Rumors began circulating last week and today Microsoft made it official. The Redmond WA giant will purchase Mojang, the creators of the hit Minecraft for $2.5 billion.
Microsoft Head of Xbox Phil Spencer made the announcement today via a video and blog post on the Xbox website.
Spencer made a specific reference as to whether or not Microsoft’s acquisition of Mojang would spell exclusivity for Minecraft on Microsoft platforms;
“At Microsoft, we believe in the power of content to unite people. Minecraft adds diversity to our game portfolio and helps us reach new gamers across multiple platforms. Gaming is the top activity across devices and we see great potential to continue to grow the Minecraft community and nurture the franchise. That is why we plan to continue to make Minecraft available across platforms – including iOS, Android and PlayStation, in addition to Xbox and PC.”
Mojang also provided their fans a lengthy post on their website to answer some of the most common questions they had been receiving. Most notable was the revelation that the Mojang team never intended Minecraft to become as big of a sensation that it has, and that company founder Markus (Notch) Persson did not want the responsibility of running such a large franchise, preferring to go back to working on smaller projects.
“As you might already know, Notch is the creator of Minecraft and the majority shareholder at Mojang. He’s decided that he doesn’t want the responsibility of owning a company of such global significance. Over the past few years he’s made attempts to work on smaller projects, but the pressure of owning Minecraft became too much for him to handle. The only option was to sell Mojang. He’ll continue to do cool stuff though. Don’t worry about that.”
Notch elaborated further on his own website, stating that he did not want to become a symbol and that his decision was not based on money; “It’s about my sanity”.
We will have to wait and see in the coming months just what Microsoft’s purchase of the Minecraft developer means for the future of the franchise.
In the meantime, tell us what you think about the sale in the comments section below.
This is depressing news to me and many Minecraft fans. While I understand Notch didn’t like being in the spotlight, he could have and should have given the company to somebody who would treat it’s fan base right! Not to mention, this is the man who originally didn’t want to make Minecraft work on Windows 8 due to his dislike of Microsoft.. WHAT? That is the most perfect example of hypocrisy if I’ve ever seen one. Microsoft is going to destroy what was once a great game.
R.I.P Minecraft
This seems like a strange move on Microsoft’s part to me. Usually their acquisitions are more political. They grabbed Rare to keep them out of Nintendo’s hands and they paid for exclusivity for Titanfall (note that Respawn has not exactly hidden the fact that they canceled Playstation versions) and Rise of the Tomb Raider.
It seems strange to grab Mojang since the Playstation versions of Minecraft are already out and Nintendo doesn’t seem to be interested in a Wii U version of it.
KEEP DOING COOL STUFF NOTCH…. or else…..