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[TheBronzePickle]

https://mojang.com/2014/09/yes-were-being-bought-by-microsoft/

$2.5 Billion. That's another $500 million on top of what everyone's already been shouting. And that's... something.

I personally can't imagine how this is supposed to work, but I suppose it's hard to think through sheer disbelief.

[kaian-a-coel]

Reading that, I can understand notch selling minecraft. What I cant understand is how much friggin money he got for it.
The question isn't "is notch insane for selling minecraft?" it's "is microsoft insane for buying it?"
I can't see them making an actual profit out of it.

[TheBronzePickle]

I think that's the most terrifying thing. Microsoft has plans for Minecraft, and they're plans worth gambling 2 and a half billion dollars on. Whatever the hell they're doing, it's going to be big in some way.

...Who knows, maybe all they're going to do is run through the code and make the game run well on a lot weaker computers. Lord knows there's an entire untapped market of poor people stuck with laptops and early XP-era desktops.

[Saiko Kila]

Or maybe the real buyer is some intelligence agency with a bit too big budget and a bit too little oversight. Then Microsoft will have only a partial saying in what features it implements, and the decision would be only partially economically based.

 Anyway, I think they will work towards "one server to bind them all" solution, to gather/offer whatever they need from/to mobile devices and PCs alike, in some devilish sulphur smelling cloud.

[BigD145]

Reading that, I can understand notch selling minecraft. What I cant understand is how much friggin money he got for it.
The question isn't "is notch insane for selling minecraft?" it's "is microsoft insane for buying it?"
I can't see them making an actual profit out of it.

Sure they can make a profit. I bought Minecraft cheap back in infdev. Microsoft can stop all support, make a few tweaks, and rerelease Minecraft as some special edition with actual content, or not, instead of the slow free recolors.

[timferius]

I was wrong, it was true, and more than I thought. Huh. I refuse to blame them though, because if someone came to me and said "would you like to be set for life and be able to work on whatever little project you want?" I'd already be drawing up plans from my Scrouge McDuck vault while singing "dolla-dolla billls" and whipping loonies at people because we don't have dollar bills here.
As long as they don't mess with mod support, I'm fine. Or start charging me a monthly fee.

[BigD145]

Xbox Live required for online play? Yeah, that's probably guaranteed for PC. Local multiplayer stripped right out.

[kaian-a-coel]

Sure they can make a profit. I bought Minecraft cheap back in infdev. Microsoft can stop all support, make a few tweaks, and rerelease Minecraft as some special edition with actual content, or not, instead of the slow free recolors.

Essentially making us pay a second time for a game we already own and updates we were getting for free before. That would be a dick move, and I doubt that even making everyone already owning minecraft buy it again would break even.
The game sold roughly 54 million copies all platforms combined. 16.7 of which are PC. Let's round it up to 60 million copies and say that microsoft manages to make everybody buy it again for $25. They'd make $1.5 billion. They'd still be $1 billion shy of getting their money back, and that's assuming everybody falls in line, and doesn't take in account that a good third of those 54 million copies are $6 mobile versions. So they'd have to either find another 40 million customers (less if they buy multiple copies), or sell it to all over again, to everybody, for a third time.

Unless the derivated products make ridiculous ammounts of dosh, but I don't see microsoft make billions over their share of lego sales.

[Sergius]

Pretty much my only concerns are:

- Will my license still be valid forever
- Will they force us to use whatever silly online server service, or keep the direct IP option and home servers.
- How will it affect modding (this could "potentially" improve if they devote any resources towards an actual API. I think they will have the manpower now. Whether they give a damn is a separate issue  ). How about copyright issues? Still grey area? Fully legalized? They'll start sending the FBI dogs after modders?

I don't actually care if this is owned by Microsoft or leprechauns, but whether they fuck it up or not...

EDIT: Regarding corporate economics... I'm not sure it's black or white "getting the money back". Just owning the product seems to be of value to company types. If they make 1 billion, they still have a "2.5 billion product" or something, then they can resell it to another company for 2.5 billion or whatever. What's it called? Equity? Stock value? Assets? I have no idea.

[timferius]

WHO owns it doesn't matter, no. It's just that some companies have a history. (not sure what Microsoft's history is, but it's either a bad one or people are flipping out over the fact that minecraft is no longer going to be indie for no reason)

Hey, at least it isn't EA. They'd probably force origin, always online and release every update as a DLC before promptly running it into the ground and making a super simplified minecraft 2 FPS.

True about EA. Microsoft, from what I know, has two black marks on their history. One is a general abandonment of PC gamers when XBOX took off, most of their gaming focus was put there, which they claim to be mending be we'll see. Second is Games for Windows Live. It was a buggy tie in to their gold service on Xbox, didn't work half the time, locked you out of saves etc. etc. and was general junk, but they stuck to it and refuse to let it die.

[miauw62]

It's funny how people are getting so worked up about this. Like if Microsoft buys this, they're going to throw out all the original developers and install new ones with a different vision that gets orders from higher-ups with no knowledge of game design. I highly doubt they'd do anything stupid to Minecraft aside from making you sign in through their own game service. I could be wrong, but we just have to wait and see where they're going with this.

Except Notch didn't apparently talk this over with his staff, so it's very likely that they'll lose a lot of devs.

[Bouchart]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[NullForceOmega]

The sale of Mojang is slightly unsettling, there are real opportunities for improvement in customer service and the product (minecraft) itself, but there is also a hell of a lot of opportunity for miss-step.

[evilnancyreagan]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

this was the splash I got when I fired up Minecraft today. I shit you not.

[timferius]

I don't get it...