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Microsoft Near Deal to Buy Minecraft Maker Mojang

354 points by thethimble 12y ago

blaincate 12y ago
looks like a low ballpark figure ; $2 billion .
Kronopath 12y ago
Link to read the article without a subscription: https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CDAQqQIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticles%2Fmicrosoft-near-deal-to-buy-minecraft-1410300213&ei=nXwPVLLsM7HlsASG2YGYCw&usg=AFQjCNHUMiCtz2yO7jha99Wm1BthL_Xnug https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd...
- readerrrr 12y ago
  Still blocked for me. I agree with thepumpkin1979: I hit that paywall every single time. Can we have a rule against posting links with paywalls? WSJ and other websites can either disable it for HN or we don't link to these websites at all.
  - tschuy 12y ago
    If you search for the article on Google News, the link should get you through the paywall. (I just searched for Minecraft Wall Street Journal, and that got me the link.)
- seanmcdirmid 12y ago
  Well, both Google and WSJ are blocked for me.
  - tidderton 12y ago
    Microsoft Corp. MSFT +0.62% is in serious discussions to buy Mojang AB, the Swedish company behind the popular "Minecraft" videogame, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The deal would be valued at more than $2 billion and could be signed as early as this week, the person said. A Microsoft spokesman declined comment, as did Mojang Chief Executive Carl Manneh. A sale would be a surprising turn for closely held Mojang, whose 35-year-old founder, Markus Persson, has shunned outside investment and is revered in the videogame community for railing publicly against big firms, including Microsoft. Meanwhile, "Minecraft" could reinvigorate Microsoft's 13-year-old Xbox videogame business by giving it a cult hit with a legion of young fans. Mojang has sold over 50 million copies of "Minecraft" since it was initially released in 2009 and earned more than $100 million in profit last year from the game and merchandise. The game is already available on Xbox, as well as on Sony Corp.'s PlayStation, PCs and smartphones. The popularity of "Minecraft" rests in large part on its open-ended possibilities, letting players build just about anything in a blocky, Lego-style world filled with dangers such as zombies and giant spiders. The game has struck a chord with children and hard-core gamers alike despite pixilated graphics that are a far cry from polished, action-based blockbusters like Microsoft's own "Halo" franchise. Related Alibaba Makes Big Play Into Mobile-Game Market When Minecraft Founder Blasted Microsoft Digital Lego or Another Fad? Minecraft Creator on Canceling Oculus Deal: 'Facebook Creeps Me Out' 3/25/2014 'Minecraft' Maker's Profit Soars 3/18/2014 App Watch: Minecraft On Your Phone 2/14/2013 'Minecraft' Hits Mother Lode 2/3/2013 The Big Money Behind Minecraft 2/1/2013 Lovers of Minecraft Are Belting Out Odes to Digging and Smelting 8/12/2012 The brand has also grown beyond videogames, striking licensing deals with Scholastic Corp. SCHL -0.94% for handbooks, Lego A/S for toys and Warner Bros. Pictures for a feature film. There is even a popular edition for schools to teach children such subjects as languages and architecture. Mojang would be the first multibillion-dollar acquisition by Microsoft's chief executive, Satya Nadella, since he was named to the top job in February. It would also be an unexpected plunge because he has signaled Xbox isn't a core business for Microsoft. But Mr. Nadella has said that Microsoft views videogames as a way to expand the company's footholds in PCs and mobile phones. In a letter to employees in July, Mr. Nadella called gaming the "single biggest digital life category, measured in both time and money spent, in a mobile-first world." "Minecraft" could also help Microsoft appeal to a new generation of customers, especially on smartphones where Microsoft has struggled with both its homegrown Windows Phone devices and with apps on rival phone systems. Only Microsoft's Skype video-calling service is fairly consistently among the 50 top free or paid apps for iPhone or Android smartphones in the U.S., according to mobile-app tracker App Annie. "Minecraft" is ranked in the top five among U.S. paid apps in the Apple AAPL -0.38% and Google GOOGL -1.61% app stores. Children play in a Minecraft tournament during Ascot Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup on Aug. 9, 2014 in Ascot, England. Getty Images The game has also become an integral part of a growing trend to watch game play on video sites such as YouTube and Twitch, which was acquired by Amazon.com Inc. AMZN -3.68% for close to $1 billion. Several "Minecraft" players on YouTube have attracted more than a billion views for their videos. In the world of games, Stockholm-based Mojang is an outlier, generating outsize profits relative to its small staff. In contrast to larger game companies such as Zynga Inc. ZNGA -2.32% and Electronic Arts Inc., EA -1.45% which employ thousands of people to manage dozens of titles, Mojang has deliberately remained small, employing only about 40 people in its studio in Stockholm's hip Södermalm district. Yet Mojang made a profit of 816 Swedish kroner ($115 million) last year on 2.07 billion kroner in revenue ($291 million). Zynga, which has roughly 3,000 employees, had a $37 million loss last year on $873 million in revenue. Instead of giving its game away and charging for in-app purchases, as many newer game makers do, Mojang charges flat fees for its games. The Xbox version costs $20, while a download on a PC is $27 and the mobile version is $7. "Minecraft" started out as a hobby project in 2009, when Mr. Persson—a high-school dropout and former game developer at "Candy Crush" game maker King Digital Entertainment KING -0.37% PLC—spent the summer in his small apartment in Stockholm coding what would one day become a global phenomenon. "Notch," as he is known online to his fans, was obsessed by Lego bricks as a child, and had begun programming on his father's Commodore 128 computer at the age of seven, producing his first game at the age of eight. Mr. Persson made an early and unfinished build of the game available to download, but sales started out modestly with only a handful sold a day for the first few months. Slowly, "Minecraft" gained momentum as word-of-mouth and online recommendations started spreading. By 2010, copies of the game were selling fast enough for Mr. Persson to quit his day job. Mr. Persson established Mojang in 2010 to manage "Minecraft" and build other games, bringing along former King colleague Jakob Porsér and Mr. Manneh, the CEO. The three are still the company's only shareholders and board members. Mojang's relationship with Microsoft hasn't been without friction. In 2012, Mr. Persson made harsh statements on Twitter TWTR -2.67% about the U.S. software giant and its new Windows 8 operating system, telling Microsoft to "stop trying to ruin the PC." "Minecraft" can be played on personal computers running Windows 8, but that requires that users download it from Mojang's site rather than Microsoft's own Windows Store. What's more, the game has never been made available for Windows Phone, Microsoft's operating system for phones, because Mojang deemed the platform too small to be worth the while. Mojang has embraced Microsoft's Xbox gaming console, and it released a first version of the game for the Xbox 360 in 2012, more than a year before Sony's rival PlayStation 3 console got it. A version for the new Xbox One was made available last week. The console versions of "Minecraft" accounted for almost a third of Mojang's revenue last year. Mr. Persson has regularly thumbed his nose at large corporations with snarky tweets and blog posts. Earlier this year, he canceled a project to bring a version of the game for the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset to protest Facebook Inc. FB -1.57% 's $2 billion purchase of the company. "Facebook is not a company of grass-roots tech enthusiasts," he wrote on his blog at the time. "There's nothing about their history that makes me trust them, and that makes them seem creepy to me," he added. In another post published in June, Mr. Persson said Mojang "does not exist to make as much money as possible for the owners." Instead, he said, "Mojang exists because I got lucky with 'Minecraft,' and it got way bigger than I could handle on my own." "Every time a big money-making deal comes up that would make a lot of money, it's of course very tempting," he added. "But at the end of the day we choose to do what either makes the most sense for our products or the things that seem like fun for us at Mojang." Until now, Mojang's founders have prided themselves on the company's independence. Mojang has routinely dismissed funding overtures from venture-capital companies, as well as outright buyout attempts. A tight ownership structure has meant that the company has been able to focus its operations, Mr. Manneh told the Journal earlier this year. "Financially speaking, we have no pressure whatsoever to rush into any new projects," he said. "Besides, we have no outside owners that require us to reach any particular goals."
thorn 12y ago
Sigh. I thought it's bad manner to give links to resource where you cannot read the article without additional actions like sign-up. Also it's not hacker news. I am sorry. But quality of links being promoted here degraded in quality and keeps going down.
- henryw 12y ago
  Just search "Microsoft Near Deal to Buy Minecraft Maker Mojang" and click the first link to see full article.
  - Freaky 12y ago
    Does nothing here, still an article fragment.
    - readerrrr 12y ago
      Clear your cookies or use a different browser; it worked for me.
- Guvante 12y ago
  > Also it's not hacker news Isn't it well established that slightly different content is okay? Minecraft started as a small company and has always had a fairly vocal development team so a lot of people likely have heard a lot of programming material about them.
Pyrodogg 12y ago
The Minecraft modding community just had a ridiculous few weeks with the various dramas surrounding Bukkit (a popular, extensible server mod). I can't wait to see what the reactions are to this news.
- cjslep 12y ago
  I was (am?) a moderator for Technic/Tekkit, and at the time the modding community seemed to me like it was a cesspit of adfly links and people eager to claim copyright over everything they touched. If the community is still similar then I agree, seeing the reactions to this news will be interesting to say the least.
  - KnightHawk3 12y ago
    I still don't grasp why everyone is trying to make a profit and claim copyright of their modification on someone elses work. (That doesn't have a licence to allow modification)
    - Navarr 12y ago
