Microsoft buying Mojang (Makers of Minecraft) for 2.5 Billion

[Homerboy]

Wow.

 

[Red Storm]

I just read another article that speculates that it's about exclusivity more than anything else. Being Minecraft is the top selling app on android and iOS and has been for some time... They are likely going to make the mobile version of the game only available on windows phone. That makes more sense why they would be so interested. Apparently mojang had no original intention of making a version for windows phone because the market was so small.

I'm just surprised the deal is for the whole company acquisition, and not just licensing to the mobile version of mc.

That doesn't make any financial sense though. They spent 2.5 BILLION dollars so that they could sell the game exclusively on their mobile store for what, $5? They'd need 500,000,000 sales to break even.

Microsoft overpaid by a whole lot, I applaud Notch for conning them into giving him billions for a game that has already hit its peak.

 

[Wyndru]

That doesn't make any financial sense though. They spent 2.5 BILLION dollars so that they could sell the game exclusively on their mobile store for what, $5? They'd need 500,000,000 sales to break even.

Yeah I'm not really sure either. I know Minecraft was starting to ramp up in the educational arena, they could even take it that direction. A few schools in my area are already trying it out for tech simulation. And it teaches resource management too.

http://minecraftedu.com/

 

[Wyndru]

And a prominent member of the modding scene has already said that they're done with modding Minecraft.

Who? Please don't say reika, I need my rotarycraft/reactorcraft lol.

I'm worried a lot of people may abandon it. I'm also wondering what all of the let's play youtubers and twitch streamers will do. Right now many of these guys don't even need to work a normal job, I think Etho still gets over 500k views/week on his videos. The last I checked he was over 1.5 million subs.

 

[darkewaffle]

There's a lot more to Minecraft than just the game itself at this point. The merchandising and 'look' behind it is pretty strong as well, I mean hell they're selling Minecraft t-shirts in Kohls in semi-rural PA even.

I don't think it's a great purchase (for the price) but at the same time if they lose a few hundred million... big deal? This is Microsoft after all lol.

 

[Jodell88]

Who? Please don't say reika, I need my rotarycraft/reactorcraft lol.

I'm worried a lot of people may abandon it. I'm also wondering what all of the let's play youtubers and twitch streamers will do. Right now many of these guys don't even need to work a normal job, I think Etho still gets over 500k views/week on his videos. The last I checked he was over 1.5 million subs.

minecraftcpw. One of the guys who makes forge work and coder of FML. Also helped Mojang with Minecraft itself from time to time.

 

[mizzou]

whaaaat a bad deciison lol....oh well maybe get excited for minecraft 2.

i bet they turn it into a pay to play type game and bleed parents of 8 year olds dry with cash getting $50.00 minecraft cash cards several timesa year for bday, christmas etc.

 

[zokudu]

Is it bad I feel like Microsoft is getting a raw deal not because Minecraft isn't worth that much. The IP likely is but because even if they don't lay a finger on the game the community will still hate them.

Notch wanted to sell the company (likely because of the falling out from the bukkit debacle going by his pastebin statement) and Microsoft bought it but people will still have a preconception of Microsoft, even if they do nothing and adjust nothing with the game.

 

[Jodell88]

Is it bad I feel like Microsoft is getting a raw deal not because Minecraft isn't worth that much. The IP likely is but because even if they don't lay a finger on the game the community will still hate them.

Notch wanted to sell the company (likely because of the falling out from the bukkit debacle going by his pastebin statement) and Microsoft bought it but people will still have a preconception of Microsoft, even if they do nothing and adjust nothing with the game.

Nah, more from the EULA fallout IMO.

 

[Wyndru]

minecraftcpw. One of the guys who makes forge work and coder of FML. Also helped Mojang with Minecraft itself from time to time.

Ugh. That's not good. Forge pretty much makes everything else work.

 

[zokudu]

Nah, more from the EULA fallout IMO.

The EULA fallout may have started him wanting to distance himself but the timing on the bukkit issues just seem so convenient. It's the same kind of issue as the EULA. People getting mad at him for something he is not in control of because he's the face of the franchise.

 

[BrightCandle]

For that FU money anyone would sell it. Minecraft is a 100's of millions software product not multi billions.

 

[CSMR]

No I mean they need to rewrite the whole engine in C++ or C#.

Agreed!

 

[JujuFish]

Cool, maybe I'll be able to get it for my kids for $4.99 now instead of the ridiculous price it costs currently.

