Microsoft is buying Mojang (developers of Minecraft)

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http://games.slashdot.org/story/14/09/0 ... io-for-2bn
[warning, the comments section may contain some bad language and NSFW links, this is Slashdot after all. Do NOT click on any links that have "goat.cx" following them.]

I don't even play Minecraft, and I'm completely shocked by this. Even though I'm not a terribly big fan of the game itself, I see it as being something with an ingenious concept and huge amounts of potential, all thanks to its excellent mod support and massive community.

Micro$oft will likely destroy this by locking the engine down to prevent modding, offering outrageously-priced DLC, shutting down support for custom/private servers, and of course pumping out direct sequels that make older versions obsolete.

Notch should do the right thing and insist on making Minecraft open-source, even if he just takes the iD Software approach and open-sources the engine while keeping the assets proprietary. The FOSS community would benefit greatly from this. Maybe someone could optimize it and port it to a more efficient language.

Last edited by mr_bigmouth_502 on 12 Sep 2014, 5:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I was wandering the forums looking at some of the responses to all of this, and I came across a post that is actually a sensible response, and needs to be considered with something like this:

"Okay. Look, I'll be the last one to say I want MS to own MC, but considering where Bill Gates is today, he obviously can run a business. There are a few obvious things to keep in mind:

1. It would be a terrible idea for MS to get rid of Minecraft PS, Android, and Apple versions not just for us, but for them as well. Very few people are going to go buy a whole XBox to replace their PSs just to play MC. If they did that, the $2B would take a LONG time to be worth it for them. MS exclusivity isn't worth it. (However, it would be a good idea for them to ADD the Windows 8 platform)

2. I think it is unlikely that MS would be worrying about features in MC themselves. My guess is they'll leave that to the developers already at Mojang. MS would likely just focus themselves on sales.

3. This whole thing is about making Bill Gates richer anyway. I've never liked MS, but I don't think their reason for staying in business is torturing us. It's all about money.



I doubt there will be too many bad things about this if it happens. Also, as much as I hate to admit it, MS is good with (most) software. I'm sure there are some things MS could do to help Minecraft. So please, stop acting as if this is the end of the world, or even your MC world. It's not. It's just another change. Thank you for reading!"

Obviously, I did not write all of that. But those are VERY good points.

Anyone with ANY business smarts does not acquire the maker of an insanely popular and amazing product, and then make lots of changes to it. They know there's LOTS of reasons why the game is so popular. So many. And so many aspects to it in general. And even small changes that are conceived of as negative can have huge amounts of raging fans appear in response. Hell, all they have to do is look up a small number of Youtube videos on the game to see these facts.

Dont get me wrong, Microsoft can be annoying at times. But you dont stay where they are by running your business like a total moron, or doing things with big money (TWO BILLION!) that could cause the very thing you payed so much for to not only not pay out, but utterly collapse and implode.

It's the same thing with the Twitch-Google thing. I watch stuff there frequently, and I've heard in steams many different streamers point out reasons why it is likely to be a GOOD thing. And I agree with them.

Oh, people will point out the Youtube-Google thing, and the mess THAT is, but they forget one very simple fact: Youtube, even long before Google+ happened, was a hideous mutated mass of glitchy nonsense from the start. The mess it currently is, is not Google's fault. It's the group that has been behind the development of Youtube all this time. The site has seriously NEVER been something OTHER than a horrible exploded disaster. I say this as someone who uses it very frequently (it has totally replaced TV and movies for me), and has been with the site for... many years now. The only thing Google did was add Google+, and I'll bet that they didnt exactly send in some crack squad of their own developers to make the connection between it and Youtube. The ticking glitchbomb that is the normal team would have done this (and inevitably of course, messed it up). Hell, I'd bet there's those at Google that really arent exactly pleased at the bad implementation of the connection between the two.

I believe M.S can do this a few ways, one leave it mostly up to the people who are already working on it, and advertise it better - maybe offer interesting or new options for money without removing/charging for any options users already have.

Or they can try to milk it for all it's worth in terrible ways like they are good at doing with other games.

I guess we'll find out which it will be eventually.

I feel like microsoft bought this just so they can get all the royalties from the merchandise (serioslys there's so much minecraft merchandise its insane) I hope they won't tamper with the core game that much, heck they mightt just kinda let mojang do there own thing and suck some money from them every once in a while

Indeed, part of the reason why it's worth so much to them is that they seriously have to do next to NOTHING in order to make monstrous profit off of it. They've already stated that not only do they not indend on changing anything about the PC version, they dont intend on stopping any of the OTHER versions as well (iOS, Android, PS3/4, whatever). They simply dont need to.

And there's SO many reasons why, and merchandising is only the start of it. This deal they've made isnt about selling Xbones to people. Or Windows Phones. Or stuff like that. No, it's about all of the OTHER things that most people dont think about, in relation to stuff like this.

I've made up a loooooooong post giving great detail about this stuff and how/why it works for them, on another forum, but suffice it to say.... yeah, the community has nothing to worry about, because M$ never had intentions of changing things to begin with. This isnt a normal deal like the sort where you hear about EA or someone eating some smaller developer, and then messing with them. In that sort of case, what EA or whoever is buying into is future products that the company they're grabbing might produce. THIS, though, is very different. It's not about FUTURE products at all. It's about what's already there, since what's already there is magically still generating ever-growing mountains of cash (whereas with other developers, they cant just make one game and then keep going with it for years and years). If they make changes, they'll break what is already there, and the foundations will crumble.

They know this (you dont spend 2.5 BILLION dollars without first researching the hell outta this stuff), and have already made multiple statements that they wont change anything, or mess with other versions of the game (what they might do with the Xbox-specific one is unknown, but likely that'll be left alone too, as it's in a very good spot). They simply dont need to change anything to profit. There's SO many angles that this whole thing approaches, and NONE of it has to do with selling Xbones, or doing damn stupid things with exclusivity, or things like that. AKA, the stuff that the community is freaking out about.


Not that anyone THINKS of any of this, of course. The community will continue to jump up and down and scream like a bunch of demented monkeys for quite awhile over this, probably, despite the lack of anything bad happening...