      Because at the end of the day your code is your code, and you do have copyright on it, and in a number of cases are or should be legally allowed to profit off of it. Especially when you bought it under a license [1] that allows you to do so [1]: https://web.archive.org/web/20110923135753/http://www.minecraft.net/terms https://web.archive.org/web/20110923135753/http://www.minecr...
- Cogito 12y ago
  I'm in many ways sad I stopped working regularly on Bukkit. My involvement started to wane a couple of months before the 4 founders got acquired by Mojang, mostly because I got a Real Job. I was there just as it was starting, and helped (what seemed like) a lot with the early dev work and community management. Mostly it was just fun hanging out with the team (primarily EvilSeph and Tahg, but of course Dinnerbone, Grum, and all the other core devs as well) solving problems, but that started to happen less and less. I have heard snippets of what has been going on, but haven't yet really read up on it. I do know that Warren (EvilSeph) was always at the core of the project, he kept the community more or less under control and helped co-ordinate everything. It was always clear that if he ever stopped pulling the various threads together the project as a whole would stop working. Sure, devs would be able to keep adding features and upgrading to latest versions, but the project was always more than just the plugin API and server implementation. It's incredibly annoying to manage the expectations of thousands of minecraft server admins (who seem to mostly be 12 years old, though there were definitely a lot of older admins) and no-one but Warren ever seemed up to the task. I should probably go do a bit of reading to find out exactly what has been going on.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
thepumpkin1979 12y ago
I hit that paywall every single time. Can we have a rule against posting links with paywalls? WSJ and other websites can either disable it for HN or we don't link to these websites at all.
- jewel 12y ago
  Perhaps it'd be better to change the link to a second-hand source in these cases, instead of the usual approach of the mods switching the link out to be the original source. I'll take blogspam over a paywall, and the WSJ link will still be available in the blog for those that really want more details.
- tzs 12y ago
  I suspect that many here actually subscribe to WSJ, the NY Times, the Economist, and other common paywalled newspapers and magazines that get submitted here. I don't see why they should be forbidden from discussing that material here just because some of us might have trouble seeing it. Enough people apparently CAN read them for them to get lots of comments, lots of up votes, and get a lot of people "liking" them on Feedly (this story seems to be the most liked non-Apple submission today on the main RSS feed). Also, in most of these discussions of paywalled stories, other sources pick up on the news fairly quickly. There are dozens within the last hour reporting on this particular one. None have as much detail as the WSJ article, but many give enough information to allow one to reasonably follow the discussion here and participate meaningfully.
tdicola 12y ago
Wow, good for Mojang and notch. I kind of fear that this is just going to be another Rare though. All the talent will move on after the handcuffs are off and the popular franchises will just languish. edit: Also I hope this wouldn't kill any momentum to get Minecraft on the Occulus Rift. Something tells me MS wouldn't be so happy to have a first class game experience on a competitor's hardware/platform.
- xemoka 12y ago
  Unfortunately, there is no momentum to get Minecraft on the Oculus Rift. Notch publicly cancelled it after Facebook bought Oculus.
  - readerrrr 12y ago
    And then he changed his mind. https://twitter.com/notch/status/500214489136910336 https://twitter.com/notch/status/500214489136910336
    - wonderzombie 12y ago
      Not to split hairs, but that's really not how I'd characterize that tweet. He only says he's done being mad about it.
      - readerrrr 12y ago
        It is clear if you read the entire conversation. Markus Persson ✔ @notch Follow @bar10dr that's up to the minecraft dev team
    - farmerjack 12y ago
      Probably around the time Microsoft proposed this deal.
      - deciplex 12y ago
        Apparently Microsoft didn't propose anything. Notch went to them.
guiomie 12y ago
"e Jakob Porsér and Mr. Manneh, the CEO. The trio remains the company's only shareholders and board members." Would this mean they'd split the 2 billions by themselves? ... wow. I wonder how do the employees feel about this.
- ProAm 12y ago
  Notch has always been very good to his employees [1](and seems like a good person on his own as well), I imagine they'd turn out OK. [1] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/02/markus-notch-persson-gives-3-million_n_1317396.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/02/markus-notch-persso...
  - guiomie 12y ago
    Thanks for the link. I realized my initial comment might look like I was insinuating he wouldn't/isn't good to his employee, while I was simply wondering how the situation would turn out for them. I guess probably quite well in this situation.
citricsquid 12y ago
This is interesting given that Mojang doesn't actually own the Minecraft IP, they license it from Notch who owns it (I believe) exclusively, that's how he's able to pull in hundreds of millions per year while Mojang makes a much smaller amount. Notch previously said he's had an offer in the $2bn region and turned it down[1] so this seems /weird/, that said anything is possible! [1] https://twitter.com/notch/status/448900844541726720 https://twitter.com/notch/status/448900844541726720
- readerrrr 12y ago
  If I remember correctly Notch is a partial owner of Mojang, so he might have some say in this. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
- Mandatum 12y ago
  Is it fair to say that once you achieve "FU money", numbers start to lose their value? I can't imagine being able to say "no" to something like that. Although likely for something like Minecraft, it'd be stock options/cash mix.
  - x0x0 12y ago
    Adding a zero (or two) to your personal net worth may still change minds about many things.
  - drzaiusapelord 12y ago
    Maybe Notch's perspective is that Minecraft as an IP is worth more than that. He can probably ride it out for the next couple decades with sequels or other monetization techniques. Why take the big payment today when you can have the bigger payment on-going? Especially if you want to continue to make it your life's work. Look at some gaming stars from the past. John Romero didn't "make us his bitch" with his post iD offerings. Carmack's career seemed pretty down until his recent excitement with Oculus and even that happened while he was playing with space companies on the side. Even with all his brains and cred, he's now just a Facebook employee and his boss is a 20-something php coder. A lot of gaming luminaries are often one-trick ponies. Its difficult to get lightning to strike twice. Smart money is keeping a tight hold of the IP that made you successful. Notch has seen what happens when you lose your IP and maybe he doesn't like it.
jaimebuelta 12y ago
Mmmm... this would be quite surprising, actually. Notch always seemed to be very fond of his independence, and he sure has enough money to back his position.
- Pyrodogg 12y ago
  Notch has been enjoying the independence so much that he's also not very involved with Mojang anymore. He hasn't worked on Minecraft in quite a while and last 'big' expectation, 0x10c didn't develop very far. Notch seems very content to just participate in things like Ludum Dare, make games and enjoy life.
  - jebblue 12y ago
    Notch could make a dozen failed games the next 2 decades and it wouldn't tarnish his reputation; he should try and see and tell Microsoft and EA to take a hike.
mindstab 12y ago
I don't get it. Mojang already made "all the money" from selling minecraft and are largely maintaining it now. I haven't heard if they even have any new games on the way? The space one was cancelled. What exactly is MS possibly getting that could be worth $2B?
- tdicola 12y ago
  The ability to make a popular game franchise exclusive to their gaming hardware. Just take some money you would have spent on advertising and dump it into buying some franchises for exclusivity. Also since Mojang is a European company MS can no doubt use some of it's $90+ billion stockpile of money outside America without getting hit for taxes.
  - __Joker 12y ago
    But minecraft already released on ps4. Unlesss MS buys and takes back the minecraft of ps4, there is no exclusivity. This move will make MS face a shit-storm. The gamers are not taking well to tomb raider (timed) exclusivity. It is accepted that you can have exclusive gaming franchise. But you should not most certainly take a multi-platform and try to make it exclusive.
    - vlunkr 12y ago
      It also runs on linux or OSX. As well as other editions for xbox360, iOS, android, and even raspberry pi! So... that's not it
    - MrZongle2 12y ago
      But minecraft already released on ps4. Unlesss MS buys and takes back the minecraft of ps4, there is no exclusivity. True. Unless you planned on a Minecraft 2. The brand name, the look and feel and the concepts within the game are still worth a lot.
    - yaur 12y ago
      Of note. They did something similar with the odd world franchise which basically killed it.
chroem 12y ago
First Mojang kills my company by rescinding Craftbukkit's GPL license, and now this. What an awesome week this has been.
MrZongle2 12y ago
Ugh. Horrible if true, and not because it's Microsoft. Any large corporation that would potentially drop that much money for such a property clearly has plans to suck every last dime out of it. While immediate changes would likely not be visible, I'm sure that over the long term it would mean the end of the ongoing Minecraft development, less developer-community interaction, and the start of Minecraft 2 development ... exclusive to Xbox 1 (with Windows 8 launch TBA). And DLCs out the ying-yang. If true, I can't blame the Mojang team for cashing in on an incredible opportunity. But as a consumer, I really hope this rumor turns out to be false.
jamespitts 12y ago
Remember the Bungie acquisition? Remember why Microsoft wanted Halo -- to give XBox a killer-app? As much as I dislike indie shops getting sucked up into starships... let the well-funded VR wars begin!
- unknownian 12y ago
  Are there any other successful examples, esp with Microsoft? Halo seems like a wildly popular outlier.
  - jamespitts 12y ago
