Notch sells Minecraft to M$ for $2.5 billion

[pakoito]

The forest of cake.

Which looks like a large forest with lots of potential but it's actually the same tree 300 times and will be for the next 5 years.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

I don't think Microsoft cares about the studio, they just want the IP. And I think 2 billion is reasonable for an IP like Minecraft. I don't think people realize how big Minecraft is among young kids. Kind of like how "The Sims" replaced Barbies for tween girls, Minecraft is replacing Lego for younger kids. A large corporation could milk the shit out of a franchise like Minecraft for years. They could even make themed Minecraft DLC packs, kind of like how there are LEGO versions of basically every major franchise out there. Think, for example, of Minecraft Star Wars. Or Minecraft LOTR. I personally wouldn't play it, but I think a lot of people would.

I suspect that Microsoft sees it as a potential, perennial, gaming franchise like the Sims.

Maybe that's their plan, but to me, there is a pretty big difference between Sims and Minecraft in terms of ease of competing with them. The Sims has pretty complex proprietary AI for their "Sims" which has been developed with EA's funding for a decade or so now over the different iterations. Anyone trying to compete with them would have to not only compete with their brand name, but actually develop a similarly complex AI and technology. Minecraft, on the other hand, is ridiculously simple in every possible way. Any large company, at any time, can decide to produce an alternative with significantly better graphics, significantly better AI, significantly better challenge, or even better mod support. There is nothing Minecraft does that is particularly complex or difficult to do. Even single person indie devs are working on much more impressive stuff right now (check out http://www.blockscape.com/v2/), so imagine what a large company could do with real money. And once those much better looking youtube videos appear, you could easily see herds of MC players abandoning it for greener pastures.

 

[Dr Tomo]

Riot Games was sold for $400 million and it's the biggest game in the world

I would like some salsa for that, please.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/johngau...lly-becomes-most-played-pc-game-in-the-world/

According to a new list provided by DFC Intelligence in conjunction with Xfire

Anyway, onwards with the discussion on whether 2014 MC is worth 5 times 2011 LoL, because that's comparable apparently.

Jesus here. It is one of the most popular games without a doubt and like I said Tencent picked up Riot for dirt cheap like pennies on the dollar.

My guess is they want a Xbox One exclusive and so they can force kids/adults to pick up their consoles with dlc like Nintendo does if you want to play with any of their IP's.

 

[Azrael the cat]

Lol cant wait for phil fish autistic tantrum.

"We previously investigated the possibility of purchasing the Fez IP, but chose not to make a formal approach after the IP-holder's CEO had a meltdown on Twitter and abused our representative for inquiring about fan expectations".

 

[Dr Tomo]

Microsoft needs Minecraft to boost mobile ambitions
(Reuters) - Microsoft’s impending purchase of Mojang, the Swedish developer with 100 million players of its open world Minecraft game, is more aimed at pulling users onto the software company's obscure mobile platform than its better known PC system or Xbox game console.

The software company's Windows Phone system has only 2.5 percent of the world's smartphone market, and its Surface tablet barely more, according to tech research firm IDC. Growth is hampered because many app and game developers ignore it.

Enter Minecraft, which is the top paid app both on Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) iOS and Google Inc's (GOOGL.O) Android systems. Microsoft will unveil a $2.5 billion deal to buy its owner on Monday, according to a source briefed on the matter.

“It seems like Microsoft is looking at Mojang and Minecraft as a way to tap into this enormous cultural phenomenon," said Dave Bisceglia, Chief Executive of independent game studio Tap Lab. "If you look at iOS, Minecraft has been a top-grossing game for quite some time, if Microsoft could on Windows phones give players a unique and compelling experience that you can't get on the other platforms, that could be a driver to sell devices to existing Minecraft fans.”

Microsoft does not disclose numbers of users of Windows Phones, and declined comment on the deal.

