Slashdot Mirror
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."
Imagine you can leverage off of their existing user base, your minecraft character becomes your xbox equivilent of a "Mii", and now you have a 3D avatar in a 3D world you can legitimately interact with. Did you not read Snowcrash? This is Snowcrash. Someone bootstrapped the 3D virtual world we've been promised since the 1980's (and failed at with Second Life) and now Microsoft will own it. And will integrate it in to your living room and cell phone.
P.S. Go read Snowcrash by Neal Stephenson
moox. for a new generation.
Posting anonymous because I really shouldn't be saying this. Yes, it's for real: notch wants to sell out. It's been known inside the company for weeks. The news hit the developers in the Stockholm office very hard to the point that people were actually sobbing. No-one's happy besides the two people likely to end up with a large pile of cash after this goes down.
And suddenly the pieces begin to come together.
The news hit the developers in the Stockholm office very hard to the point that people were actually sobbing.
Yeah, they probably know how well being bought by Microsoft worked out for Sublogic. Or Oddworld Inhabitants. Or Bungie, even, forced to crank out endless formulaic sequels.
On the one hand, I can't blame notch, because if Microsoft offered me enough cash to retire, I'd sell out. But on the other hand, notch is already a millionaire, right? It's not like he needs the money.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
MS is trying to have a say in the VR game and they think Minecraft would be a nice entry point.
If it was any other game I'd say "...and thats a good thing", but minecraft is a phenomena not like any other. A friend of mine has a deeply autistic son who's never had friends due to the toll autism takes, and he's had deep troubles with school and the like. Until minecraft. On minecraft he's just another kid on a server making castles with his buddies and being part of a gang of kids creating and playing. Its really brought him out of his shell and if I come over to visit his mom he'll even come out and say hello and want to talk (about minecraft... always about minecraft. Its a hobby), and thats a fucking achievement.
He's now interested in school and maths finally because he wants to be jeb (the main 9-5 developer on minecraft these days) one day. He's got a hero.
Basically minecraft is turning him into a normal kid, and I'd hate to see anything ruin that.
Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.