    In the early days of personal computers, killer apps were a luck-driven factor in the success of platforms. VisiCalc in the case of the Apple II, and Wordperfect in the case of DOS. Observing how killer apps are crucial, the makers of risky, new platforms have since attempted to load the dice in their favor. This is particularly the case with game consoles. Just look at how Nintendo and Sony line up games for their consoles, these literally make or break it for them. It wasn't an acquisition, but Office was the preordained killer app in the early Mac days. Apple pulled MS in with unparalleled access to their new machine in order to get Word/Excel out in time. Later, as we all know, Windows became the main platform for Office apps, and Office on the Mac was seriously neglected. So what was one of the first things Steve Jobs did upon returning to Apple? He persuaded his old friend Bill Gates to promise to get an updated version of Office on the Mac. This turned what seemed to be sand into concrete. I'm forgetting what the original killer apps were for the iPhone, but I'd guess that, like MS with Office, Apple focused on their own music, photo, and chat apps.
  - qbrass 12y ago
    From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Studios#Owned_franchises_and_properties http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Studios#Owned_franchi... Fable, Gears of War, Forza Motorsport and (until Forza displaced it as the Gran Turismo for Xbox) Project Gotham Racing. Mass Effect also started off as an Xbox exclusive.
joshdance 12y ago
Talked to a die hard Minecraft fan about this and he thinks it will be a good thing. More devs, more updates, maybe even a re-write so it runs better.
- MrZongle2 12y ago
  More devs? Sure. More updates? Doubtful. If Microsoft dropped $2B on this property, the last thing they're going to do is continue to pay a development team to work on a game that has already been completed in their eyes. A re-write, on the other hand? Guaranteed. And it will be the first of many sequels, Halo-style. For Xbox One and the newest version of Windows.
  - javert 12y ago
    As a former minecraft player, I am salivating at this. Believe it or not, Notch did a great job creating the game and doing a few updates, and then became totally incompetent (or maybe just disinterested) after that. Development has been at a standstill for years, despite many bugs and vast potential for improvement. I would love to see somebody do something great with this game and Mojang does not seem to have "the right stuff."
    - neves 12y ago
      My 5 years old learned the meaning of the word "bugged" playing MineCraft. Everything that isn't perfect, from his night milk to the TV is "bugged". Ah! He doesn't speak English.
      - javert 12y ago
        That's pretty funny. Definitely a case of life imitating art [1]. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_imitating_art http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_imitating_art
    - DanBC 12y ago
      What do you mean development has been at a standstill for years? They release new versions with bug fixes and features pretty often. Reading /r/minecraftsuggestions shows that most people ideas of vast improvement are sub-optimal.
shmerl 12y ago
It doesn't sound good. MS isn't going to make it better for gamers. If anything, they'll lock it into Xbox.
0x0 12y ago
Xbone, powered by Java? :)
manachar 12y ago
What an odd rumor that I hope is just that. Notch has a history of bashing Microsoft and MS's efforts to lock down Windows and Microsoft has a pretty bad track record when it comes to acquisitions. They seem to kinda squash anything interesting out of them to try to force that acquisition into helping the MS/Xbox brand. If anyone buys Mojang I really hope it's either Valve or a company much like it. They seem much more analogous in outlook, business model and process.
- robododo 12y ago
  I always felt it was odd that Notch bashed Windows 8 so publicly for the store, yet happily sells on iOS, XBox, PS3, etc.
  - GuiA 12y ago
    Very few people in the history of humanity have put their money where their mouth is.
  - Guvante 12y ago
    You don't think there is a material difference between Microsoft changing Windows to a closed platform and Apple creating a closed platform from scratch? In the case of the latter it is well known and can be planned around. In the case of the former you have fully invested and then suddenly the game changes.
    - varkson 12y ago
      It won't happen though. The minute that Apple closed off the Mac, with the Mac App Store being the only software source, the minute that idea might have a little credence.
      - nandhp 12y ago
        The Mac App Store is not (yet) the only software source, though that restriction is available as an opt-in setting in System Preferences. Applications from outside the App Store run just fine, as long as they're signed with a developer certificate. The certificate presumably costs $99/year, but you don't need Apple to approve your application. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5290 http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5290
theandrewbailey 12y ago
> At the same time, Mr. Nadella has said Microsoft views videogames as a way to expand the company's footholds in PCs and mobile phones. Really? The company that owns Windows feels that it doesn't have enough foothold on PCs? Really? If Nadella is talking about PC gaming, then I get it. I find it difficult to believe that they are serious about it. Remember that Games for Windows thing that Microsoft epically failed to act on? They don't need to buy game studios, they could do fabulously by releasing old Xbox exclusives on PC. If they released that Halo Collection on PC, I'd buy it right away.
xkarga00 12y ago
I hope they resurrect 0x10c
- TillE 12y ago
  That's precisely the kind of wildly overambitious project without obvious mass appeal that a large game publisher would never ever support. Which also described Minecraft, of course. But I doubt anyone making decisions at Microsoft would take that gamble.
  - firebones 12y ago
    But it's the kind of thing that a crazy multi-billionaire with time on his hands might just try to pull off. Really, really wish 0x10c would get a second chance after this, from either side of the transaction. If Minecraft is the baseline measure against which future efforts are compared to determine "success", Notch is likely to face a string of "failures". Might as well make one of these failures that comes up short something you love. So what IS Notch's second act going to be?
- singh44s 12y ago
  Have you been introduced to Space Engineers? ;)
  - rspeer 12y ago
    Looks interesting! It looks like they want the ships to be programmable in C#, and I'm wondering if that's going to work out for them. It doesn't seem like the right kind of language to embed within a game. I'm not saying they have to go all bare metal like Notch was going to do with computers in 0x10c -- though I was kind of looking forward to bootstrapping a Forth environment on my spaceship -- but I would have expected a language designed for embedding such as Lua.
tiagok 12y ago
: ((
thetabyte 12y ago
Given everything I've read from Notch in the last year or two, I would be highly unsurprised if he wasn't pushing this as a way to dump his hands of anything to do with business and/or notoriety (as much as he ever will be able to). His recent sentiments have expressed a lot of regret that he is no longer able to spend his time doing simple game programming & experimentation with a decent level of obscurity -- and I can't blame him for it. This is wild speculation, of course.
- readerrrr 12y ago
  Your speculation is bad. He was experimenting/coding on a public stream for the last two weeks while talking to chat. Also he always announces his Ludum Dare entries, when he could make them using a pseudonym. Doesn't seem like he has problems with free time or fame.
bhouston 12y ago
It makes sense to sell to me as we seem to be around peak Minecraft: http://www.google.ca/trends/explore?hl=en-US&q=angry+birds,+minecraft,+clash+of+clans&cmpt=q&content=1 http://www.google.ca/trends/explore?hl=en-US&q=angry+birds,+... #googletrendsexplore
- Fuzzwah 12y ago
  I found it interesting when I clicked the "forecast" box on that link and saw that google disagrees.
_superposition_ 12y ago
All good things come to an end, I guess. Strictly from an MC perspective, nothing good can come of this.
- _superposition_ 12y ago
  Ahh yes, votes of disapproval... Sorry, just venting my frustration at [[insert corporation with soulless corporate board here]] gobbling up another [[insert small company with real passion for the craft here]] Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe the exit frees those with passion to really let loose and experiment. I hope so.
sramsay 12y ago
Great! I'm going start writing a Clippy mod for Minecraft so I'm zero-day prepared for the purchase. In this mod, Clippy runs around dropping random notes that give players worthless hints about how to play the game. "Did you know . . .!"
- readerrrr 12y ago
  That stopped being funny 10 years ago. Microsoft will also close the game for any modding so...
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
  - xenophonf 12y ago
    Mojang is doing a pretty good job of screwing up the Minecraft modding community on their own with this EULA business and Bukkit.
chris_mahan 12y ago
I smell franchise with movie rights, books, etc. I can imagine it being like Star Wars in a couple years.
- deciplex 12y ago
  People keep bring up movies and books, so... honestly curious - about what? A Minecraft movie makes about as much sense as a movie about Battleship, and we saw how well that did...
  - chris_mahan 12y ago
    ohhh, the movie is about making minecraft, like the movie about facebook. Also, the movie could be about teens who play networked and develop relationships in-game and out of the game.
    - Pyrodogg 12y ago
      Already done. Well, your first suggestion. Minecraft: The Story of Mojang http://www.minecraftstoryofmojang.com/ http://www.minecraftstoryofmojang.com/ It was funded through Kickstarter.
  - fatratchet 12y ago
    You could say the same about LEGO, and the LEGO movie did great. In many ways Minecraft is just video game LEGO. Battleship is a board game some people like or at least know but that's about it. Minecraft on the other hand has a giant fan base that loves it and will buy anything related to it. Just look at all the merchandise that's started coming out over the last few years and now is everywhere. It's basically Angry Birds 2.0, just 10 times bigger, and Angry Birds it's still making tons of cash. Minecraft is huge right now, there's a lot of money to be made by someone who knows how to properly milk it for all it's worth and has no problem with doing so.
math0ne 12y ago
As an avid minecrafter since the early days I can't help but see this as a good thing. The mod community is what has made mc what it is, but it gets no support from the developers. Minecraft has been so wildly profitable but the company is set up in a way which Mojang the developers get a tiny portion of the profits to re-invest in development. Notch essentially diverts all the money into his own pocket while leaving a very small staff to work on what is prob the most profitable video game franchise in history. Just from a very basic business standpoint this seems to make very little sense to me. If someone could get control of minecraft that was willing to invest in it's development amazing things could be accomplished. Imagine big budget lego minecraft expansions, minecraft re-written in C with a good rendering engine. So many things could happen!