Minecraft was launched five years ago as a PC game, but 54 million sales later, about 40 percent of copies are downloaded onto phones and tablets. Left to their own devices, it does not seem likely that Mojang's 40-strong team would ever get round to designing a Windows Phone version of Minecraft.

Markus Persson, the game's creator and co-founder of Mojang, said last year that Windows phones are so insignificant in terms of market share that they are not worth developing for.

"Because it's tiny," Persson wrote in an email to Reuters last June, when asked why his company only made mobile versions of its games for iOS and Android, but not Windows Phone.

"Both Symbian and Blackberry have more users than Windows Phone," wrote Persson, referring to Nokia's discontinued operating system and the fading Canadian smartphone pioneer.

Wall Street is focused on the mobile benefits for Microsoft.

"We don’t view this acquisition as a signal of Microsoft's intent to double down on Xbox but consider it an attempt to better address mobile on a cross-platform basis," said Nomura analyst Rick Sherlund in a note to clients this week. "This also appears to be consistent with (Microsoft) CEO Satya Nadella’s mobile and cloud strategy."

Microsoft is expected to pay close to $2.5 billion for Mojang, or about 8 times sales last year. That is small change for Microsoft, which has $86 billion in cash and short-term investments. But it is relatively large and expensive for game company acquisitions, which do not have a stellar record of success.

Japan's SoftBank Corp (9984.T) paid $1.53 billion for a 50 percent stake in Finnish game maker Supercell last year at about 3.5 times projected annual sales. Electronic Arts' (EA.O) $750 million acquisition of PopCap in 2011 was valued around 10 to 11 times sales.

Joost van Dreunen, Chief Executive of research firm SuperData, said the price tag ”seems like a lot for a title that has certainly not peaked but is certainly not in its initial frenzy."

He doubts that Minecraft can really help Windows phone sales: “Minecraft itself has done very well on the iOS platform, but it’s better on the iPad, the screen is bigger," he said. "I don’t see why this could drive handset sales.”
*source

 

[buzz]

Maybe that's their plan, but to me, there is a pretty big difference between Sims and Minecraft in terms of ease of competing with them. The Sims has pretty complex proprietary AI for their "Sims" which has been developed with EA's funding for a decade or so now over the different iterations. Anyone trying to compete with them would have to not only compete with their brand name, but actually develop a similarly complex AI and technology. Minecraft, on the other hand, is ridiculously simple in every possible way. Any large company, at any time, can decide to produce an alternative with significantly better graphics, significantly better AI, significantly better challenge, or even better mod support. There is nothing Minecraft does that is particularly complex or difficult to do. Even single person indie devs are working on much more impressive stuff right now (check out http://www.blockscape.com/v2/), so imagine what a large company could do with real money. And once those much better looking youtube videos appear, you could easily see herds of MC players abandoning it for greener pastures.

Tsk tsk tsk, you guys never learn your lesson. When were popular things ever popular because of their complexity/quality? What really works is marketing/word-of-mouth big enough to make the product "popular for popularity's sake" and at that point people will buy the product just because it's the next big thing. I'm sure there's a term for when products or things reach that level of popularity.

 

[catfood]

LIKE DIS POST IF YOU'VE NEVER EVEN PLAYED MINECRAFT NOR WANT TO

BRO I HAVNT EVEN HERD OF IT BEFORE OPENING THSI THREAT

 

[Jigawatt]

https://mojang.com/2014/09/yes-were-being-bought-by-microsoft/

Yes, the deal is real. Mojang is being bought by Microsoft.

It was reassuring to see how many of your opinions mirrored those of the Mojangstas when we heard the news. Change is scary, and this is a big change for all of us. It’s going to be good though. Everything is going to be OK. <3

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/2014/sept14/09-15news.aspx

REDMOND, Wash. — Sept. 15, 2014 — Microsoft Corp. today announced it has reached an agreement to acquire Mojang, the celebrated Stockholm-based game developer, and the company’s iconic “Minecraft” franchise.

