Microsoft buying Mojang (Makers of Minecraft) for 2.5 Billion

[styrafoam]

If anyone is intimately familiar with the earning potential of minecraft it is Microsoft. They have watch minecraft hover in the top end of the active games on live arcade for 2 years straight, while their own titles putter along and fall away in a much shorter timespan. They have the most insight as to what DLC could possibly generate if it were to be monetized on a large scale. They are probably also keen to the fact that almost every department store sells minecraft toys and tshirts. They see it for what it is: a proven gaming brand goliath similar to WoW that manages to tap into the disposable income of the teens and pre-teens.

What they have planned is another matter entirely. I think a large chunk of its popularity is driven by the free form social aspect of the game. The open ended nature keeps people interested and creating new content; that trickles down to the younger players. With that being a core concept of the game, makes it hard to align with a corporate vision. The best thing they could do would be to put a legit team with someone passionate at the helm in control of the PC version and allow it to live on, adding requested features and making improvements. Someday we would get minecraft 2 or some sort of expansion pack, totally expected and not outrageous at all. The worst would probably be something along the lines of the silly attempts that came about with exclusive xbox games. Place your bets on which one it ends up being.

 

[mizzou]

wonder how this impacts ps4....or perhaps they will make it a xbox exclusive............Minecraft 2.only on xbox live! D:

 

[AdamantC]

The best thing they could do would be to put a legit team with someone passionate at the helm in control of the PC version and allow it to live on

Jeb has stated on Twitter that he is still the lead dev. Hopefully MS won't axe the core members.

But considering what they did to Nokia I'm not getting my hopes up...

 

[lamedude]

They could've sold 12 million $200 Xbones instead and still have change left over.

 

[Wyndru]

After finally reading through the whole bukkit mess last night, I guess it's time for something like this to happen. It's gotten to a point where volunteer devs and modders are spending all of their spare time propping this game up and I wouldn't be surprised that when MS takes over that all goes away.

It was a good run. I'm surprised how much content we got for the small initial cost of the game, and what the community has been able to do with the core game to keep it from getting stale. Here's hoping that MS won't piss of the mod devs too much. But if a simple EULA modification can cause Bukkit to crumble, I betting that it won't be long before MS makes a change that causes mod designers to walk away.

 

[mmntech]

wonder how this impacts ps4....or perhaps they will make it a xbox exclusive............Minecraft 2.only on xbox live! D:

Microsoft has said they will continue to support Minecraft on PS4, iOS, and Android. But yeah, I can see them making any future games an Xbone exclusive.

The real goal here though is to start bringing more games to Windows Phone and Windows RT. Microsoft basically stated that was their reasoning for the purchase. Even though the PS4 is outselling it's competitor 2:1, the Xbox One is still doing okay. It'll get games. Their mobile platform though badly needs more apps.

With all the recent app buyouts for ludicrous amounts of money, I can't help but wonder whether this is the next Dot Com bubble. To spend $2.5 billion on a game studio that's only put out a single, all be it successful title? You really need to have a solid long term plan to justify that. Even companies like Ubisoft and EA don't turn over that kind of revenue in one year, and they launch dozens of games.

 

[zokudu]

After finally reading through the whole bukkit mess last night, I guess it's time for something like this to happen. It's gotten to a point where volunteer devs and modders are spending all of their spare time propping this game up and I wouldn't be surprised that when MS takes over that all goes away.

It was a good run. I'm surprised how much content we got for the small initial cost of the game, and what the community has been able to do with the core game to keep it from getting stale. Here's hoping that MS won't piss of the mod devs too much. But if a simple EULA modification can cause Bukkit to crumble, I betting that it won't be long before MS makes a change that causes mod designers to walk away.

The EULA didn't cause bukkit to crumble. Bukkit died because the lead dev (who was working as a volunteer) wanted to shut down the project and Mojang stepped in and said he couldn't because they owned it. They had purchased the rights to the project from the original devs who they hired to work on Minecraft proper. This obviously enraged all of the current bukkit devs because they were all working under the pretense that bukkit was a self operating entity when in reality it was not.

It will be interesting to see if Microsoft can keep people developing the game for them. The modding communities, both server and client side, have been huge in Minecrafts success.

 

[colorblind]

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:

or this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Th9pOBqr6E&list=UUGvd6j2_shQ5baNCYSIBBlA

 

[Wyndru]

The EULA didn't cause bukkit to crumble. Bukkit died because the lead dev (who was working as a volunteer) wanted to shut down the project and Mojang stepped in and said he couldn't because they owned it.

What I meant was that Seph wanted to shut down the project partly because of the unclear nature of the EULA (as well as the lack of support from mojang), which was what started the whole mess. At least that's what he posted on the site.

I wonder if some of the larger server owners are concerned. Some of them make decent money off of this game (not pay to win servers, but standard whitelist servers). Some of them have some pretty cool themes and with the adventure mode update it really allowed map makers to do some cool stuff. I don't personally play much of those, with the exception of skyblock...but I wonder if Microsoft would allow these servers to continue to make money. I would think they would want all of these servers hosted on Azure, which would render any previous servers obsolete.

I've already got my own servers set with online-mode:false, so if something changes I'll go back to using the java command that allows me on the server without logging into MC's auth site first. You can't use skins this way, but I really don't care about that.

 

[Wyndru]

or this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Th9pOBqr6E&list=UUGvd6j2_shQ5baNCYSIBBlA

This is still my favorite time lapse

 

[Dumac]

Does anyone still play Minecraft besides a crap ton of children and youtubers exploiting those children for capital gain?