- robotresearcher 12y ago
  I'm not saying you are wrong about the business structure, but all the money does not stay in Notch's pocket. (story from March 2012) http://www.minecraftforum.net/news/7645-notch-gives-3-million-to-mojang-employees http://www.minecraftforum.net/news/7645-notch-gives-3-millio...
  - math0ne 12y ago
    Sure but mc is making over 100ml a year.
  - AJ007 12y ago
    And based on where he lives I assume a huge chunk goes to taxes.
- readerrrr 12y ago
  If someone could get control of minecraft that was willing to invest in it's development amazing things could be accomplished. Imagine big budget lego minecraft expansions You don't understand. The whole point of Minecraft is user created stuff. In a Lego-like world, for profit expansions are not needed. The mod community is what has made mc what it is, but it gets no support from the developers. Minecraft is more open now, than it will ever be at Microsoft. minecraft re-written in C with a good rendering engine How do you think they got it running on PS4. It was completely ported to C++. Minecraft has been so wildly profitable but the company is set up in a way which Mojang the developers get a tiny portion of the profits to re-invest in development. Notch essentially diverts all the money into his own pocket while leaving a very small staff to work on what is prob the most profitable video game franchise in history. Just from a very basic business standpoint this seems to make very little sense to me. That is simply not true. Do you have any data to back that up? what is prob the most profitable video game franchise in history. Nitpick, but Minecraft doesn't make it on the top 10.
Hominem 12y ago
For people under a certain age, minecraft is the Internet. If handled correctly, it will be Facebook, email, Skype and damn near everything else to an entire generation of users. Notch didn't really see it. He created the metaverse.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- wsinks 12y ago
  Woah. That's why I got such tingly feelings when I first started playing.
- netcraft 12y ago
  I think about this often actually. It really could be what second life and lots of other platforms really wanted to be. I think if and when the modding api that they have been promising ever comes out it really could be the metaverse, or at least OASIS.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- jackjeff 12y ago
  Really hope they do not wreck Mincraft as much as they wrecked Skype.... Skype was secure and impossible to TAP. Now it is tapped by the NSA. Skype had a nice and clean UI. Now it's confusing as shit. Crashes. It has ads... What kind of turd will Microsoft turn Minecraft into.
paul9290 12y ago
Only 2 billion and WhatsApp goes for 18 billion? Im not sure of how wide a net Minecraft has globally, but based on every kid you know (U.S.) who spends hours on it, it has to be worth more then 2 billion. Especially, when compared to the WhatsApp acquisition.
freshyill 12y ago
My kid loves it, but I'm the one who has to deal with the mods and the shitty YouTube videos and ad-filled garbage forums made by a community that's somehow never heard of GitHub. Hopefully Microsoft can reign in all of that crap and make the game less of a nightmare to maintain.
- jwn 12y ago
  Thank you for making me realize I'm not the only crotchety old bastard who bitches and moans about this! My kids are old enough to play Minecraft but too young to understand how to install mods. Speaking of that, I've looked into the mod making scene and it's rather disgusting. Mojang really dropped the ball by not having an official way to write mods/plugins. Instead we get a horrible client side mod environment (Minecraft Forge), and a half decent server side (Bukkit), but they're not compatible with each other. Bravo Mojang!
  - freshyill 12y ago
    It was so much worse before Forge. With Forge, it's still incredibly arcane, but it's not batshit crazy like it was before. Of course, now you need to have the Forge version of a mod, and you have to have the right version Minecraft too. I'm getting mad just thinking about it. I need to stop now.
    - Pyrodogg 12y ago
      This also highlights why client side mods (Forge based or not) are the vast minority of 'Modded Minecraft'. Configuring a Bukkit server would still have taken some work, but it also only required that to be expended on the server side. Players would be able to connect with a purely vanilla client and benefit from the enhanced interactions and gameplay mechanics that could be handled on the server side only. This attracts thousands more people than fiddling with launchers, or worse, .jar files.
  - makomk 12y ago
    Bukkit's dead now anyway. The entire development team decided to call it quits due to legal uncertainty and general exhaustion, then Mojang announced that they weren't allowed to do that because Bukkit was actually owned by Mojang and had a special deal which meant there were no legal issues, contradicting what they'd told people who asked privately. Then one of the main developers got pissed about the fact that he'd been secretly working for Mojang for free and used the DMCA to kill the whole thing off - something he could do because his code, and all of Bukkit, was licensed under the GPL and using it for modding Minecraft was a GPL violation(!). This didn't stop Mojang from arguing that he had no legal right to do so, though. They're really keen on the whole free labour thing.
zak_mc_kracken 12y ago
Microsoft about to buy a Java shop, how the world has changed.
- nl 12y ago
  Err. Yammer?
- guardian5x 12y ago
  I don't think it has anything to do with Java. If it were written in Haskell and had the same success, they would be interested as well.
msie 12y ago
MS, give me one million and I will tell you a secret to save you billions.
gear54rus 12y ago
All these comments saying it's a good thing™ that Microsoft will buy it make me a bit sick. Have you forgotten so easily? <hate>It's MICROSOFT. Here are some other users' comments that sum it up: - Sorry, you can't build any more wood blocks today! Would you like to buy an extra 10 wood blocks for 99 Mojang bucks? - You Died! (Respawn for $2.99?) Next thing you know they release sequel as an exclusive for their shitbox</hate> It's incredible luck that such an innovative (not Apple innovative, but really innovative) project is maintained by a company like Mojang. And it needs to stay that way. Being avid player, I really don't want Minecraft to become DRM-infested crap Windows became (still, Windows is a very good day-to-day OS, kudos to them). Not to mention their last attempt at gaming: GFWL (yeah, we all remember that one).
- deciplex 12y ago
  That's more EA's MO, to be honest. I don't see Microsoft going heavy with microtransactions. Microsoft is more about bone-headed, tone-deaf "synergies". They'll undermine the franchise trying to use it to promote other projects no one cares about (e.g. Kinect, for a start), and you can forget about PC being the primary platform for it going forward (or it will only be available on Windows Store). But, they won't charge you to place blocks. I mean, Mojang stands out as one of the few independent studios (as opposed to indie) that * gasp* charges real money for software. Not F2P, not P2W, not whatever else. Microsoft would love to go back to those days. (For the record, so would I.)
  - VLM 12y ago
    I believe product tying is the phrase you're looking for. No more mojang/mc accounts all auth will be thru live.microsoft.com. No more java, next version will be dotnet only. No more ingame chat but skype will be integrated. Pocket edition works great on my android phone, that'll be the first thing to be "fixed", although the 0.5% of the population with windows phones will now be able to run minecraft. I've only run it on my linux desktop, although I'm told it runs on Windows I don't have 64 bit windows set up so it runs out of memory. Whatever it'll never run again on linux and possibly macs. As you imply the UI will have keyboard/mouse removed and you'll only be able to use kinect.
droopybuns 12y ago
I love that there's a possibility that the solitare/minesweeper of this generation could be Minecraft.
ilaksh 12y ago
Makes a ton of sense. This is peak Minecraft. Right time to cash out before it depreciates. I expect Microsoft to do some things. One: monopolize. Two: monetize. Within three to four months most Minecraft fans will be extremely pissed at Microsoft. They will be practically forced to either move on to some of the successors to Minecraft like Tug or Blockscape, or adopt an open source Minecraft clone that is designed from the outset for plugins. Overall this is great for everyone. I wish Microsoft would burn in hell though.
capisce 12y ago
https://twitter.com/notch/status/281139739304800256 https://twitter.com/notch/status/281139739304800256
rcamera 12y ago
If Microsoft is trying to build its own Steam competitor (which given Valve's current strategy to make Linux an alternative gaming platform to Windows, makes sense), then Minecraft is the perfect acquisition to start it up, for a number of reasons. Minecraft is the best selling video game of all time, with over 15 million copies sold for the PC (54 million copies across all platforms), and it has over 100 million accounts registered. It is possibly the only successful indie game that has never integrated with Steam, and that has a very young userbase (based on my experience) which, given their ages, probably isn't part of Steam's userbase. All of these aspects make it a great strategic acquisition if Microsoft wants to make a new and successful game marketplace and platform for Windows.
annnnd 12y ago
> The deal would be valued at more than $2 billion... > Mojang has sold over 50 million copies of "Minecraft" since it was initially released in 2009... $40 per a customer? It seems a bit excessive to me, unless MS counts on extracting more money from the same customers...
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
Tiktaalik 12y ago
I'm surprised by this news because I feel like most game developers would usually pick ~100 million in income for a few years and total creative freedom over a much larger number and having to do the bidding of a corporate giant. What makes the most sense to me is that Notch is completely tired of Minecraft, never wants to touch it again, and he wants to hand it off to someone completely. Even though he hasn't been directly working on the project for a long time now, he must still get dragged in enough that it's an issue for him.
cowardlydragon 12y ago
dotNET rewrite?