 

[buzz]

to think I was one of the guys giving suggestions and helping with bugs very early in the development. All so he can get his fat greasy hands on million and billions of dollars.

 

[Infinitron]

Well, now he can fund Psychonauts 2.

 

[felipepepe]

So now Notch has left Mojang, with around 1 billion dollars in his pockets... can't say life is fair.

The weird thing it that's possible that Minecraft will improve now at Microsoft's hand.

 

[WhiteGuts]

http://pastebin.com/n1qTeikM

Notch is a mental midget, basically. But he's smart enough to acknowledge it, and he probably doesn't want to end up like Phil Fish.

 

[Infinitron]

It reminds me of what happened to the Flappy Bird guy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flappy_Bird#Discontinuation

 

[buzz]

It's not about the money, it's about my sanity.

I'd buy that if he donated the IP to red cross or something like that.
Shit, I'd buy that if he sold the IP for much less.

But this is 2.5 billion dollars. That's the kind of money that can sustain 100 generations of your family from now on.

I just don't get it. Maybe because I've been a poorfag for all of my life, but there just comes a point when you have such a generous amount of money that increasing it feels completely futile. Say you have 1 million dollars a year, you'd have to spend 2.700 dollars EVERY DAY to lose that. Shit, you'd have to drown in coke and buy the most ridiculous champagnes and shit to ever waste that amount of cash. 2.7k dollars a MONTH is wealthy territory for me.

 

[Astral Rag]

 

[Destroid]

It's not about the money, it's about my sanity.

I'd buy that if he donated the IP to red cross or something like that.
Shit, I'd buy that if he sold the IP for much less.

But this is 2.5 billion dollars. That's the kind of money that can sustain 100 generations of your family from now on.

I just don't get it. Maybe because I've been a poorfag for all of my life, but there just comes a point when you have such a generous amount of money that increasing it feels completely futile. Say you have 1 million dollars a year, you'd have to spend 2.700 dollars EVERY DAY to lose that. Shit, you'd have to drown in coke and buy the most ridiculous champagnes and shit to ever waste that amount of cash. 2.7k dollars a MONTH is wealthy territory for me.

This way he is free to not worry about the company and dispose of the cash when and how he pleases.

taxalot Minecraft is not open source.

 

[Astral Rag]

 

[buzz]

This way he is free to not worry about the company and dispose of the cash when and how he pleases.

I wonder how much out of the 2.5 billion is just for Notch.

 

[Renegen]

You can't say Notch was a complete failure of a CEO, he hired all the right people to make him billions, he doesn't give himself credit for that. I was wondering who was the mastermind that kept growing Minecraft even now, clearly it wasn't him.

 

[Explorerbc]

These sanity arguments are bullshit. "Boohoo, I make thousands of dollars every day, but these people on my twitter make me saaad"

Notch just grabbed the money and is now free to live the rest of his life in some tropical island

The flappy bird guy took it down before they could start suing him for copyright infringement or something

 

[WhiteGuts]

No, it's not bullshit. Or did the Five Guys case teach you nothing about the indie scene ?

 

[DeusX1]

Let's be real, who wouldn't have sold it for 2,5 billions?!

And I believe him when he says he wasn't enjoying his "position". IMO Notch is a genius programmer and I only met one guy talented like him in my life and he had the same mentality. Guys like them have a different set of values from the rest of us, they view things differently.

 

[Perkel]

These sanity arguments are bullshit. "Boohoo, I make thousands of dollars every day, but these people on my twitter make me saaad"

Notch just grabbed the money and is now free to live the rest of his life in some tropical island

The flappy bird guy took it down before they could start suing him for copyright infringement or something

It is very fun to read that thing and his Oculus facebook rant.

Also i don't know why people are confused about amount of money. MS bough for a lot more companies that made nothing valuable. They spend half a BLN to get mobile company that didn't even sell one phone or some vapor company for 6BLN.


