Notch sells Minecraft to M$ for $2.5 billion

[Turisas]

Not entirely, Mojang is an Aktiebolag: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aktiebolag

Notch should've moved his business abroad years ago.

 

[baturinsky]

If it is true, great. With Minecraft out of the picture, modders can finally switch to open source alternatives such as Terasology or Minetest.

 

[markec]

He should spend that money to help revive bunch old strategy franchises like he did with Age of Wonders, maybe Lords of Realm and Master of Orion or maybe give money to Obsidian to finally make a proper RPG.

 

[agentorange]

 

[Borelli]

Everybody who wanted it has bought it so now it's useless to him so he sells it. For 2 billion. Damn that's some luck.

 

[Destroid]

Everybody who wanted it has bought it so now it's useless to him so he sells it. For 2 billion. Damn that's some luck.

For those saying stuff like this, it sold over 8000 copies in the last 24 hours.

https://minecraft.net/stats

 

[Dr Tomo]

Then again, who knows why this supposed deal was leaked. Maybe, someone wants to hear some outside opinions about whether that's a good idea or not.

Because this is a major company that many people has their stock invested in and is no different then when there was leaks over Amazon entering into the cell phone market.

Microsoft secures hot IP, bans developer from developing voxel like games again, milks IP until cow is dead, writes off losses for tax reasons, repeats with next hot IP.

We could switch out MS for EA here without missing a beat.

I don't think that this deal is a good thing.

Basically this after fix. I see them wanting this IP and liquidating the entire studio as I see no reason to keep them as they are basically as useful as a bag of shit. Microsoft has nothing to worry about Mojang developing another hot IP as we can easily switch Mojang with Phil Fish.

 

[Spectacle]

I can't see how microsoft could possibly make 2 billion by milking minecraft. You can't turn MC into an annual franchise or a free2play money machine without destroying what makes it so popular. I'm sure they could milk the fans for quite a bit of money that way, but not fucking 2 billions worth.

 

[Destroid]

I can't see how microsoft could possibly make 2 billion by milking minecraft. You can't turn MC into an annual franchise or a free2play money machine without destroying what makes it so popular. I'm sure they could milk the fans for quite a bit of money that way, but not fucking 2 billions worth.

The xbox should have quite clearly shown that microsoft isn't only concerned about profit.

 

[profreshinal]

Everybody who wanted it has bought it so now it's useless to him so he sells it. For 2 billion. Damn that's some luck.

For those saying stuff like this, it sold over 8000 copies in the last 24 hours.

https://minecraft.net/stats

16m copies sold at maximum of 30$ a piece makes a lifetime revenue of 480m$, about a quarter of 2b$. This doesn't include non-pc platforms though.

Maybe they'll try and force all those people playing online in a monthly MS subscription model.

 

[Gerrard]

I bet even Jews are in awe.

 

[Destroid]

Everybody who wanted it has bought it so now it's useless to him so he sells it. For 2 billion. Damn that's some luck.

For those saying stuff like this, it sold over 8000 copies in the last 24 hours.

https://minecraft.net/stats

16m copies sold at maximum of 30$ a piece makes a lifetime revenue of 480m$, about a quarter of 2b$. This doesn't include non-pc platforms though.

Maybe they'll try and force all those people playing online in a monthly MS subscription model.

I believe it's over 30million across all platforms.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

This is so like life. Guy remakes ideas he saw in other games (Infiniminer, Dwarf Fortress, Wurm Online) in a very accessible form, makes a shit-ton of money, completely messes up design, and misses out on the huge potential in terms of gameplay, attracts casuals and kids anyway, makes more money, now about to make 2 billion more. Meanwhile, people toiling on much more interesting and complex games are doing it for relative scraps.

I also don't see how this makes sense for Microsoft. The articles mention that they want MC for their Windows smartphones, but surely they could work out a cheaper deal to make MC compatible with those, short of outright buying Mojang. Even if you assume Microsoft plans to use the IP, create a massively staffed studio and produce Minecraft 2 with better graphics, gameplay, etc, given their track record with games, the kind of audience Minecraft attracts and the price tag, doesn't look very good for them. You also have to factor in all the Minecraft clones in development by other indies, which might compete with them. But then again, when was the last time Microsoft made a decision that made much sense. Man, sometimes the kind of money these tech companies throw around just makes your mind boggle.

 

[Gozma]

Every nerdy kid from from like 8-18 in the past 3 years has had Minecraft take a big shit in their imagination, it's obviously gonna be a hugely valuable IP for toys and sequels and shit in the hands of people that can flog it like a properly capitalized American corporation can. If Mojang put out 3-4 mediocre followup games without mega-marketing that don't have the benefit of ripping off Dwarf Fortress/Infiniminer/accidentally becoming the huge Schelling Point indie for no particular reason they'd drain consumer goodwill away and that would be it.

 

[Azalin]

Everybody who wanted it has bought it so now it's useless to him so he sells it. For 2 billion. Damn that's some luck.