354 points by thethimble 12y ago

looks like a low ballpark figure ; $2 billion .

Link to read the article without a subscription: https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CDAQqQIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticles%2Fmicrosoft-near-deal-to-buy-minecraft-1410300213&ei=nXwPVLLsM7HlsASG2YGYCw&usg=AFQjCNHUMiCtz2yO7jha99Wm1BthL_Xnug https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd...

readerrrr 12y ago
Still blocked for me. I agree with thepumpkin1979: I hit that paywall every single time. Can we have a rule against posting links with paywalls? WSJ and other websites can either disable it for HN or we don't link to these websites at all.
- tschuy 12y ago
  If you search for the article on Google News, the link should get you through the paywall. (I just searched for Minecraft Wall Street Journal, and that got me the link.)
seanmcdirmid 12y ago
Well, both Google and WSJ are blocked for me.
- tidderton 12y ago
  Microsoft Corp. MSFT +0.62% is in serious discussions to buy Mojang AB, the Swedish company behind the popular "Minecraft" videogame, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The deal would be valued at more than $2 billion and could be signed as early as this week, the person said. A Microsoft spokesman declined comment, as did Mojang Chief Executive Carl Manneh. A sale would be a surprising turn for closely held Mojang, whose 35-year-old founder, Markus Persson, has shunned outside investment and is revered in the videogame community for railing publicly against big firms, including Microsoft. Meanwhile, "Minecraft" could reinvigorate Microsoft's 13-year-old Xbox videogame business by giving it a cult hit with a legion of young fans. Mojang has sold over 50 million copies of "Minecraft" since it was initially released in 2009 and earned more than $100 million in profit last year from the game and merchandise. The game is already available on Xbox, as well as on Sony Corp.'s PlayStation, PCs and smartphones. The popularity of "Minecraft" rests in large part on its open-ended possibilities, letting players build just about anything in a blocky, Lego-style world filled with dangers such as zombies and giant spiders. The game has struck a chord with children and hard-core gamers alike despite pixilated graphics that are a far cry from polished, action-based blockbusters like Microsoft's own "Halo" franchise. Related Alibaba Makes Big Play Into Mobile-Game Market When Minecraft Founder Blasted Microsoft Digital Lego or Another Fad? Minecraft Creator on Canceling Oculus Deal: 'Facebook Creeps Me Out' 3/25/2014 'Minecraft' Maker's Profit Soars 3/18/2014 App Watch: Minecraft On Your Phone 2/14/2013 'Minecraft' Hits Mother Lode 2/3/2013 The Big Money Behind Minecraft 2/1/2013 Lovers of Minecraft Are Belting Out Odes to Digging and Smelting 8/12/2012 The brand has also grown beyond videogames, striking licensing deals with Scholastic Corp. SCHL -0.94% for handbooks, Lego A/S for toys and Warner Bros. Pictures for a feature film. There is even a popular edition for schools to teach children such subjects as languages and architecture. Mojang would be the first multibillion-dollar acquisition by Microsoft's chief executive, Satya Nadella, since he was named to the top job in February. It would also be an unexpected plunge because he has signaled Xbox isn't a core business for Microsoft. But Mr. Nadella has said that Microsoft views videogames as a way to expand the company's footholds in PCs and mobile phones. In a letter to employees in July, Mr. Nadella called gaming the "single biggest digital life category, measured in both time and money spent, in a mobile-first world." "Minecraft" could also help Microsoft appeal to a new generation of customers, especially on smartphones where Microsoft has struggled with both its homegrown Windows Phone devices and with apps on rival phone systems. Only Microsoft's Skype video-calling service is fairly consistently among the 50 top free or paid apps for iPhone or Android smartphones in the U.S., according to mobile-app tracker App Annie. "Minecraft" is ranked in the top five among U.S. paid apps in the Apple AAPL -0.38% and Google GOOGL -1.61% app stores. Children play in a Minecraft tournament during Ascot Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup on Aug. 9, 2014 in Ascot, England. Getty Images The game has also become an integral part of a growing trend to watch game play on video sites such as YouTube and Twitch, which was acquired by Amazon.com Inc. AMZN -3.68% for close to $1 billion. Several "Minecraft" players on YouTube have attracted more than a billion views for their videos. In the world of games, Stockholm-based Mojang is an outlier, generating outsize profits relative to its small staff. In contrast to larger game companies such as Zynga Inc. ZNGA -2.32% and Electronic Arts Inc., EA -1.45% which employ thousands of people to manage dozens of titles, Mojang has deliberately remained small, employing only about 40 people in its studio in Stockholm's hip Södermalm district. Yet Mojang made a profit of 816 Swedish kroner ($115 million) last year on 2.07 billion kroner in revenue ($291 million). Zynga, which has roughly 3,000 employees, had a $37 million loss last year on $873 million in revenue. Instead of giving its game away and charging for in-app purchases, as many newer game makers do, Mojang charges flat fees for its games. The Xbox version costs $20, while a download on a PC is $27 and the mobile version is $7. "Minecraft" started out as a hobby project in 2009, when Mr. Persson—a high-school dropout and former game developer at "Candy Crush" game maker King Digital Entertainment KING -0.37% PLC—spent the summer in his small apartment in Stockholm coding what would one day become a global phenomenon. "Notch," as he is known online to his fans, was obsessed by Lego bricks as a child, and had begun programming on his father's Commodore 128 computer at the age of seven, producing his first game at the age of eight. Mr. Persson made an early and unfinished build of the game available to download, but sales started out modestly with only a handful sold a day for the first few months. Slowly, "Minecraft" gained momentum as word-of-mouth and online recommendations started spreading. By 2010, copies of the game were selling fast enough for Mr. Persson to quit his day job. Mr. Persson established Mojang in 2010 to manage "Minecraft" and build other games, bringing along former King colleague Jakob Porsér and Mr. Manneh, the CEO. The three are still the company's only shareholders and board members. Mojang's relationship with Microsoft hasn't been without friction. In 2012, Mr. Persson made harsh statements on Twitter TWTR -2.67% about the U.S. software giant and its new Windows 8 operating system, telling Microsoft to "stop trying to ruin the PC." "Minecraft" can be played on personal computers running Windows 8, but that requires that users download it from Mojang's site rather than Microsoft's own Windows Store. What's more, the game has never been made available for Windows Phone, Microsoft's operating system for phones, because Mojang deemed the platform too small to be worth the while. Mojang has embraced Microsoft's Xbox gaming console, and it released a first version of the game for the Xbox 360 in 2012, more than a year before Sony's rival PlayStation 3 console got it. A version for the new Xbox One was made available last week. The console versions of "Minecraft" accounted for almost a third of Mojang's revenue last year. Mr. Persson has regularly thumbed his nose at large corporations with snarky tweets and blog posts. Earlier this year, he canceled a project to bring a version of the game for the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset to protest Facebook Inc. FB -1.57% 's $2 billion purchase of the company. "Facebook is not a company of grass-roots tech enthusiasts," he wrote on his blog at the time. "There's nothing about their history that makes me trust them, and that makes them seem creepy to me," he added. In another post published in June, Mr. Persson said Mojang "does not exist to make as much money as possible for the owners." Instead, he said, "Mojang exists because I got lucky with 'Minecraft,' and it got way bigger than I could handle on my own." "Every time a big money-making deal comes up that would make a lot of money, it's of course very tempting," he added. "But at the end of the day we choose to do what either makes the most sense for our products or the things that seem like fun for us at Mojang." Until now, Mojang's founders have prided themselves on the company's independence. Mojang has routinely dismissed funding overtures from venture-capital companies, as well as outright buyout attempts. A tight ownership structure has meant that the company has been able to focus its operations, Mr. Manneh told the Journal earlier this year. "Financially speaking, we have no pressure whatsoever to rush into any new projects," he said. "Besides, we have no outside owners that require us to reach any particular goals."

thorn 12y ago

Sigh. I thought it's bad manner to give links to resource where you cannot read the article without additional actions like sign-up. Also it's not hacker news. I am sorry. But quality of links being promoted here degraded in quality and keeps going down.

henryw 12y ago
Just search "Microsoft Near Deal to Buy Minecraft Maker Mojang" and click the first link to see full article.
- Freaky 12y ago
  Does nothing here, still an article fragment.
  - readerrrr 12y ago
    Clear your cookies or use a different browser; it worked for me.
Guvante 12y ago
> Also it's not hacker news Isn't it well established that slightly different content is okay? Minecraft started as a small company and has always had a fairly vocal development team so a lot of people likely have heard a lot of programming material about them.