Still 2,5MLD is fucking big pile of money. If you could devide that sum for GTA4 budget (around 100mln) this would mean GTA4 like game every year for next 25 years. Or if we take 40-50mln for Fallout New Vegas. 50 FNV in 50 years. Instead of spending it to create whole plethora of studios which they can grow over next few years they spend it on Minecraft which reached its peak and people/kids are moving away from it slowly.

They can't make it exclusive and kill the game, they can't say "we,MS made that game" to boost their ego nor they can capitalize on army of kids who bought game once and they are playing it for years.
They could release Minecraft 2 but this would kill fanbase as it will devide it.

From actual developement side of things i think MS will finally do something with Minecraft. That game didn't change that much from 1.0 despite earning for Mojang xxxmln$ yearly and they still have like 5 dudes working on it. IT's still java, and they couldn't make dudes who create shader profiles for game to give them their code to use in minecraft (because they don't know how to do it themselves without hiring proper dev).

As for Notch. Dude has fucking fortune now to spend. He already has least 600mnl-1BLN but now he will have at least 2bln.

As someone said now he don't need to be so stinky and he can put mare 20mln for psychonauts 2

And I believe him when he says he wasn't enjoying his "position". IMO Notch is a genius programmer and I only met one guy talented like him in my life and he had the same mentality. Guys like them have a different set of values from the rest of us, they view things differently.

3 facts for idiots:

- Notch is not good programmer. He made it in Java because it is high API that is much easier than C++ or C (primary languages for games dev.). If you actually fallow his developement of Minecraft you would see that he made absolutely shitty progress over years. When he hired Jeb then Minecraft dev speed picked up. Minecraft alone is not some amazing hard game to create. Minecraft is minecraft because of FAD. Any team even small of proper devs could recreate and go beyond of what mojang did in 1/4 of time. Hell look even at mods like Millienare mod which adds whole towns/AI/ advaced scripts/management and so on which is much harder to do at scale much bigger than what Mojang ever did.
- I met dudes like him in my work every day 9/10 of them are have much better skills.
- YEah right. He is just random dev who randomly stroke goldvein and multiple times was no consistent with what he is talking about. Like his selling of mojang vs oculus rant sellout.

 

[Dr Tomo]

3 facts for idiots:

- Notch is not good programmer. He made it in Java because it is high API that is much easier than C++ or C (primary languages for games dev.). If you actually fallow his developement of Minecraft you would see that he made absolutely shitty progress over years. When he hired Jeb then Minecraft dev speed picked up. Minecraft alone is not some amazing hard game to create. Minecraft is minecraft because of FAD. Any team even small of proper devs could recreate and go beyond of what mojang did in 1/4 of time. Hell look even at mods like Millienare mod which adds whole towns/AI/ advaced scripts/management and so on which is much harder to do at scale much bigger than what Mojang ever did.
- I met dudes like him in my work every day 9/10 of them are have much better skills.
- YEah right. He is just random dev who randomly stroke goldvein and multiple times was no consistent with what he is talking about. Like his selling of mojang vs oculus rant sellout.

Figured all of this was apparent when he tried to release another game (think scrolls) and it was absolute shit. I wonder if he is going to be like all the other developers who are indie that starts blogging about how they are depressed because they are now rich and in Mojangs case richer.

 

[Taxnomore]

Scrolls was pretty much not Notch's job, but another team at Mojang.

I pretty much do not care if Notch is a good programmer or not. Minecraft is one of the best game released over the last few years. Rarely have I seen a game able to stimulate imagination and creativity so much ; just check all the youtube videos and the incredibly huge amount of mod, gameplay ideas. Imagination is the limit. Whoever takes the credit at Mojang, I do not care.

The game is good enough as it is. If they are making money and getting rich over this buyout, then good for them. We'll still be able to play the game as it is right now, and mod it however we like.