Minecraft has been an indisputable gaming phenomenon since its release in 2011, but as the company has expanded beyond PC and onto consoles, the developer, Mojang, has maintained its independence. But that may be about to change very soon; the Wall Street Journal reports that Microsoft is in "serious discussions to buy Mojang AB."
According to "a person with knowledge of the matter," the WSJ writes that, "The deal would be valued at more than $2 billion and could be signed as early as this week."
The move would be particularly surprising following comments from Mojang's co-founder, Carl Manneh, last year. "We are living the dream, really," Manneh said. "An exit would be huge, but do we really need that money? In our case, we have the cash flow. We have more money than we need."
Minecraft is already available on PC, mobile, Xbox 360, and PS3, and it released just last week on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The game continues to make it onto both digital and retail top 10 sales charts month after month. However, we do not have any indication on whether either Microsoft would continue multi-platform development if they did buy Mojang (or if Sony would allow a Microsoft game on their system).
When reached for comment, a Microsoft spokesperson said, "We don’t comment on rumors or speculation."
This is sad news that a multi national like Microsoft is leaning on the fence. Half their software products are basket cases for fraud and hackers on a weekly basis and there is not much option for competition in their market.
The great white whale that moves slowly and swallows up the small unseen. We are not doing Mojang justice..
"Mojang does not exist to make as much money as possible for the owners. As the majority shareholder, I’d know. Every time a big money making deal comes up that would make a lot of money, it’s of course very tempting, 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."
The rumor mill is hard at work creating page hits.
call of minecraft modern creeper fare
:<
lol, so much for the hate against OR after Fb bought them.
Just imagine if they release Minecraft 2 exclusive to Windows Store and Xbox. Ps fans will burn.
@edyvasiliev Complete with day one DLC, Season Pass, Online only features and all those other "good" things no doubt...
@edyvasiliev Minecraft 2 already exists on PC and is a bit more in depth than the original Minecraft, even that on xbox and ps4.
Well, Minecraft will get to point where nobody else buys it. Notch himself knew that Minecraft would not be a money machine forever. He gave it about 10 more years, if I remember correctly. I honestly give it less. Even though Minecraft is on the next-gen consoles, it won't make much more money for Mojang. I think that the estimated total of money Minecraft will make until it vanishes, is smaller than what Microsoft is willing to offer. It's also a bad move of Microsoft, unless they make something new out of it.
Now, just a stupid portmanteau, Microsoft + Minecraft = Minecrosoft?
@helder_novais of course the will because they will get the PC rights and that's a whole different affair than these consoles. You can write content for Minecraft original and put it into your game. But there is a Minecraft 2 for PC that has been around a while now. Its similar but has advanced options for building in the o grav. mode.
@calltheCATblack @helder_novais I'm almost completely sure, that was an April Fool's joke. But they might make it though, or join it with another future game.
Good. Now Minecraft will be even shittier and hopefully no one will play it now.
@Aelfredus %inecraft is one of the best games in the last 5 years.
If microsoft buys minecraft you'd expect there'll be no further PSN updates
they better have no intention of going cod with minecraft.
@thefreshpeddler MINECRAFT: BLOCK WARFARE CONFIRMED!!
Also, why are you associating cod with microsoft? cod is not an xb exlusive...
Notch knows Minecraft will eventually die, but still selling to M$ seems dumb. If Notch truly wants M$ die, don't give them any intellectual property that can be profitable for them. They literally make nothing at this point, it's the same thing with Skype, Skype had no ads before M$ purchased it now it's ad riddled.
@Jebril M$? Are you 13?
Notch: "I will never sell out..."
Notch:" 2 B dollars ..... F****YAH.... SELELLSLELLSLLELLLL"
I wonder if they are buying this out for the patents. Project Spark is probably infringing on a few haha.
Whether Microsoft treats Minecraft with respect or not, it's the sheer fact that smaller independent developers are being monopolized like crazy! We need more indie companies and not just a bunch of bought-out Microsoft ones.
@SoreBastard funny thing is, most indie devs are hoping for the big payday like this. This goes for almost all business. Just because the product we talking about is a video game doesn't matter. End of the day, I would take the $$ and run. You have the rest of your life to start a new game company and create any game you wanted. Or just retire.
Some of these comments are so funny. Calling Notch a sell-out. Saying the game is doomed. Mojang has milked Minecraft for every penny it can get. It's been released on every platform available. How much more can they make off of this game? Cobalt is already being developed for PC, Mac OS X and Xbox only. And Scrolls has only been confirmed for Windows and Mac OS X so far. So, really, what is the big deal? The company will continue to do exactly what they were already doing which is making some games for PC, Mac OS X and Xbox.
Seriously, if someone offered you 2 Billion dollars and told you that you could keep doing what you love doing and were planning on doing anyway, who in their right mind would say no?
Man people are really overreacting. I bet there won't be a single change or anything. As for why, it must be a sequel. Don't know if a sequel could get $2B sales though..