Pyrodogg 12y ago

The Minecraft modding community just had a ridiculous few weeks with the various dramas surrounding Bukkit (a popular, extensible server mod). I can't wait to see what the reactions are to this news.

cjslep 12y ago
I was (am?) a moderator for Technic/Tekkit, and at the time the modding community seemed to me like it was a cesspit of adfly links and people eager to claim copyright over everything they touched. If the community is still similar then I agree, seeing the reactions to this news will be interesting to say the least.
- KnightHawk3 12y ago
  I still don't grasp why everyone is trying to make a profit and claim copyright of their modification on someone elses work. (That doesn't have a licence to allow modification)
  - Navarr 12y ago
    Because at the end of the day your code is your code, and you do have copyright on it, and in a number of cases are or should be legally allowed to profit off of it. Especially when you bought it under a license [1] that allows you to do so [1]: https://web.archive.org/web/20110923135753/http://www.minecraft.net/terms https://web.archive.org/web/20110923135753/http://www.minecr...
Cogito 12y ago
I'm in many ways sad I stopped working regularly on Bukkit. My involvement started to wane a couple of months before the 4 founders got acquired by Mojang, mostly because I got a Real Job. I was there just as it was starting, and helped (what seemed like) a lot with the early dev work and community management. Mostly it was just fun hanging out with the team (primarily EvilSeph and Tahg, but of course Dinnerbone, Grum, and all the other core devs as well) solving problems, but that started to happen less and less. I have heard snippets of what has been going on, but haven't yet really read up on it. I do know that Warren (EvilSeph) was always at the core of the project, he kept the community more or less under control and helped co-ordinate everything. It was always clear that if he ever stopped pulling the various threads together the project as a whole would stop working. Sure, devs would be able to keep adding features and upgrading to latest versions, but the project was always more than just the plugin API and server implementation. It's incredibly annoying to manage the expectations of thousands of minecraft server admins (who seem to mostly be 12 years old, though there were definitely a lot of older admins) and no-one but Warren ever seemed up to the task. I should probably go do a bit of reading to find out exactly what has been going on.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

thepumpkin1979 12y ago

I hit that paywall every single time. Can we have a rule against posting links with paywalls? WSJ and other websites can either disable it for HN or we don't link to these websites at all.

jewel 12y ago
Perhaps it'd be better to change the link to a second-hand source in these cases, instead of the usual approach of the mods switching the link out to be the original source. I'll take blogspam over a paywall, and the WSJ link will still be available in the blog for those that really want more details.
tzs 12y ago
I suspect that many here actually subscribe to WSJ, the NY Times, the Economist, and other common paywalled newspapers and magazines that get submitted here. I don't see why they should be forbidden from discussing that material here just because some of us might have trouble seeing it. Enough people apparently CAN read them for them to get lots of comments, lots of up votes, and get a lot of people "liking" them on Feedly (this story seems to be the most liked non-Apple submission today on the main RSS feed). Also, in most of these discussions of paywalled stories, other sources pick up on the news fairly quickly. There are dozens within the last hour reporting on this particular one. None have as much detail as the WSJ article, but many give enough information to allow one to reasonably follow the discussion here and participate meaningfully.

tdicola 12y ago

Wow, good for Mojang and notch. I kind of fear that this is just going to be another Rare though. All the talent will move on after the handcuffs are off and the popular franchises will just languish. edit: Also I hope this wouldn't kill any momentum to get Minecraft on the Occulus Rift. Something tells me MS wouldn't be so happy to have a first class game experience on a competitor's hardware/platform.

xemoka 12y ago
Unfortunately, there is no momentum to get Minecraft on the Oculus Rift. Notch publicly cancelled it after Facebook bought Oculus.
- readerrrr 12y ago
  And then he changed his mind. https://twitter.com/notch/status/500214489136910336 https://twitter.com/notch/status/500214489136910336
  - wonderzombie 12y ago
    Not to split hairs, but that's really not how I'd characterize that tweet. He only says he's done being mad about it.
    - readerrrr 12y ago
      It is clear if you read the entire conversation. Markus Persson ✔ @notch Follow @bar10dr that's up to the minecraft dev team
  - farmerjack 12y ago
    Probably around the time Microsoft proposed this deal.
    - deciplex 12y ago
      Apparently Microsoft didn't propose anything. Notch went to them.

guiomie 12y ago

"e Jakob Porsér and Mr. Manneh, the CEO. The trio remains the company's only shareholders and board members." Would this mean they'd split the 2 billions by themselves? ... wow. I wonder how do the employees feel about this.

ProAm 12y ago
Notch has always been very good to his employees [1](and seems like a good person on his own as well), I imagine they'd turn out OK. [1] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/02/markus-notch-persson-gives-3-million_n_1317396.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/02/markus-notch-persso...
- guiomie 12y ago
  Thanks for the link. I realized my initial comment might look like I was insinuating he wouldn't/isn't good to his employee, while I was simply wondering how the situation would turn out for them. I guess probably quite well in this situation.

citricsquid 12y ago

This is interesting given that Mojang doesn't actually own the Minecraft IP, they license it from Notch who owns it (I believe) exclusively, that's how he's able to pull in hundreds of millions per year while Mojang makes a much smaller amount. Notch previously said he's had an offer in the $2bn region and turned it down[1] so this seems /weird/, that said anything is possible! [1] https://twitter.com/notch/status/448900844541726720 https://twitter.com/notch/status/448900844541726720

readerrrr 12y ago
If I remember correctly Notch is a partial owner of Mojang, so he might have some say in this. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Mandatum 12y ago
Is it fair to say that once you achieve "FU money", numbers start to lose their value? I can't imagine being able to say "no" to something like that. Although likely for something like Minecraft, it'd be stock options/cash mix.
- x0x0 12y ago
  Adding a zero (or two) to your personal net worth may still change minds about many things.
- drzaiusapelord 12y ago
  Maybe Notch's perspective is that Minecraft as an IP is worth more than that. He can probably ride it out for the next couple decades with sequels or other monetization techniques. Why take the big payment today when you can have the bigger payment on-going? Especially if you want to continue to make it your life's work. Look at some gaming stars from the past. John Romero didn't "make us his bitch" with his post iD offerings. Carmack's career seemed pretty down until his recent excitement with Oculus and even that happened while he was playing with space companies on the side. Even with all his brains and cred, he's now just a Facebook employee and his boss is a 20-something php coder. A lot of gaming luminaries are often one-trick ponies. Its difficult to get lightning to strike twice. Smart money is keeping a tight hold of the IP that made you successful. Notch has seen what happens when you lose your IP and maybe he doesn't like it.

jaimebuelta 12y ago

Mmmm... this would be quite surprising, actually. Notch always seemed to be very fond of his independence, and he sure has enough money to back his position.

Pyrodogg 12y ago
Notch has been enjoying the independence so much that he's also not very involved with Mojang anymore. He hasn't worked on Minecraft in quite a while and last 'big' expectation, 0x10c didn't develop very far. Notch seems very content to just participate in things like Ludum Dare, make games and enjoy life.
- jebblue 12y ago
  Notch could make a dozen failed games the next 2 decades and it wouldn't tarnish his reputation; he should try and see and tell Microsoft and EA to take a hike.

mindstab 12y ago

I don't get it. Mojang already made "all the money" from selling minecraft and are largely maintaining it now. I haven't heard if they even have any new games on the way? The space one was cancelled. What exactly is MS possibly getting that could be worth $2B?

tdicola 12y ago
The ability to make a popular game franchise exclusive to their gaming hardware. Just take some money you would have spent on advertising and dump it into buying some franchises for exclusivity. Also since Mojang is a European company MS can no doubt use some of it's $90+ billion stockpile of money outside America without getting hit for taxes.
- __Joker 12y ago
  But minecraft already released on ps4. Unlesss MS buys and takes back the minecraft of ps4, there is no exclusivity. This move will make MS face a shit-storm. The gamers are not taking well to tomb raider (timed) exclusivity. It is accepted that you can have exclusive gaming franchise. But you should not most certainly take a multi-platform and try to make it exclusive.
  - vlunkr 12y ago
    It also runs on linux or OSX. As well as other editions for xbox360, iOS, android, and even raspberry pi! So... that's not it
  - MrZongle2 12y ago
    But minecraft already released on ps4. Unlesss MS buys and takes back the minecraft of ps4, there is no exclusivity. True. Unless you planned on a Minecraft 2. The brand name, the look and feel and the concepts within the game are still worth a lot.
  - yaur 12y ago
    Of note. They did something similar with the odd world franchise which basically killed it.

chroem 12y ago

First Mojang kills my company by rescinding Craftbukkit's GPL license, and now this. What an awesome week this has been.

