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Report: Microsoft To Buy Minecraft Studio For $2bn+
dotarray (1747900) writes "A surprising story has emerged today that suggests Microsoft is looking to buy Minecraft developer Mojang. The reported price tag is "more than US$2 billion."
The original report is at the WSJ (possibly behind a paywall). Quoting: "For Microsoft, "Minecraft" could reinvigorate the company's 13-year-old Xbox videogame business by giving it a cult hit with a legion of young fans. Mojang has sold more than 50 million copies of "Minecraft" since it was initially released in 2009 and earned more than $100 million in profits last year from the game and merchandise. "Minecraft" is already available on the Xbox, as well as Sony Corp.'s PlayStation, PCs and smartphones."
Please. No.
Off the top of my head DirectX, Visio, Internet Explorer, Bungie, and Wininternals all worked out very well for them. Not saying you personally like all the products there, but they were all commercially successful in a number of ways.
Right... my kids never played the game, he can't do WASD yet because he's only six. He's never seen a show about it and doesn't even know what it's about. But he has a minecraft Tshirt, lunchbox and a couple of toys and regales me with Tales of Creepers and Zombies. I've no idea what kind hallucinogenic crack Notch put in that game but it seems to be particularly effective on small children.
Oh, hard luck Microsoft, you've just run afoul of my country's fair trading act.
Part of my purchase decision was that Minecraft would be released open source or public domain.
You've just purchased some very high punitive fines.
Once sales start dying and a minimum time has passed, I will release the game source code as some kind of open source. I'm not very happy with the draconian nature of (L)GPL, nor do I believe the other licenses have much merit other than to boost the egos of the original authors, so I might just possibly release it all as public domain.
Halo was really based in the same universe (or a very similar one) as an earlier series of games usually called the Marathon trilogy. These were Bungie's first big hits, and had two major properties that make them remembered fondly.
1. They were like Doom (2 1/2 D shooters), but with great plots and characterization for their time. (And most of this keenness was something more players saw there for the first time, often before Doom came out, or at least caught on, because Apples were around more then- see point 2). Bungie may have been first with some features, was definitely first to get them right with others, and it took some time for Id games to even be taken seriously. Think of the story everybody wanted for Mass Effect 3, and mostly felt disappointed in. For most gamers who started the series, Marathon 3 was like everything more modern players hoped Mass Effect 3 would be. Plus, many players felt they got a lot of other things right, like squad level control, vehicle movement, microphone talk in multiplayer, weapons/ammo ratios (and not being able to carry 10 or so weapons and thousands of rounds of ammo all at once), being able to design your own levels, and the whole blend of Single Player/Multiplayer/Deathmatch modes.
2. They ran on Apples, and were so big there that many people actually complained about how there was notihng in gaming for the PC as good as for the Apple. (There were other games, such as Myst and Armor Alley contributing to this effect too, I'm not saying it was all Marathon, but Myst and Bungie doing ports to Microsoft shifted the whole gaming scene away from Apple over just a couple of years).
Halo was supposed to be the updated version of those, going to a fully 3D engine, and it delivered an really exciting story with a giant ring around a planet, a weapon that could destroy whole worlds, and A.I. systems that would burn themselves out in 3 years or so just through being so ubersmart (and you had to hope the one you were relying on got you through the next scenario before it popped). And for the first time, there was a version for the X-Box and you didn't ahve to have an Apple Mac!
Who is John Cabal?
Have you even played the game for more than 5 minutes? it had more depth and FUN my first hour playing it than all the games in the last ten years of gaming combined! Plus, kids fucking LOVE it. Southpark was bang on with its observation that everyone under 16 (maybe 20 now?) has played it and enjoyed it. If he's not a "genius" in some sense, with millions of accounts (paying like $25 each), then what the fuck dude, who the hell is?
He had the right idea at the right time, just like every other inventor in history. Nothing "genius" or not "genius" about it. Minecraft is an amazingly deep and thoughtful game, that is still getting free updates years after its release!
He is actually quite humble in the interviews I have read about him such as this one:
http://www.newyorker.com/tech/...
Minecraft is THE cult game of the last 10 years. The spinoffs, youtube channels, mods, servers, real life products, halloween costumes, t shirts... the list goes on and on. Minecraft steve, a creeper or other characters are easily as recognizable as mario, or a disney character to children these days.
There is a TONNE of value with the minecraft brand. Missing that means you are not in touch with the youths! and you lose at your evaluation of the situation.
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