Sell-outs. When you paint yourselves as committed-independent developers then sell your company it definitely trashes the respect you've built for yourself. Granted if you retire after a paycheck like that you can ignore all the people who now disrespect you.
a man that puts a price on his word.... is no man
That sounds really noble, right up until someone offers you two billion dollars.
@surrealme SELLSELSELSR:LLESLLLLL :D
For years Notch has pledged that his company would never "sell out"... but now he's doing just that. Some claim that Notch didn't support this buyout bid, but... plenty of sites like Polygon are showing that he actually spearheaded contact with MS. So, one of the most vocal, rebellious, and successful independent developers of all time trashes his own mantra and takes the boatload of cash. Guess everyone has a price, Notch?
@battlefront1943 And anyone who claims they don't have a price is a friggin liar.
Regardless of your opinion on Minecraft, Notch has been an inspiration to a lot of aspiring, indie devs. If he goes through with this, he will have been the biggest bulls**tter in the gaming industry. He has made it no mystery what he thinks about big corps buying out small developers. So not only will he have sold out, he will have sold out what he was supposed to have believed in.
A lot of us would take 2 billion in a heartbeat, but we haven't painted ourselves in the way that he has himself. It makes it all the more pathetic, that a guy who was "holier than thou", a guy who had negative things to say about the Rift being bought out by FB, would do such a thing.
In this case, I really do understand the backlash that is to come.
@Crabjock Did you even read his complaints against Facebook? He didn't cancel the Occulus project because of some moral stand against selling out to a big company. His complaints were directed specifically at Facebook...the fact that it's a numbers-driven social platform rather than a gaming company.
"People have made games for Facebook platforms before, and while it worked great for a while, they were stuck in a very unfortunate position when Facebook eventually changed the platform to better fit the social experience they were trying to build."
"I don’t want to work with social, I want to work with games."
So many people saying "Minecraft is over" and such aren't looking at the bigger picture. If MS buys Mojang, it's to secure the developers and talent that are there, making sure they release games ONLY for Xbox.
@stage4saiyan MS has already said publicly that they won't restrict MINECRAFT to only PC's and consoles. I think they're learning.
@battlefront1943 @stage4saiyan I wonder what will happen to the Linux version though...seeing as how Linux scares M$ more than Sony or any other competition. Look at what it did to them at the phone market.
Oculus needed Facebook to continue develop the Rift without worrying about money running out, but what's Mojang's excuse? This sounds quite unlikely given what I've heard from Mojang over the years.
@Hurvl Everything has a price.
miencraft 2 will be an iphone app yayyyyyyyyyyy
*pukes acid*
well I would sell too....
but I would not say I would NEVER sell in the first place ;)
sad news for minecraft as it will go down the toilet from there
While this kind of sucks it is kind of funny in one way. Microsoft would have to keep servers running for the PS3/PS4 versions of the game. I would assume the Vita version would be scrapped if they happens.
@joenm84 - why the hell would they scrap the vita version? ms isnt even in that market. that would be foolish to pay 2 billion then cull the vita version or do anything that would cost them.
and on that day minecraft will officially be over
As much as I would rather not see Microsoft buy Mojang, but dang 2 billion. It'd be pretty hard to resist at that point imo.
Proof that no matter what your scupples and opinions are, everyone has their price.
Can't blame Notch though, if a company said we'll give you $2 billion for your company, even though you've only made one successful game, I'd do exactly the same and worry about my personal opinions while cruising the world.
Somehow I doubt this news is real.
But if it was, its VERY sad news.
@blackothh I doubt it to because the Wall Street Journal isn't reliable when it comes to business news. Oh wait it is, you better get ready to cry.
That would be a good move by ms with how big minecraft is. personally i am not a minecraft fan but at of people are
@jtthegame316 - no a good move would be do put the money into lesser known games that would cost much less and be into it from the beginning, not after it has already sold 50 plus million copies. that would take more sense than money and clearly ms doesnt work that way. then again , what do you expect from a company that has been stealing ideas from day 1?
I'd hate for them to sell it to Microsoft, but I certainly wouldn't blame them. Who here can tell me you wouldn't sell out for that much money? The only reason not to is out of pride or maybe the game having too much sentimental value. But Notch doesn't even work on Minecraft anymore so he's probably not very attached to it anymore.
@daikkenaurora12 I don't have and never will have anything worth that much money, but if I ever did, I'd sell it.
@saturatedbutter For 2 billion? Yes, yes I would.
@saturatedbutter @daikkenaurora12 What about your butter farm?
@daikkenaurora12 @saturatedbutter - the thing is, he already has more money than he will ever need so its not the same when the average joe says that. but yeah, everyone has a price. he will rationalize to the public that he did it to be able to fund bigger and better projects that will probably never succeed. cant really blame someone when they can get overpaid by that extent but he has been very vocal about that practice of corporate buyouts.