MrZongle2 12y ago

Ugh. Horrible if true, and not because it's Microsoft. Any large corporation that would potentially drop that much money for such a property clearly has plans to suck every last dime out of it. While immediate changes would likely not be visible, I'm sure that over the long term it would mean the end of the ongoing Minecraft development, less developer-community interaction, and the start of Minecraft 2 development ... exclusive to Xbox 1 (with Windows 8 launch TBA). And DLCs out the ying-yang. If true, I can't blame the Mojang team for cashing in on an incredible opportunity. But as a consumer, I really hope this rumor turns out to be false.

jamespitts 12y ago

Remember the Bungie acquisition? Remember why Microsoft wanted Halo -- to give XBox a killer-app? As much as I dislike indie shops getting sucked up into starships... let the well-funded VR wars begin!

unknownian 12y ago
Are there any other successful examples, esp with Microsoft? Halo seems like a wildly popular outlier.
- jamespitts 12y ago
  In the early days of personal computers, killer apps were a luck-driven factor in the success of platforms. VisiCalc in the case of the Apple II, and Wordperfect in the case of DOS. Observing how killer apps are crucial, the makers of risky, new platforms have since attempted to load the dice in their favor. This is particularly the case with game consoles. Just look at how Nintendo and Sony line up games for their consoles, these literally make or break it for them. It wasn't an acquisition, but Office was the preordained killer app in the early Mac days. Apple pulled MS in with unparalleled access to their new machine in order to get Word/Excel out in time. Later, as we all know, Windows became the main platform for Office apps, and Office on the Mac was seriously neglected. So what was one of the first things Steve Jobs did upon returning to Apple? He persuaded his old friend Bill Gates to promise to get an updated version of Office on the Mac. This turned what seemed to be sand into concrete. I'm forgetting what the original killer apps were for the iPhone, but I'd guess that, like MS with Office, Apple focused on their own music, photo, and chat apps.
- qbrass 12y ago
  From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Studios#Owned_franchises_and_properties http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Studios#Owned_franchi... Fable, Gears of War, Forza Motorsport and (until Forza displaced it as the Gran Turismo for Xbox) Project Gotham Racing. Mass Effect also started off as an Xbox exclusive.

joshdance 12y ago

Talked to a die hard Minecraft fan about this and he thinks it will be a good thing. More devs, more updates, maybe even a re-write so it runs better.

MrZongle2 12y ago
More devs? Sure. More updates? Doubtful. If Microsoft dropped $2B on this property, the last thing they're going to do is continue to pay a development team to work on a game that has already been completed in their eyes. A re-write, on the other hand? Guaranteed. And it will be the first of many sequels, Halo-style. For Xbox One and the newest version of Windows.
- javert 12y ago
  As a former minecraft player, I am salivating at this. Believe it or not, Notch did a great job creating the game and doing a few updates, and then became totally incompetent (or maybe just disinterested) after that. Development has been at a standstill for years, despite many bugs and vast potential for improvement. I would love to see somebody do something great with this game and Mojang does not seem to have "the right stuff."
  - neves 12y ago
    My 5 years old learned the meaning of the word "bugged" playing MineCraft. Everything that isn't perfect, from his night milk to the TV is "bugged". Ah! He doesn't speak English.
    - javert 12y ago
      That's pretty funny. Definitely a case of life imitating art [1]. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_imitating_art http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_imitating_art
  - DanBC 12y ago
    What do you mean development has been at a standstill for years? They release new versions with bug fixes and features pretty often. Reading /r/minecraftsuggestions shows that most people ideas of vast improvement are sub-optimal.

shmerl 12y ago

It doesn't sound good. MS isn't going to make it better for gamers. If anything, they'll lock it into Xbox.

0x0 12y ago

Xbone, powered by Java? :)

manachar 12y ago

What an odd rumor that I hope is just that. Notch has a history of bashing Microsoft and MS's efforts to lock down Windows and Microsoft has a pretty bad track record when it comes to acquisitions. They seem to kinda squash anything interesting out of them to try to force that acquisition into helping the MS/Xbox brand. If anyone buys Mojang I really hope it's either Valve or a company much like it. They seem much more analogous in outlook, business model and process.

robododo 12y ago
I always felt it was odd that Notch bashed Windows 8 so publicly for the store, yet happily sells on iOS, XBox, PS3, etc.
- GuiA 12y ago
  Very few people in the history of humanity have put their money where their mouth is.
- Guvante 12y ago
  You don't think there is a material difference between Microsoft changing Windows to a closed platform and Apple creating a closed platform from scratch? In the case of the latter it is well known and can be planned around. In the case of the former you have fully invested and then suddenly the game changes.
  - varkson 12y ago
    It won't happen though. The minute that Apple closed off the Mac, with the Mac App Store being the only software source, the minute that idea might have a little credence.
    - nandhp 12y ago
      The Mac App Store is not (yet) the only software source, though that restriction is available as an opt-in setting in System Preferences. Applications from outside the App Store run just fine, as long as they're signed with a developer certificate. The certificate presumably costs $99/year, but you don't need Apple to approve your application. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5290 http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5290

theandrewbailey 12y ago

> At the same time, Mr. Nadella has said Microsoft views videogames as a way to expand the company's footholds in PCs and mobile phones. Really? The company that owns Windows feels that it doesn't have enough foothold on PCs? Really? If Nadella is talking about PC gaming, then I get it. I find it difficult to believe that they are serious about it. Remember that Games for Windows thing that Microsoft epically failed to act on? They don't need to buy game studios, they could do fabulously by releasing old Xbox exclusives on PC. If they released that Halo Collection on PC, I'd buy it right away.

xkarga00 12y ago

I hope they resurrect 0x10c

TillE 12y ago
That's precisely the kind of wildly overambitious project without obvious mass appeal that a large game publisher would never ever support. Which also described Minecraft, of course. But I doubt anyone making decisions at Microsoft would take that gamble.
- firebones 12y ago
  But it's the kind of thing that a crazy multi-billionaire with time on his hands might just try to pull off. Really, really wish 0x10c would get a second chance after this, from either side of the transaction. If Minecraft is the baseline measure against which future efforts are compared to determine "success", Notch is likely to face a string of "failures". Might as well make one of these failures that comes up short something you love. So what IS Notch's second act going to be?
singh44s 12y ago
Have you been introduced to Space Engineers? ;)
- rspeer 12y ago
  Looks interesting! It looks like they want the ships to be programmable in C#, and I'm wondering if that's going to work out for them. It doesn't seem like the right kind of language to embed within a game. I'm not saying they have to go all bare metal like Notch was going to do with computers in 0x10c -- though I was kind of looking forward to bootstrapping a Forth environment on my spaceship -- but I would have expected a language designed for embedding such as Lua.

tiagok 12y ago

: ((

thetabyte 12y ago

Given everything I've read from Notch in the last year or two, I would be highly unsurprised if he wasn't pushing this as a way to dump his hands of anything to do with business and/or notoriety (as much as he ever will be able to). His recent sentiments have expressed a lot of regret that he is no longer able to spend his time doing simple game programming & experimentation with a decent level of obscurity -- and I can't blame him for it. This is wild speculation, of course.

readerrrr 12y ago
Your speculation is bad. He was experimenting/coding on a public stream for the last two weeks while talking to chat. Also he always announces his Ludum Dare entries, when he could make them using a pseudonym. Doesn't seem like he has problems with free time or fame.

bhouston 12y ago

It makes sense to sell to me as we seem to be around peak Minecraft: http://www.google.ca/trends/explore?hl=en-US&q=angry+birds,+minecraft,+clash+of+clans&cmpt=q&content=1 http://www.google.ca/trends/explore?hl=en-US&q=angry+birds,+... #googletrendsexplore

Fuzzwah 12y ago
I found it interesting when I clicked the "forecast" box on that link and saw that google disagrees.

_superposition_ 12y ago

All good things come to an end, I guess. Strictly from an MC perspective, nothing good can come of this.

_superposition_ 12y ago
Ahh yes, votes of disapproval... Sorry, just venting my frustration at [[insert corporation with soulless corporate board here]] gobbling up another [[insert small company with real passion for the craft here]] Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe the exit frees those with passion to really let loose and experiment. I hope so.

sramsay 12y ago

Great! I'm going start writing a Clippy mod for Minecraft so I'm zero-day prepared for the purchase. In this mod, Clippy runs around dropping random notes that give players worthless hints about how to play the game. "Did you know . . .!"

readerrrr 12y ago
That stopped being funny 10 years ago. Microsoft will also close the game for any modding so...
- deleted 12y ago
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- xenophonf 12y ago
  Mojang is doing a pretty good job of screwing up the Minecraft modding community on their own with this EULA business and Bukkit.

chris_mahan 12y ago

I smell franchise with movie rights, books, etc. I can imagine it being like Star Wars in a couple years.

deciplex 12y ago
People keep bring up movies and books, so... honestly curious - about what? A Minecraft movie makes about as much sense as a movie about Battleship, and we saw how well that did...
- chris_mahan 12y ago
  ohhh, the movie is about making minecraft, like the movie about facebook. Also, the movie could be about teens who play networked and develop relationships in-game and out of the game.
  - Pyrodogg 12y ago
    Already done. Well, your first suggestion. Minecraft: The Story of Mojang http://www.minecraftstoryofmojang.com/ http://www.minecraftstoryofmojang.com/ It was funded through Kickstarter.
- fatratchet 12y ago
  You could say the same about LEGO, and the LEGO movie did great. In many ways Minecraft is just video game LEGO. Battleship is a board game some people like or at least know but that's about it. Minecraft on the other hand has a giant fan base that loves it and will buy anything related to it. Just look at all the merchandise that's started coming out over the last few years and now is everywhere. It's basically Angry Birds 2.0, just 10 times bigger, and Angry Birds it's still making tons of cash. Minecraft is huge right now, there's a lot of money to be made by someone who knows how to properly milk it for all it's worth and has no problem with doing so.

