7 ms·
Microsoft buys Minecraft for 2.5B
- nether 12y agoFML
- bru 12y agoAlready posted there: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8318506 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8318506
- kiyoto 12y agoThey are different links (this one coming from the acquirer Microsoft). It's interesting to see how the two sides spin the acquisition.
- jacquesm 12y agoYes, but that will fragment the thread.
- davidw 12y ago> Yes, but that will fragment the thread. Offhand: doesn't that sound like something from an 80ies barbarian movie? OLD WITCH: "You have fragmented the thread! You will all die!" SORCERER: "There is but one hope - you must travel through the broken lands to seek the ARC, and take it to the valley of the tall tree where the threads can be reunited!" BEASTMASTER: "UUUURRRRRGGGHHHHH"
- krapp 12y agoWhat is best in life? To derail your threads, to see their context driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their moderators!
- jwn 12y agoWhile Mojang may have taken a relatively hands off approach to modded servers of questionable legality (Spigot, Bukkit, MinecraftForge), I have a feeling Microsoft may not be so benign. I'm not one to usually throw FUD, but in this case I feel it's most likely warranted. I predict an unhappy ending to the unofficial mod community, with it being replaced by an official plugin API. It's been promised for years, perhaps it will actually come this time...
- gagege 12y agoI disagree. I bet MS will improve mod support. Minecraft mods are a huge pain right now.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- heropotato 12y agoGood luck.
- imrehg 12y agoWell, I vowed never to give a cent to Microsoft again, so there goes any Minecraft upgrade I've considered. Not that they will be aching, but nonetheless... (edit: thanks for the downvotes, I'll stand by it, though)
- pbhjpbhj 12y agoOpinion like this is valuable commentary (IMO!) - people's attitude towards Microsoft mean that the Minecraft community just changed, split. http://www.google.co.uk/trends/explore#q=skype http://www.google.co.uk/trends/explore#q=skype Skype seems to have gone from a rising trend to a falling one (now at 65% of the 2011 "interest") following the MS acquisition. Yes, that's partially with WebRTC, Hangouts and other outside influences but MS's actions (further centralising control) put many people off who wouldn't be simply put off by the name.
- smeyer 12y agoHow much of a role do you really think that plays in Skype? Honestly, Skype is so widespread that I'd bet the average Skype user (a) doesn't realize it's owned by Microsoft and (b) hasn't really cared about the changes Microsoft made post-acquisition. I could be wrong, but from my perspective it seems that the average Skype user really doesn't think about these things.
- psykovsky 12y agoTalking about Skype... I was a long time MSN user and ditched it and they forced every MSN user to migrate to Skype. No, I don't miss it at all. What I've done was taking my friends with me to use XMPP.
- Mithaldu 12y ago> 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. Sounds like they intend to use it as a killer app for microsoft phones.
- giancarlostoro 12y agoSounds like they're either going to port it to C# or add Java development to Visual Studio? Though I doubt the latter is the case... Given the history of Java and Microsoft...
- michaelx386 12y agoYou never know with Microsoft these days. They've recently started releasing source code so anything's possible. I do think they'll port it though.
- scrollaway 12y agoWhat it sounds like is that they're going to start properly endorsing the modding community, something Mojang failed to realize is absolutely critical to minecraft.
- Narishma 12y agoOr just use the C++ version. Only the PC version is written in Java.
- 3g4sg4 12y agoFrom first hand experience, there is quite a bit of active Java development at Microsoft. And no, it's not done in Visual Studio.
- orn 12y agoYes, the Eclipse TFS plugin is pretty nice
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- ghc 12y agoEven if Mojang might as well be Notch's child, if I were him I'd be laughing all the way to the bank at that acquisition price. And I really hope he's making a lot of his employees rich in the process.
- sharpneli 12y agoI have a hunch that we'll see a rewrite to C# and no more Linux support. I'd love to be proven wrong though.
- gagege 12y agoIf they do, it'll be Minecraft 2 or something.
- rukittenme 12y agoI doubt they'll rewrite the original. They'll probably create a Minecraft 2 thats written in C# so they can sell it for $59.99.
- kcbanner 12y agoWhy?
