Mojang Joins Microsoft; Founders Notch, Carl, Jakob Leaving

[Johnson McGee]

I think this was a bad move... on Microsoft's part.

I believe this especially after watching Phil Spencer's wank video gloating over the acquisition. He specifically mentions that they bought Minecraft, not Mojang. That signals that the only reason they did the deal is to obtain the rights to Minecraft (obviously) but it also shows that they have no intention of actually doing anything more with the company. Not smart assuming that Minecraft has more than likely already made the majority of it's cash (I guess they're hoping they'll sell some hardware because of this).

On top of that, I think the odds that most of the developers at Mojang will stay with Microsoft is pretty low. With Notch and others already exiting, other employees, being the type accustomed to a liberal amount of free reign, will probably follow.

Microsoft is going to have to work very hard to keep Mojang from becoming the new Rare.

Lastly, I don't think MS will pull any shit like making new updates exclusive to Xbawks or anything (due to the amount of catch-up required first mostly) but I wouldn't rule it out either.

 

[Pinky's Brain]

I oddly just got back into playing Minecraft after bingeing during the 1.7 beta and quitting when 1.8 beta came out. I must admit, the fact that Notch wanted to ditch his own creation really makes me sad that the virulent aspects of the internet are disconnecting authors with their creation. I had always assumed previous times where creators abandoned their IP's were isolated incidents but with Notch, I kinda hate the way this whole online aspect of things is going. I find it interesting that we have been afraid of the triple A industry crashing for so long, we are starting to see the success stories of the indie scene start to disappear, for completely different reasons.

Don't fret, people are willing to put up with a lot more shit when they don't have 100s of millions of dollars in the bank.

 

[nima55]

I guess I'll just take my hope for a Wii U version and go drown it =(

 

[Qizx]

On the bright side Notch is gone.
Maybe some competent developer will now fix Minecraft to run normally and add actual features rather than taking mods and badly implementing them in the game.

Uh.. As stated in many places before, Notch has had nothing to do with Minecraft development for a long time.
That's one of the reasons he's selling, he is fed up with having to take abuse from people about stuff he has nothing to do with.

Notch is an egoist. He likes being in the center of attention which is the reason why he loves to use his twitter account to talk about shit he shouldn't be talking. While he didn't code anymore, he obviously had a saying since he's their job. He isn't the type of guy who would give up his saying.

And no, just because he said he's he sold it because of those reasons doesn't mean he actually did it. He sold it because he's incompetent, Minecraft was a lucky strike and it won't get any more popular. He was losing money with Mojang in comparison to 2.5 billion dollar. There is no way Mojang could earn him that much money.

Saying Notch isn't responsible for what's happening with Minecraft is like saying Iwata isn't responsible for what is happening with Mario or Zelda. You really need to be naive to believe that Notch isn't the reason why Minecraft isn't even 1% of what it could have been if it was made by competent developer... or any of the million modder who are obviously more competent than Jeb and Notch combined.

Also when I said with Notch gone a competent developer could fix up Minecraft I meant Notch unwillingness to hire someone who knows how to develop games. I didn't mean Notch is literally coding the game.

I would hardly call a man who just sold his company (which he started from scratch) for 2.5Billion "incompetent." I find it laughable how people would use that to describe someone who made more out of nothing than any of us ever could, yes he got lucky, but he still played it well. It's never JUST luck, you need to be a clever bastard to pull off what he has.

 

[RandV80]

This is also a good example as to why I could get behind an Xbox, if I was a Microsoft customer I'd be infuriated with their spending habits. What was it, something between $400-$800 million to secure exclusive NFL rights for Xbox Live? $2.5 billion to buy Minecraft? Was it ever announced how much they paid for timed exclusive rights for the next Tomb Raider game?

