I understand the logistics behind it. But that doesn't change the fact that MS prefers acquisitions to new creations. They could make some incredible games for $2 billion - probably establish four new studios and put out four games of the quality of GTAV, for instance. Or make, say, 10 different mega-budget games across a variety of genres.
Or just buy Ubisoft and make Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, Splinter Cell, Rayman, Watch Dogs, Just Dance etc completely exclusive. To me, that would be far more valuable than spending $2 billion just for one game.
This was my immediate thought, as well. Minecraft 2 exclusively for Xbox One. Windows 8/9 version one year later.
I agree.
Having Minecraft in your portfolio is a good idea - it's questionable though if Minecraft is still a cool(tm) thing in a few years. But just thinking about having a Minecraft:Star Wars Edition etc. each Christmas... well... that could work. I don't think they will start working on a Minecraft 2 as the original game is still evolving and a second game would probably have less features so I don't see the point there.
ryanofcall
Member
Yaay!
Maybe they get to make a new Banjo Kazooie
Maybe they get to make a new Banjo Kazooie
Ego Shooter
Which is why I can't blame MS for going for recognised names first, when it comes to studios.
funkystudent
Member
No comment from anyone yet?
Its totally happening.
Its totally happening.
NemesisPrime
Banned
You will probably be able to play it on Android/iOs and Mac... probably not on PS4 though.
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