Game:

Minecraft (2011)

Duration: 2:06

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Microsoft have acquired Mojang, the developers of Minecraft, for roughly $2.5 billion. Apparently this won’t stop the game from being available on other devices, which makes sense, because that would realistically just be a very easy way for Microsoft to lose out on some pretty easy money. Regarding that, Mojang said:

“There’s no reason for the development, sales, and support of the PC/Mac, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4, Vita, iOS, and Android versions of Minecraft to stop. Of course, Microsoft can’t make decisions for other companies or predict the choices that they might make in the future.”

The phrasing of that last part is interesting – of course, Microsoft can’t make decisions for other companies. No, but they can make Minecraft extremely expensive for Sony to host on the PlayStation 4, and then Sony themselves could decide not to have it anymore. I don’t see that happening, but the fact that Mojang actually mentioned that raises some flags.

Microsoft themselves said that they wanted to acquire Mojang because they “believe in the power of content to unite people” and they expect to make that 2.5 billion back within the next 12 months. Of course, it’s unlikely that Microsoft will make that money via actual game sales – everyone already owns Minecraft, really. They’re late to the party, there. Some people are guessing they’ll tack on micro-transactions, but I think it’s much more likely that they’ll make that money via merchandise.

I have no idea what Microsoft will really do with Minecraft, but I don’t think they’ll try to milk it for money – that’s not something they’ve done in the past. They had Rare and Bungie for a while and while things have gone a little sour with both studios, neither of them made games that were obnoxiously money-hungry, nor full of micro-transactions.

Notch, the creator of Minecraft, will have made around $1.75 billion from the deal, which is particularly good for his home country of Sweden, considering over half of that will go to taxes. Notch is also going to be leaving Mojang now that the deal has gone through, along with chief executive Carl Manneh and co-founder Jakob Porser. Regarding his choice to leave, Notch basically said that the game became much bigger than he ever anticipated, and he needed to leave for his own sanity.

I commend Notch for recognising his limits and making the choice to leave, here, with Minecraft having sold more than 50 million units and being nearly every kids’ favourite game right now.

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