 

[Dumac]

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."

I vehemently disagree. The beta version from years ago (like 4 or 5 years ago now?) was easily worth $20, and $10 was a great deal.

 

[Dumac]

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

Minecraft 2 better not be in Java.

 

[sandorski]

Does anyone still play Minecraft besides a crap ton of children and youtubers exploiting those children for capital gain?

Youtubers are exploiting children?

 

[Dumac]

Youtubers are exploiting children?

Yes.

Who do you think their primary audience is? Who copy pastes links to their channels all over youtube? Who subscribes? Who watches the videos? Who pays to attendstheir conventions? Who pays to kickstart their stuff?

 

[sandorski]

Yes.

Who do you think their primary audience is? Who copy pastes links to their channels all over youtube? Who subscribes? Who watches the videos? Who pays to attendstheir conventions? Who pays to kickstart their stuff?

That is "exploitation"?

Kids are free to watch if they want. They are not forced to do or Pay anything.

 

[Dumac]

That is "exploitation"?

Kids are free to watch if they want. They are not forced to do or Pay anything.

ex·ploit
verb
ik&#712;sploit/
1. make full use of and derive benefit from (a resource).

I never said anything about slave labor or coercion.

 

[sandorski]

I never said anything about slave labor or coercion.

You implied nefariousness.

 

[Dumac]

You implied nefariousness.

Uh, if you say so?

 

[Coulrophobia]

Man Microsoft ruins everything. I got a call from Microsoft last night telling me that my computer had been sending hacked signals to them and they wanted to download some crap. I told the guy to blow me and he says he is going to rape and kill me. Fucking Bill Gates...

 

[The Boston Dangler]

Does anyone still play Minecraft besides a crap ton of children and youtubers exploiting those children for capital gain?

of course. in nearly 4 decades of video games, minecraft is my pick as best, and most favorite, game. it's given me the most satisfying video game experience, even better than the time i beat super mario bros without dying, with my feet. no other game combines technical, artistic and adventure elements so successfully, or at all, while being totally free-form - no instructions, no script, no cutscenes or voice-overs, not even info on what the buttons do.

if you think minecraft has no gameplay value for adults, then i'd say you're very close-minded and enjoy being spoon fed EA/hollywood garbage.

 

[SunnyD]

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.

One thing to keep an eye on with the Microsoft acquisition is how quickly they move to shut these Minecraft clones down. And odds are they will move quickly to do so too. I'd bet you'll see the popular ones posting up cease and desist letters within a month of the acquisition closing, since Microsoft will have an obligation to protect trademarks especially after throwing this much money at their shiny new toy.

 

[Dumac]

no other game combines technical, artistic and adventure elements so successfully

What technical elements? Technically, the game rates very poorly. It is horribly optimized (thanks Java) and uses basic generation elements that have become less impressive over time. Not only that, but the building is completely polygon based, which has been done many times and years ago.

Artistic elements? The textures for Minecraft were supposedly to be placeholders until more effort was put into creating better art. Unfortunately, people raved over them, so now we're stuck with them.

And by adventure elements I hope you don't mean the tacked on hunger meter, stamina, experience, etc.

Where Minecraft excels is taking an idea that has existed for some time (constructable tile based world) and putting it in an easy to consume shell.

while being totally free-form - no instructions, no script, no cutscenes or voice-overs, not even info on what the buttons do

Last time I tried the game, I was immediately greeted by instructions telling me what to do and how to do it along with a giant achievement tree.

if you think minecraft has no gameplay value for adults, then i'd say you're very close-minded and enjoy being spoon fed EA/hollywood garbage.

Wow. Way to make assumptions. Minecraft was just a casualized dwarf fortress to begin with, so get off of your high horse.

I played Minecraft from the beginning. I remember thinking how crazy it was when Notch hit 10k sales ("wow, that's 100k. he can quit his job!"). I remember the floating island maps, the even dumber water physics, having to pick map size, etc.

I never said that minecraft has no gameplay value for adults - just that is has moved from being popular in the adult gamer crowd to being popular in the preteen/youtubers-who-make-videos-for-preteens crowd. Look at the Minecraft conventions. It is almost all children. Look at all the Minecraft merchandise marketed to children.

Nobody that I know who used to play Minecraft from the beginning still plays today. Of course, we could just be tired of the game, but since the game is constantly 'evolving' that seems like a weird reason. In my opinion, a lot of what has been added has made the game worse and less of a pure experience. This goes over the head of children, who play Minecraft because Joe Shmoe plays it on youtube, and he's a cool dude.

 

[Wyndru]

If the game doesn't do it for you, then it doesn't. But you can't deny its success. If you haven't played in a few years, then you shouldn't comment on it because a ton has changed. If you weren't into vanilla, give a mod pack a shot. There are pretty complicated mods that require a lot of reading and logic to even understand how to get them to work.

The fact that even in vanilla mc people have made functional computers and memory on the machine level shows the level of technical skill that this game allows, if you are smart enough and patient enough to figure it out that is.

 

[Red Storm]

children, who play Minecraft because it's fun.

ftfy

Sorry for whatever spoiled you on Minecraft and/or Youtube, but I think the game is great. My 10 year old cousin plays it on his family's iPad, and he does not watch YouTube.

It's one of the few games that can be enjoyed and played by a very large demographic, which is great.