Microsoft planning Mojang acquisition

[Kong Wen]

Rumours and reports surfaced yesterday that Microsoft is making a play to acquire Minecraft developer Mojang, possibly for as much as $2B.

What would this mean for Minecraft? Possible Xbox-exclusive sequels?

What would this mean for Notch, who has consistently publicly balked at big-business takeovers (including temporarily cancelling Oculus Rift support for Minecraft after the Facebook acquisition)? Bloomberg suggests the deal comes at Notch's initiative, and that he'd plan to leave the company shortly after the transition. Notch certainly doesn't need money at this point, and definitely wouldn't after a deal like this one. Some wonder if he's planning on leaving games entirely (he once joked about it with Phil Fish). I suspect he'd like to start doing some smaller-scale indie work again.

[Jelly]

My guess is that Notch is tired of Minecraft, he's really talented, and he shouldn't have it as a ball and chain to his leg.

Go on Notch, become a billionaire and then continue to make whatever game you can imagine.

[Kong Wen]

My guess is that Notch is tired of Minecraft, he's really talented, and he shouldn't have it as a ball and chain to his leg.

Go on Notch, become a billionaire and then continue to make whatever game you can imagine.

I'd like to see him have the time, resources, and freedom to go back to experimenting with that weird space game he was working on a while ago.

[kitroplious]

Rumours and reports surfaced yesterday that Microsoft is making a play to acquire Minecraft developer Mojang, possibly for as much as $2B.

What would this mean for Minecraft? Possible Xbox-exclusive sequels?

Yep, and also diminishes hope for a Nintendo version.

[TheGreatNads]

This seems relevant: Notch, the designer of Minecraft and one-time owner of Mojang announces he's not going to be at Mojang any longer.

http://notch.net/2014/09/im-leaving-mojang/

[VictorViper]

A generation watches with bated breath. What incredible or terrible implications could this hold? It's scary and exciting... as exhilarating as the impala in a death race with the cheetah.



Meanwhile, some old gas bag scratches his head, incapable of understanding the phenomenon.

[Kong Wen]

A generation watches with bated breath. What incredible or terrible implications could this hold? It's scary and exciting... as exhilarating as the impala in a death race with the cheetah.



Meanwhile, some old gas bag scratches his head, incapable of understanding the phenomenon.

Minecraft isn't going to change. It's even still going to be supported. Pretty much the main implication of this will be that the game will no longer be supported into perpetuity. Microsoft will have to eschew the "buy it once, own it forever" philosophy in order to start fully profiting from the acquisition. Here are my guesses:

Some kind of sequel will come out with lots of enhancements. It'll be Xbox exclusive on consoles (but still on PC, mobile, etc. obviously). The sequel won't "catch" as well as the original did, for the same kinds of lightning-in-a-bottle reasons that Nintendo couldn't successfully follow the Wii (a huge proportion of the market will still be happy with the original and just stick with that instead of moving on).

Good for Notch, though. It's not surprising that he feels somewhat disillusioned. I just hope it doesn't get him down. He doesn't need to feel like some kind of "gaming leadership figure" or whatever. If he just likes dicking around with code and coming up with solutions to interesting problems, then that's what he should feel free to spend his time doing. He'll definitely have the resources and freedom to do so, now.