Confirmed: Microsoft to buy Mojang for 2.5 billion.

[BasilZero]

Really odd that they would invest this much money this late into the game's existence...practically everyone who wanted the game has it in one form or another (well except for Nintendo Only - Nintendonerds l0l).


Anyways, if MS gets it - that means more support for future content or a sequel on Xbox One/Xbox360/WinPhone/WinPC.


I can deal with that, although that would suck for others .

[kitler53]

if mojang is offered $2B they should take the deal.  that is waaaaay overpriced and mojang (like many others before it) are likely to be a 1-hit wonder.   cash out now and let MS take the losses that will come with brand that is on it's way down.

no idea why ms would make this deal though.   almost nothing to gain and soo much to lose.   just thinking about how many other ways ms could better spend $2B just makes me chuckle at ms's stupidity.

[Max King of the Wild]

To put this in perspective if minecraft two outperformed the first and the movie outperforms the lego movie or frozen then they still haven't gained two billion in revenue. I doubt either of those happen.

[darkknightkryta]

if mojang is offered $2B they should take the deal.  that is waaaaay overpriced and mojang (like many others before it) are likely to be a 1-hit wonder.   cash out now and let MS take the losses that will come with brand that is on it's way down.

no idea why ms would make this deal though.   almost nothing to gain and soo much to lose.   just thinking about how many other ways ms could better spend $2B just makes me chuckle at ms's stupidity.

Thinking about it further, this actually fits in with Nadella's mobile vision.  Execs probably think Minecraft will push Windows phones.

[Max King of the Wild]

Thinking about it further, this actually fits in with Nadella's mobile vision.  Execs probably think Minecraft will push Windows phones.

So why not pay to port or publish it

[Xevross]

Thinking about it further, this actually fits in with Nadella's mobile vision.  Execs probably think Minecraft will push Windows phones.

It does but there's better ways of going about it, like Max said

[darkknightkryta]

It does but there's better ways of going about it, like Max said

There's a bajillion better ways for MS to do anything.  They've never have.  It's really embedded into Microsoft.

[Legend]

Yeah if they only wanted to push phones, they could just make it mobile exclusive. Doing that wouldn't be anywhere close to 2B worth.

[Shinobi-san]

I guess i see this differently from everyone else here.

Its a good move for MS imo. I see a lot of comments about how does MS make back this money? Well its really not about making back the money directly...2billion isnt much for MS. They will make back the money, even if Xbox goes bankrupt tomorrow. Thats how strong MS is in the other industries and markets they are involved in.

This is more about building a viable gaming ecosystem and being super competitive across the industry, in both the home console market and the broader mobile market.

Minecraft is also not a one hit wonder. The game is steadily increasing in popularity over a number of years and has a vibrant growing community. And if they do release a minecraft 2 it is guaranteed success, even if its a bad game. Although it would be in their interest to make the next best thing. At worst they have a viable and popular franchise.

I also saw a comment above asking why dont MS invest this money into building 20 uncharted's or something like that....well to answer that its super risky. Each of those uncharted's can bomb and not to mention the added strain of having to deal with the development teams and associated issues. MS is not a gaming company, it is not a core focus of there's, so it really doesn't make sense for them to invest in new internal studio's and take risks on new IP in a manner similar to what Sony is doing. Sony has stated that gaming is a core sector of their business and are putting major focus on it...so its makes sense for them to invest more and build a solid IP library with a host of dev teams.

I'm all for this decision by MS. Although if they mess around with exclusivity and somehow the PC community gets raw deal, it could backlash on MS. The PC community has become very hostile towards companies that are messing around with exclusivity and favoring consoles. And by backlash i dont just mean more bad PR (which by itself would be disastrous for MS), they could also suffer other forms of attack.

[the-pi-guy]

I also saw a comment above asking why dont MS invest this money into building 20 uncharted's or something like that....well to answer that its super risky.

I didn't ask why they didn't.  Also, it was 100 Uncharted. 
My point was that it could cover a lot of AAA games. 

