This is not fun news to wake up to. Microsoft if apparently buying the indie studio Mojang for more than 2 billion dollars.
This is very very strange considering Notch cancelled an Oculus Rift version of Minecraft due to Facebook buying Oculus VR, so to then allow the company to be sold to Microsoft is just odd.
Not only that, but Notch himself has been very vocal about hating Windows 8 to the point of saying things like this:
Got an email from microsoft, wanting to help "certify" minecraft for win 8. I told them to stop trying to ruin the pc as an open platform.
— Markus Persson (@notch) September 27, 2012
I'd rather have minecraft not run on win 8 at all than to play along. Maybe we can convince a few people not to switch to win 8 that way..
Markus Persson (@notch) September 27, 2012
To then sell his company to that very company would be a very strange turnaround.
Not only that, but Microsoft doesn't have a good history with Linux, so this could also stop our future of getting Mojang's next game Scrolls which we have covered coming. The good thing with Minecraft is it already supports Linux as a platform, so that wouldn't just be taken away.
It's just such an odd move. What would they want with a company like Mojang? Minecraft isn't exactly a new game for them to help shape how they like, and it's already on their competing games consoles.
Who wouldn't turn down 2+ billion dollars though?
Mojang are being tight lipped, so that suggests something is happening. Why else wouldn't you outright deny it?
What do you make of all this?
Source
The little I know about the guy, it seems possible to me he just got bored of the entire "being productive" deal and decided to pocket the 2B to live in luxury for rest of his life without having to as much as lift a finger.
On the other, less cynical side, he might as well accept the dough, leave the studio, and start a new one, carrying a budget to do something even bigger and more spectacular than ever before. Clean slate, etc. I don't think he ever hugely valued the Minecraft franchise and it's clear that that's what Microsoft might primarily want to buy Mojang for.
I am not afraid of Minecraft losing linux support - Microsoft bought Skype too and it still has a linux version - but Notch promised that Minecraft will eventually become open-source and I don't see that happening with Microsoft in charge.
Plintslîcho Sep 10, 2014
abelthorne Sep 10, 2014
Second, they can become a Microsoft company but keeping the creative decisions on games and platforms supported. It might not change anything for the development of Minecraft, Scrolls and other current games. What would probably change is that future games yet unannounced could be XBox exclusive or something like that.
Third, the fact that Notch dislikes Windows 8 doesn't mean that he dislikes Microsoft as a company (the same goes for Gabe Newell, mind you).
On the other side, I find it odd that Mojang woul be sold to another company (no specifically Microsoft), as Minecraft sales have secured the financing of Mojang for some time. So maybe they're thinking that they need to expand the company for some reason or are thinking about a distant future when they'll stop earning money with Minecraft and don't think their other games can assure their existence.
Quoting: RadegastMicrosoft bought Skype too and it still has a linux versionAnd funny enough they linux version was better, last I used Linux, because it had not seen the counter-productive interface updates for some time (worst of them being the use of Modern-UI autocorrection in the Desktop version).
Windows 8: Minecraft works perfectly fine on Windows 8.
Selling Mojang: I don't really care, really. They can't destroy minecraft (or minecraft for linux) entirely, as it would only make pirated version more wide-spread. I doubt they'd reprogram it in C# or something. Scroll's didn't seem very interesting either. So far all practical purposes, he may as well take the money and do something with it (i.e. I agree with Teal on that), even if it is buying a villa on some tropical island.
As for the claimed price: Seems way overestimated.
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