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Report: Microsoft To Buy Minecraft Studio For $2bn+

Posted by Soulskill on from the say-what-now dept.

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."

4 of 368 comments (clear)

  1. No. by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 4, Informative

    Please. No.

  2. Re:Umm... WHY??? by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

  3. I was promised "some sort of open source" by Truth_Quark · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

  4. Re:Umm... WHY??? by n3r0.m4dski11z · · Score: 4, Informative

    "it is fairly apparent that Notch is not some genius game designer, he just had the right idea at the right time, and got lucky that it went viral. Minecraft was not some amazing feat of design, it was a digital lego game that struck a chord with people."

    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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