Rather than actually creating something Microsoft blows through billions securing already existing content exclusively for itself. If I owned an Xbox I'd much rather they sink that money into developing actual new games, not making sure my neighbour with a Playstation can't play the same game or have the same content I'm getting. This is much different when a console creates an exclusive title by sinking their own money from day 1 into the development, something Sony did a whole lot of at the latter end of last console gen to catch up. And theoretically the money Microsoft spends to make these acquisitions should be coming from the money I'm spending to buy their products. So Xbox owners are the ones paying to deny the competition from having something. I'd much rather support a company that takes my money for a video game console and invests it in actually making video games for me to play.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Hmmm, I should look at getting an older version of Minecraft saved and put aside. Just in case, you know, it all goes to shit.

Not happy about this but he's free to do with his company what he wants.

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

This will be Mojang, in three years time:


Guess you can put a price on integrity, huh Notch?

 

[firetamer13]

Microsoft didn't just buy a "game", they bought a cultural movement.
Every little kid with the slightest inclination towards games plays Minecraft, adults play Minecraft, you can't walk down the street without seeing someone in a Creeper T-shirt. Sure Minecraft is a one-and-done purchase if all you do is play the game, but a lot of people buy the T-shirts, or the phone cases, or the Lego sets, or fill-in-almost-ANY-merchandise-here.
They bought the rights to a mountain of merchandise that is approaching Disney levels. Children are being shaped by Minecraft. They'll keep buying the stuff and ten-twenty years from now, there will still be Minecraft merchandise.
$2.5 billion was a freakin' bargain

 

[OldNewNewOld]

I would hardly call a man who just sold his company (which he started from scratch) for 2.5Billion "incompetent." I find it laughable how people would use that to describe someone who made more out of nothing than any of us ever could, yes he got lucky, but he still played it well. It's never JUST luck, you need to be a clever bastard to pull off what he has.

Except that it is luck in his case. He was lucky enough that when he showed his core idea to /v/ on 4chan they liked it enough to viral market it so hard that they could sell absolutely everything. Then Reddit picked it up and kept viraling it.

Minecraft was sold on an idea and not on a finished product. Notch never managed to make the game that was marketed by all those poor guys who wanted it. He advertised an idea in a good place at a good time. Everything else was done by the community. It was pure luck on his side.

 

[Spartan448]

Honestly, I'm not even mad. Notch sold the company because he no longer wants to be a big name. And with everything that's been happening recently, I can't entirely blame him. It seems now that whenever a social issue comes up in gaming, you either take a side or draw the ire of both sides, because both sides will automatically assume you're against their position. Not to mention that Fish's meltdown probably made Notch terrified he'd go that way too. So I can understand if Notch wants to leave the cabin before he becomes crazier than the guy in The Shining. I wish someone else would have bought the company first, but I'm also not entirely surprised - the PC version has received next to no development as of late, and the XBox versions have received tons. This is honestly the most sensible thing I have read all week. Good on Notch.

 

[PH3NOmenon]

I'm fairly sure I'd sell a leg for two billion dollars. Good for Notch.Especially since he got rid of something that was becoming a strain on him.

I'm wondering what made MS go up to that amount of money, though. Two and a half BILLION dollars. I'm guessing Notch would've sold at half that.

 

[Pescetarian]

Does anyone else feel like we've got one step closer to a more grim, unfriendly version of the world Neal Stephenson presented to us in Snow Crash?

Because I have.

Quit your whining, Mevvenger. Notch won't be going on any motorcycle chases against Soviet nuke-powered terrorists through cyberspace, and Anita Sarkeesian isn't a fifteen year old Kourier.

 

[Story]

Yikes this sounds like an awful deal on Microsoft's end. They appearently wanted it though so eh.