[Shinobi-san]

I didn't ask why they didn't.  Also, it was 100 Uncharted. 
My point was that it could cover a lot of AAA games. 

Yep, I think I got the gist of what you were trying to say.

My point stands though.

[the-pi-guy]

Yep, I think I got the gist of what you were trying to say.

My point stands though.

You said it's super risky, but at the same time its not a lot of money for MS. 
Is MineCraft 2 necessarily going to be successful?  Porting the game has been pretty suvcessful, but these open up new venues to be able to play.  While it is possible that a sequel would be huge, its also possible that it won't be.  Really depends on how its done.

[Shinobi-san]

You said it's super risky, but at the same time its not a lot of money for MS. 
Is MineCraft 2 necessarily going to be successful?  Porting the game has been pretty suvcessful, but these open up new venues to be able to play.  While it is possible that a sequel would be huge, its also possible that it won't be.  Really depends on how its done.

I dont see the contradiction...just because its not a lot of money for MS, doesn't necessarily mean its not risky.

In any case, by risky, i wasn't only referring to financial risk, but rather the risk of the investment not bringing the desired results. Which imo, is not financial returns, but as i said a more viable and competitive platform. In this regard, i think buying Minecraft and the studio that creates it, is probably less risky than putting together internal dev studios and asking them to create new IP.

I think Minecraft 2 will be successful regardless of the quality of the game. It will sell on the name alone. Minecraft 3 however will not be so lucky should Minecraft 2 be a pile of shame.

[Dr. Pezus]

Imo 100 Uncharteds are much less risky than Minecraft 2. Secondly, Minecraft 2 would still have to be priced like a digital only title ($20, $30 at most) giving them less revenue per sale than they would from the 100 Uncharteds.

Also, Minecraft 2 will sell well guaranteed but it won't have legs unless it's actually good and supported for a while.

[Legend]

I guess i see this differently from everyone else here.

Its a good move for MS imo. I see a lot of comments about how does MS make back this money? Well its really not about making back the money directly...2billion isnt much for MS. They will make back the money, even if Xbox goes bankrupt tomorrow. Thats how strong MS is in the other industries and markets they are involved in.

This is more about building a viable gaming ecosystem and being super competitive across the industry, in both the home console market and the broader mobile market.

Minecraft is also not a one hit wonder. The game is steadily increasing in popularity over a number of years and has a vibrant growing community. And if they do release a minecraft 2 it is guaranteed success, even if its a bad game. Although it would be in their interest to make the next best thing. At worst they have a viable and popular franchise.

I also saw a comment above asking why dont MS invest this money into building 20 uncharted's or something like that....well to answer that its super risky. Each of those uncharted's can bomb and not to mention the added strain of having to deal with the development teams and associated issues. MS is not a gaming company, it is not a core focus of there's, so it really doesn't make sense for them to invest in new internal studio's and take risks on new IP in a manner similar to what Sony is doing. Sony has stated that gaming is a core sector of their business and are putting major focus on it...so its makes sense for them to invest more and build a solid IP library with a host of dev teams.

I'm all for this decision by MS. Although if they mess around with exclusivity and somehow the PC community gets raw deal, it could backlash on MS. The PC community has become very hostile towards companies that are messing around with exclusivity and favoring consoles. And by backlash i dont just mean more bad PR (which by itself would be disastrous for MS), they could also suffer other forms of attack.

Minecraft is not worth 2 billion dollars though. This could be incredibly wrong, but I read somewhere that Minecraft has only made about a billion dollars in profit lifetime with only 130 million being from last year. The amount of money to make is declining.

Minecraft 2, joking out the brand, and using it to push platform sales could possibly turn things around and directly/indirectly generate Microsoft billions in profits over the next decade, or they could very easily kill the brand and not make and not even make back what they put in. There is a huge amount of risk, and IMO the potential reward is not great enough. I mean the probability of the Minecraft venture being truly successful and becoming the next lego is incredibly low. Even if it did become the next lego, it'd only be generating about a billion a year. For a potential fad like Minecraft, that'd still make it hard to make a good return on their initial investment.