- sharpneli 12y agoCurrently it's Java. WP doesn't support java. And it's not a big jump from having to make C# version anycase to moving the main development to that port.
- Mikeb85 12y agoCurrently the mobile and console versions are in C++.
- numo16 12y agoPretty sure the every version outside of PC is not Java, so there is already an existing minecraft codebase that could potentially be ported to WP (Xbox version seems mostly likely for porting since it will already be using directx for rendering).
- Thieum22 12y agoYou can have C# and multi-platform support : http://www.monogame.net/ http://www.monogame.net/ And Microsoft is still holding on what will come next after XNA for game development in a managed context on Windows and beyond AFAIK.
- holri 12y agogood news for http://minetest.org/ http://minetest.org/
- watty 12y agoI don't know, one look at the site tells me that this will not be a Minecraft killer. I don't doubt something will succeed the current version of Minecraft but Microsoft has all the cards, it's up to them to lose it.
- davexunit 12y agoOfficial site is http://minetest.net http://minetest.net For those that don't know, Minetest is a free software Minecraft-like game written in C++ and Lua. Interested and looking for a server to play on? Try the LibrePlanet server: http://games.libreplanet.org/minetest/ http://games.libreplanet.org/minetest/
- kissickas 12y ago| Minecraft fans are loyal, with nearly 90 percent of paid customers on the PC having signed in within the past 12 months. This is unbelievable to me. Anyone have stats for other games to compare with? Or does the constantly-developing nature of the game set it apart?
- on_and_off 12y agoIt is a very specific game that caters to an almost abandoned niche : Minecraft is a sandbox. Unlike most other games where you either have a story driven experience, or a match focused one, Minecraft gives you a sandbox and let you build things in it. You can pretty much have an infinite game length that way. It is no wonder that it has a lot of success with kids.
- giancarlostoro 12y agoOr as me and my uncle describe it: it's like legos.
- on_and_off 12y agohaha, that's not a bad comparison ! Lego with an infinite number of blocks. Well, not infinite, only limited by your your resource grinding ability, at least if you play in adventure mode (probably the weakest part of the game btw).
- nly 12y agoTech valuations continue to get curiouser and curiouser
- nilkn 12y agoMinecraft is actually extremely profitable, though. It's rumored that Notch already has a personal income in the realm of $100M/year derived from real revenue, not funding. This is very, very different from, say, Snapchat.
- nly 12y agoFrom what I can tell they still depend almost entirely on Minecraft, which, if I've followed gaming correctly, has as many registered players as WoW but pay no recurring subscription fee. Rough calculations seem to indicate MS are going to have to double year on year profitability for ~4-5 years to break even.
- LanceH 12y agoThere is also merchandise as a revenue stream. The interesting aspect of the purchase is the mindshare. I have kids in elementary and middle school and as far as I can tell, all their friends play it. When my kids went as Steve and a pig (from minecraft) for Halloween last year, they were drawing shouts nonstop from all the kids. Most parents had no idea. How you turn that mindshare into money is math I don't understand.
- petercooper 12y agoMaybe, but this one makes 100x more financial sense than Instagram or WhatsApp's valuations.
- rwissmann 12y agoInstagram was a steal (and Google fucked up). WhatsApp was pricey, but that was driven by defensive strategy rather then pure financials.
- Torgo 12y agoHow much is this after Swedish taxes?
- idlewords 12y agoProbably enough to buy one bottle of vodka at Swedish prices
- petercooper 12y agoSweden has capital gains taxes of about 30% and he's reportedly the "majority" shareholder, so ~$900m after taxes even if he only owns 51%.
- progx 12y agoCongratulation Notch !
- cliveowen 12y agoI never heard of this game, but a quick search shows it's an 80s looking video game with very basic graphics (maybe there's another game with the same name?). Anyway, I can't understand what could possibly justify that price.
- JoeAltmaier 12y agoTry Google'in it for half a second and come up with 10 million hits. Of course its not the game they're buying; its those millions of enthusiasts' attention and buying power.
- crad 12y ago> Microsoft plans to continue to make “Minecraft” available across all the platforms on which it is available today: PC, iOS, Android, Xbox and PlayStation. While they say it will be available across all of the platforms available today, noticeably absent in the enumerated list are OSX and Linux.