 

[briankoontz]

Notch, sells out for 2 billion. Man am I laughing my ass off. No one has integrity the way people fantasize about integrity. As Ted DiBiase used to say, Everyone has a price!
So Notch and the ground floor guys just got a spectacular payout, and basically threw everyone who supported them over the whole ideal that they weren't sellouts because they didn't put Minecraft on steam under the bus.
Hell I don't blame them. If I were Notch and company, now resting comfortably in the more money than God range of rich, I'd retire. Why? One reason, they'll never ever top Minecraft. Just won't happen. The other? 2 billion is a lot of money, guaranteed a height of financial success one can never reach again. So retirement at an early age sound like a damn good idea. One can still do things post-retirement, but one doesn't have to do jack shit.

"Selling out" is compromising one's own artistic integrity for money. That's not what happened. This will allow Notch and Co. much greater artistic freedom than they previously had when they were tied to Minecraft.

This was "getting out" - getting out of the shadow of Minecraft for it's market value.

Even if Microsoft turns Minecraft into a travesty, that won't take away from the final version (or any previous version) of Minecraft that Mojang created. This isn't the Mona Lisa - in the digital age a copy is as good as any other copy and any version of a game which is obtainable can be played. So play your FAVORITE version of Minecraft, whichever version that is, with whatever mods maximize your experience.

Obviously many of us are disappointed who wanted the full Mojang crew to continue to work on Minecraft. But I'd rather they get out than continue to work on a project that they feel is restricting their artistic expression.

 

[Jhonie]

And I'm just sitting here, nodding in approval. It's hard to tell what's going to happen to Minecraft now that MS is at the wheel, but I'd wager that they won't mess with it more than they have to. Port it to more consoles, but not much else. Little reason to mess with success, and I doubt even MS are that stupid.

As a fledgling dev myself, I have no real trouble seeing Notch's point of view, and I'd say he did the very best he could do of the situation. He is a creator and he really just wants to keep creating, but that giant, looming shadow of the Minecraft name is not one easily escaped. This way he can keep creating to his heart's content, and with that neat little fortune in his pocket, he doesn't really need to worry about financing his projects.
Someimes you just want to doodle. Just because one of those doodles turned out to be a gigantic masterpiece doesn't mean he wants to stop doodling for the joy of it. This way, he doesn't have the same pressure of people expecting every following doodle to match the masterpiece. Neither does he need to worry about being unable to affort pens and paper.

Keep on doodling, Notch. Keep on doodling.

 

[Lilani]

I can understand Notch getting off the Minecraft team with all his other stuff going on. And I'd like to be optimistic that even the corporate-minded Microsoft would be able to see that if they cut modders off at the knees or add in microtransactions they will kill Minecraft and may as well have bought $2.5 billion worth of shit, but at the same time Microsoft will be wanting to make back what it can quickly.

I paid $15 for Minecraft before it was even out of beta and it's been constantly updated since, and I would vouch to say that most consistent players are like me--we paid our due a long time ago and continue to reap the benefits from the steady updates. Microsoft's number crunchers are not going to see this as a viable business model. Maybe they won't mess with the PC version, but I definitely see the pocket edition getting microtransactions so they can keep a steady flow of cash coming in.

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

Spoiler: best of minecon 2013

After watching this video I can't blame him for wanting to distance himself get as far away from Minecraft as possible. I still think its sad to see the studio go to Microsoft of all companies but I doubt the base pc game will change. Its not like Microsoft can sell dlc for a game where every mod possible already exists for it

Tbh I think people here will underestimate what the minecraft licence really brings microsoft, it's more than just the game.

I know, its like saying Disney bought Star Wars and "only" got the rights to some movies. Minecraft's brand is freaking huge. Microsoft can slap it on anything and print money

 

[MorganL4]

I can't be the only one wondering what is going to happen to all the Minecraft Youtubers who may or may not get copyright claims on their entire catalog of videos..... Well I guess We'll see.

 

[-Dragmire-]

Well, i hope it was worth it for Microsoft.

Though im struggling to see what MS thought dropping $2bn on Mojang is going to get them. Yes, it gets them Minecraft, but that ships already sailed unless they start cranking out paid DLC and/or sequels.

I imagine that, like Angry Birds, much of the income will come from licensing and merchandise.