At $27, it is far and away the most value I have ever gotten per dollar spent on gaming.
Well, I got it for less than that, but the statement would hold true if it were $60, let alone $27.

 

[Red Storm]

For that FU money anyone would sell it. Minecraft is a 100's of millions software product not multi billions.

This.

I would gladly cash out if some company was dumb enough to offer 2.5bil. I don't blame Notch at all, I'd do the same thing every time.

 

[Wyndru]

At $27, it is far and away the most value I have ever gotten per dollar spent on gaming.
Well, I got it for less than that, but the statement would hold true if it were $60, let alone $27.

Yup. It's a sandbox game that I've actually never gotten bored with. And the mods are just amazing. The community is extremely active and the mod developers are geniuses. It's hilarious that computercraft is actually a functional program language within a video game that allows you to control anything....and reactorcraft and rotary craft...it's just insane how much detail and depth some of these mods bring to the game. This game truly has no limits, I've been addicted since beta, and it just keeps getting better.

I love that you can build things like this:

 

[SunnyD]

At $27, it is far and away the most value I have ever gotten per dollar spent on gaming.
Well, I got it for less than that, but the statement would hold true if it were $60, let alone $27.

I've played the demo or something a while back, and honestly it's not remotely worth $27, let alone $10. $5 would be reasonable considering games with actual content that are still very sandbox like Terraria are easily available for <$5 on a regular basis. And I'll add my subjective "... and they're vastly superior as well."

 

[Wyndru]

I've played the demo or something a while back, and honestly it's not remotely worth $27, let alone $10. $5 would be reasonable considering games with actual content that are still very sandbox like Terraria are easily available for <$5 on a regular basis. And I'll add my subjective "... and they're vastly superior as well."

You should give minecraft another shot if you think terraria is "vastly superior". If you played the demo back in the beta days, a lot has changed.

 

[sandorski]

I've played the demo or something a while back, and honestly it's not remotely worth $27, let alone $10. $5 would be reasonable considering games with actual content that are still very sandbox like Terraria are easily available for <$5 on a regular basis. And I'll add my subjective "... and they're vastly superior as well."

Totally disagree. When you add in Modding content, MC is pretty much a AAA title.

 

[SunnyD]

You should give minecraft another shot if you think terraria is "vastly superior". If you played the demo back in the beta days, a lot has changed.

Totally disagree. When you add in Modding content, MC is pretty much a AAA title.

That still doesn't change the fact that after all this time it's still not worth $27. Especially if you're trying to use mods to justify the price.

 

[Wyndru]

 

[mizzou]

Totally disagree. When you add in Modding content, MC is pretty much a AAA title.

AAA title??

 

[AdamantC]

I've been playing Minecraft on and off for about the last four years. It's been fun watching it go from a small indie title to one of the most influential and best selling games of all time.

Now it looks like I'm going to get to see it slowly bludgeoned to death. Joy.

 

[mizzou]

most influential and best selling games of all time.

Best selling, I'd say yes. I feel like it is the Mario of PC games in a way...but only to an extent. Notch didn't want the dynasty so we won't get Super Mario Bros. vs. of minecraft or any of the most memorable franchises associated with it. Microsoft may do something with it...but I doubt it will be what the gamers want.

Modders can only do so much to a really training wheel type of a game. AI can only do so much, graphics can only do so much, the hard coded part of the game is extremely limiting.

I am AMAZED at what modders were able to do. If they could give the game some non-buggy physics and really change the whole idea of how AI is handled in the game...it would be a landmark of a game. As it stands now, it's basically a little kids passion and an older gamers fond memory.

So how influential is it? I don't know...everything Minecraft did, other games already did before it. I would say it kicked off the survival genre, but DayZ probably did more to influence successful games then Minecraft. The graphics were copied by many, but I can't think of any A rated games that did that. (Looking at you jagex!)

 

[Wyndru]

Lot of people on the MC forums are chatting about minetest:
http://minetest.net/

Apparently an open source sandbox game is more attractive to people than a MS owned minecraft. Who knew :\

And if anyone hasn't seen reactorcraft in action, check this out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsYU9XlJT2Q

And a gallery of the project:
http://imgur.com/a/J268e


My fusion reactor is still really basic...I'd like to eventually write the code in computercraft to display all of the stats and the color bars like he has in his control room (reika has a tutorial on how to set this up IIRC). It's really time consuming though. Still a ton of fun.

Sorry for the off topic. I just want people to see that this isn't just a building block game, there are some pretty complex mods out there. Hopefully MS doesn't fuck this up.