For those saying stuff like this, it sold over 8000 copies in the last 24 hours.

https://minecraft.net/stats

16m copies sold at maximum of 30$ a piece makes a lifetime revenue of 480m$, about a quarter of 2b$. This doesn't include non-pc platforms though.

Maybe they'll try and force all those people playing online in a monthly MS subscription model.

I believe it's over 30million across all platforms.

According to wikipedia it has sold over 54 million copies across all platforms,that includes 21 mill for the mobile versions

I don't see how MS could make 2 billions from Minecraft even if it milked it until its tits run dry,on the other hand Notch would be an idiot not to sell for such a huge amount of money

 

[Dr Tomo]

I can't see how microsoft could possibly make 2 billion by milking minecraft. You can't turn MC into an annual franchise or a free2play money machine without destroying what makes it so popular. I'm sure they could milk the fans for quite a bit of money that way, but not fucking 2 billions worth.

Now the figure can be raised to $2.5 billion, funny as the ceo was talking about how they turned down many buy outs to maintain their independence *edit CNBC talking it up Bloomberg following suit. Honestly I don't see the reason why they would buy that IP, but then again it never made any sense that Facebook bought Oculus for over $2billion when they could have bought the more casual friendly AR team for 1/8 that price. A more sane person would just make their own voxel game like the many that are out there, but then again knowing Microsoft's track record when it comes to games we cna see the comparison to EA games.

 

[Destroid]

Everybody who wanted it has bought it so now it's useless to him so he sells it. For 2 billion. Damn that's some luck.

For those saying stuff like this, it sold over 8000 copies in the last 24 hours.

https://minecraft.net/stats

16m copies sold at maximum of 30$ a piece makes a lifetime revenue of 480m$, about a quarter of 2b$. This doesn't include non-pc platforms though.

Maybe they'll try and force all those people playing online in a monthly MS subscription model.

I believe it's over 30million across all platforms.

According to wikipedia it has sold over 54 million copies across all platforms,that includes 21 mill for the mobile versions

I don't see how MS could make 2 billions from Minecraft even if it milked it until its tits run dry,on the other hand Notch would be an idiot not to sell for such a huge amount of money

Don't forget all the merch, lego, server services, potential movies etc etc. There's plenty of money to be made from owning the Minecraft IP.

 

[pippin]

Minecraft clones can't be considered as serious competititon. Look at Unturned, it was famous for a week or so mostly because youtubers started playing it, and that's the usual story for most of these kind of games.

 

[himmy]

He should spend that money to help revive bunch old strategy franchises like he did with Age of Wonders, maybe Lords of Realm and Master of Orion or maybe give money to Obsidian to finally make a proper RPG.

I would totally become an angel investor if I sold my company for $2 billion. Think of all the promising-yet-failed Kickstarters that you could breathe new life into with only a fraction of that money, with ultimate chances of profit as well.

 

[himmy]

http://www.polygon.com/2014/9/10/61...eal-to-buy-minecraft-studio-was-instigated-by

The rumored $2 billion dollar deal for Microsoft to buy Minecraftcreator Mojang was kicked off by the developer's founder Markus "Notch" Persson a few months ago, according to a new report byBloomberg.

Persson, according to the report sourced to three people with knowledge of the talks, will help out with the transition though he is unlikely to stay at the company beyond that.

Notch is like the opposite of the guy who made KotC.

 

[Hobo Elf]

I can't see how microsoft could possibly make 2 billion by milking minecraft. You can't turn MC into an annual franchise or a free2play money machine without destroying what makes it so popular. I'm sure they could milk the fans for quite a bit of money that way, but not fucking 2 billions worth.

Go to a bookstore into the children's section, or go to a toy store. Minecraft the game is only a part of the whole thing. They have books, toys, whatever. It's literally the Swedish Angry Birds in terms of merchandise whoring. Kids LOVE anything Minecraft related like they do Angry Birds stuff. Microsoft isn't just buying the game, they are buying the never ending flood of kids who wanna buy all this Minecraft crap.

 

[SCO]

i still remember when notch came up with minecraft on the javagaming forum. Needless to say, they're all jelly.

 

[DeepOcean]

So, Microsoft kills all it's lisenses (Microsoft is sitting in gold and don't give a shit to the things they already own and let them to rot or want them to be F2P cannon fodder.), some indie guy comes up makes a sandbox game on his spare time and Microsoft wants to pay 2,5 billions for it? This news must be false or it's the most retarded thing I saw a company doing. Doesn't Microsoft have a single soul that can make a multiplayer sandbox game with shitty graphics? If that is true, I don't know if I laugh or just be sad a company can get so creatively bankrupt like this.

 

[SuicideBunny]

This news must be false or it's the most retarded thing I saw a company doing.

it's corporate thinking. trying to understand it only leads to insanity. have you never worked for a bigass corporation? they do a lot of stuff very efficiently and a lot of stuff in the most inane retarded possible way. this falls under the latter.

 

[sser]

I'd look at Minecraft like digital Legos. $2b a lotta cheese, but IMO this is the kind of game that isn't really going to go away.