Microsoft has confirmed that it is buying Mojang – the company behind Minecraft – for $2.5 billion big ones.
The software giant made the announcement via a press release today, 15 September 2014. According to the statement, the Mojang team will join Microsoft Studios.
“Microsoft’s investments in cloud and mobile technologies will enable Minecraft players to benefit from richer and faster worlds, more powerful development tools, and more opportunities to connect across the Minecraft community,” the company said.
The buyout is set to be completed before the end of 2014.
“The Minecraft players have taken the game and turned it into something that surpassed all of our expectations. The acquisition by Microsoft brings a new chapter to the incredible story of Minecraft,” said Carl Manneh, CEO, Mojang.
“As the founders move on to start new projects, we believe the high level of creativity from the community will continue the game’s success far into the future.” (Read: Notch is leaving.)
Microsoft said it plans to continue to make Minecraft available across all platforms, including PC, iOS, Android, Xbox, and PlayStation.
Notch took the time to say goodbye to his fans through this “goodbye letter”.
I’m leaving Mojang
September 15th, 2014I don’t see myself as a real game developer. I make games because it’s fun, and because I love games and I love to program, but I don’t make games with the intention of them becoming huge hits, and I don’t try to change the world. Minecraft certainly became a huge hit, and people are telling me it’s changed games. I never meant for it to do either. It’s certainly flattering, and to gradually get thrust into some kind of public spotlight is interesting.
A relatively long time ago, I decided to step down from Minecraft development. Jens was the perfect person to take over leading it, and I wanted to try to do new things. At first, I failed by trying to make something big again, but since I decided to just stick to small prototypes and interesting challenges, I’ve had so much fun with work. I wasn’t exactly sure how I fit into Mojang where people did actual work, but since people said I was important for the culture, I stayed.
I was at home with a bad cold a couple of weeks ago when the internet exploded with hate against me over some kind of EULA situation that I had nothing to do with. I was confused. I didn’t understand. I tweeted this in frustration. Later on, I watched the This is Phil Fish video on YouTube and started to realize I didn’t have the connection to my fans I thought I had. I’ve become a symbol. I don’t want to be a symbol, responsible for something huge that I don’t understand, that I don’t want to work on, that keeps coming back to me. I’m not an entrepreneur. I’m not a CEO. I’m a nerdy computer programmer who likes to have opinions on Twitter.
As soon as this deal is finalized, I will leave Mojang and go back to doing Ludum Dares and small web experiments. If I ever accidentally make something that seems to gain traction, I’ll probably abandon it immediately.
Considering the public image of me already is a bit skewed, I don’t expect to get away from negative comments by doing this, but at least now I won.
What do you predict will happen to Minecraft once Microsoft takes control? Let us know in the comments and forum.
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Sooo, no patch for the PS3 Edition to transfer worlds to PS4 or updates to the glitchy PS4 Edition any time soon? I bet with their initial update, Microsoft will dish out exclusive Minecraft content for Windows PC and Xbox while Sony Playstation is left in the dark, waiting to pick up the scraps. Pride!