math0ne 12y ago

As an avid minecrafter since the early days I can't help but see this as a good thing. The mod community is what has made mc what it is, but it gets no support from the developers. Minecraft has been so wildly profitable but the company is set up in a way which Mojang the developers get a tiny portion of the profits to re-invest in development. Notch essentially diverts all the money into his own pocket while leaving a very small staff to work on what is prob the most profitable video game franchise in history. Just from a very basic business standpoint this seems to make very little sense to me. If someone could get control of minecraft that was willing to invest in it's development amazing things could be accomplished. Imagine big budget lego minecraft expansions, minecraft re-written in C with a good rendering engine. So many things could happen!

robotresearcher 12y ago
I'm not saying you are wrong about the business structure, but all the money does not stay in Notch's pocket. (story from March 2012) http://www.minecraftforum.net/news/7645-notch-gives-3-million-to-mojang-employees http://www.minecraftforum.net/news/7645-notch-gives-3-millio...
- math0ne 12y ago
  Sure but mc is making over 100ml a year.
- AJ007 12y ago
  And based on where he lives I assume a huge chunk goes to taxes.
readerrrr 12y ago
If someone could get control of minecraft that was willing to invest in it's development amazing things could be accomplished. Imagine big budget lego minecraft expansions You don't understand. The whole point of Minecraft is user created stuff. In a Lego-like world, for profit expansions are not needed. The mod community is what has made mc what it is, but it gets no support from the developers. Minecraft is more open now, than it will ever be at Microsoft. minecraft re-written in C with a good rendering engine How do you think they got it running on PS4. It was completely ported to C++. Minecraft has been so wildly profitable but the company is set up in a way which Mojang the developers get a tiny portion of the profits to re-invest in development. Notch essentially diverts all the money into his own pocket while leaving a very small staff to work on what is prob the most profitable video game franchise in history. Just from a very basic business standpoint this seems to make very little sense to me. That is simply not true. Do you have any data to back that up? what is prob the most profitable video game franchise in history. Nitpick, but Minecraft doesn't make it on the top 10.

Hominem 12y ago

For people under a certain age, minecraft is the Internet. If handled correctly, it will be Facebook, email, Skype and damn near everything else to an entire generation of users. Notch didn't really see it. He created the metaverse.

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wsinks 12y ago
Woah. That's why I got such tingly feelings when I first started playing.
netcraft 12y ago
I think about this often actually. It really could be what second life and lots of other platforms really wanted to be. I think if and when the modding api that they have been promising ever comes out it really could be the metaverse, or at least OASIS.
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jackjeff 12y ago
Really hope they do not wreck Mincraft as much as they wrecked Skype.... Skype was secure and impossible to TAP. Now it is tapped by the NSA. Skype had a nice and clean UI. Now it's confusing as shit. Crashes. It has ads... What kind of turd will Microsoft turn Minecraft into.

paul9290 12y ago

Only 2 billion and WhatsApp goes for 18 billion? Im not sure of how wide a net Minecraft has globally, but based on every kid you know (U.S.) who spends hours on it, it has to be worth more then 2 billion. Especially, when compared to the WhatsApp acquisition.

freshyill 12y ago

My kid loves it, but I'm the one who has to deal with the mods and the shitty YouTube videos and ad-filled garbage forums made by a community that's somehow never heard of GitHub. Hopefully Microsoft can reign in all of that crap and make the game less of a nightmare to maintain.

jwn 12y ago
Thank you for making me realize I'm not the only crotchety old bastard who bitches and moans about this! My kids are old enough to play Minecraft but too young to understand how to install mods. Speaking of that, I've looked into the mod making scene and it's rather disgusting. Mojang really dropped the ball by not having an official way to write mods/plugins. Instead we get a horrible client side mod environment (Minecraft Forge), and a half decent server side (Bukkit), but they're not compatible with each other. Bravo Mojang!
- freshyill 12y ago
  It was so much worse before Forge. With Forge, it's still incredibly arcane, but it's not batshit crazy like it was before. Of course, now you need to have the Forge version of a mod, and you have to have the right version Minecraft too. I'm getting mad just thinking about it. I need to stop now.
  - Pyrodogg 12y ago
    This also highlights why client side mods (Forge based or not) are the vast minority of 'Modded Minecraft'. Configuring a Bukkit server would still have taken some work, but it also only required that to be expended on the server side. Players would be able to connect with a purely vanilla client and benefit from the enhanced interactions and gameplay mechanics that could be handled on the server side only. This attracts thousands more people than fiddling with launchers, or worse, .jar files.
- makomk 12y ago
  Bukkit's dead now anyway. The entire development team decided to call it quits due to legal uncertainty and general exhaustion, then Mojang announced that they weren't allowed to do that because Bukkit was actually owned by Mojang and had a special deal which meant there were no legal issues, contradicting what they'd told people who asked privately. Then one of the main developers got pissed about the fact that he'd been secretly working for Mojang for free and used the DMCA to kill the whole thing off - something he could do because his code, and all of Bukkit, was licensed under the GPL and using it for modding Minecraft was a GPL violation(!). This didn't stop Mojang from arguing that he had no legal right to do so, though. They're really keen on the whole free labour thing.

zak_mc_kracken 12y ago

Microsoft about to buy a Java shop, how the world has changed.

nl 12y ago
Err. Yammer?
guardian5x 12y ago
I don't think it has anything to do with Java. If it were written in Haskell and had the same success, they would be interested as well.

msie 12y ago

MS, give me one million and I will tell you a secret to save you billions.

gear54rus 12y ago

All these comments saying it's a good thing™ that Microsoft will buy it make me a bit sick. Have you forgotten so easily? <hate>It's MICROSOFT. Here are some other users' comments that sum it up: - Sorry, you can't build any more wood blocks today! Would you like to buy an extra 10 wood blocks for 99 Mojang bucks? - You Died! (Respawn for $2.99?) Next thing you know they release sequel as an exclusive for their shitbox</hate> It's incredible luck that such an innovative (not Apple innovative, but really innovative) project is maintained by a company like Mojang. And it needs to stay that way. Being avid player, I really don't want Minecraft to become DRM-infested crap Windows became (still, Windows is a very good day-to-day OS, kudos to them). Not to mention their last attempt at gaming: GFWL (yeah, we all remember that one).

deciplex 12y ago
That's more EA's MO, to be honest. I don't see Microsoft going heavy with microtransactions. Microsoft is more about bone-headed, tone-deaf "synergies". They'll undermine the franchise trying to use it to promote other projects no one cares about (e.g. Kinect, for a start), and you can forget about PC being the primary platform for it going forward (or it will only be available on Windows Store). But, they won't charge you to place blocks. I mean, Mojang stands out as one of the few independent studios (as opposed to indie) that * gasp* charges real money for software. Not F2P, not P2W, not whatever else. Microsoft would love to go back to those days. (For the record, so would I.)
- VLM 12y ago
  I believe product tying is the phrase you're looking for. No more mojang/mc accounts all auth will be thru live.microsoft.com. No more java, next version will be dotnet only. No more ingame chat but skype will be integrated. Pocket edition works great on my android phone, that'll be the first thing to be "fixed", although the 0.5% of the population with windows phones will now be able to run minecraft. I've only run it on my linux desktop, although I'm told it runs on Windows I don't have 64 bit windows set up so it runs out of memory. Whatever it'll never run again on linux and possibly macs. As you imply the UI will have keyboard/mouse removed and you'll only be able to use kinect.

droopybuns 12y ago

I love that there's a possibility that the solitare/minesweeper of this generation could be Minecraft.

ilaksh 12y ago

Makes a ton of sense. This is peak Minecraft. Right time to cash out before it depreciates. I expect Microsoft to do some things. One: monopolize. Two: monetize. Within three to four months most Minecraft fans will be extremely pissed at Microsoft. They will be practically forced to either move on to some of the successors to Minecraft like Tug or Blockscape, or adopt an open source Minecraft clone that is designed from the outset for plugins. Overall this is great for everyone. I wish Microsoft would burn in hell though.

capisce 12y ago

https://twitter.com/notch/status/281139739304800256 https://twitter.com/notch/status/281139739304800256

rcamera 12y ago

If Microsoft is trying to build its own Steam competitor (which given Valve's current strategy to make Linux an alternative gaming platform to Windows, makes sense), then Minecraft is the perfect acquisition to start it up, for a number of reasons. Minecraft is the best selling video game of all time, with over 15 million copies sold for the PC (54 million copies across all platforms), and it has over 100 million accounts registered. It is possibly the only successful indie game that has never integrated with Steam, and that has a very young userbase (based on my experience) which, given their ages, probably isn't part of Steam's userbase. All of these aspects make it a great strategic acquisition if Microsoft wants to make a new and successful game marketplace and platform for Windows.

annnnd 12y ago

> The deal would be valued at more than $2 billion... > Mojang has sold over 50 million copies of "Minecraft" since it was initially released in 2009... $40 per a customer? It seems a bit excessive to me, unless MS counts on extracting more money from the same customers...

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Tiktaalik 12y ago

I'm surprised by this news because I feel like most game developers would usually pick ~100 million in income for a few years and total creative freedom over a much larger number and having to do the bidding of a corporate giant. What makes the most sense to me is that Notch is completely tired of Minecraft, never wants to touch it again, and he wants to hand it off to someone completely. Even though he hasn't been directly working on the project for a long time now, he must still get dragged in enough that it's an issue for him.

cowardlydragon 12y ago

dotNET rewrite?