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Microsoft announces purchase of Minecraft creator Mojang
- Thread starter Quentyn
- Start date
Doug Heffernan
Member
...until Minecraft 2 comes out.
They have no choice but to keep selling Minecraft on Playstation because it's already out; but you can bet any expansions, sequels or spinoffs will be fully Microsoft exclusive.
MrNyarlathotep
Banned
I don't see why not. Nobody gives a shit what Trip Hawkins has to say about anything, and people barely give a shit about Cliffy B.
NervousXtian
Thought Emoji Movie was good. Take that as you will.
Can we stop with the Angry Birds stuff... Minecraft is NOT Angry Birds.. in any way at all. It's an absurd comparison.
Also stop with the Rare comparisons. Rare's failures is as much about a drastically changing market as it is about mis-management. Rare made game's in dying genres. Plain and simple.
Besides that Rare NEVER had a game as big as Minecraft. Something with the potential of Minecraft.. something as established as Minecraft.
It's an absurd comparison as well.
Also stop with the Rare comparisons. Rare's failures is as much about a drastically changing market as it is about mis-management. Rare made game's in dying genres. Plain and simple.
Besides that Rare NEVER had a game as big as Minecraft. Something with the potential of Minecraft.. something as established as Minecraft.
It's an absurd comparison as well.
It's a java game. As long as it's a java game, it can run on Linux. (Note: I didn't say will though.)
SEGAvangelist
Member
They should grab Remedy next, then.
gamechanger87
Member
GAAP is Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. Its a framework of accounting principles that are used by accountants in the US for Auditing purposes. Outside the US you will usually see IFRS.
OverdriveOtaku
Member
I'll keep [selfishly] hoping for a dedicated gaming handheld from Xbox to compete against N3DS and PS Vita, and the two launch titles are Minecraft and portable Halo.
Titanfall's hype is a dim candle compared to the way Minecraft has lit the world on fire, forever changing gaming. Hell, a lot of people would argue that Steve is a bigger gaming icon now than Mario currently is. THAT is bigger than what'll come out of an FPS studio.
I agree, I just question if they'll get the audience. They could have make a new game that blows Minecraft out of the water from a feature standpoint for 1% of what they're paying. If people wouldn't have bought that, will they buy Minecraft 2 from Microsoft?
Cyborg
Member
Thats how you make deals if you are original crew!
it means that future games of the IP won't show up on any system that doesn't belong to microsoft
We should call it "Getting Bungie'd"
graywolf323
Member
or that Minecraft 2 will be on anything besides Microsoft platforms
MrNyarlathotep
Banned
Like First and Third person shooters?
Ol No Bones
Banned
This thread is a MS shoulda built new ip blah blah thread. The discussion wont likely get much farther than that.
Robert at Zeboyd Games
Banned
Lego seems to be doing just fine after all these years.
Angry Birds' profits are down 50% year over year and has only been established for a few years. They are a decaying brand. Meanwhile, Mario was a name synonymous with gaming for over 20 years, and has proven to have a much higher staying power. Microsoft would easily prefer the next Mario vs the flash in the pan Angry Birds.
ThoughtsOfSpeaking
Banned
Once again. This is far bigger than Xbox. You are looking through the lens of a core gamer. Before this decade is out Minecraft will on every platform that has internet access.
Microsoft... You could have spent a fraction of that on hiring competent executives instead.
A good indicator of a good executive would be, for example, one who says 'no, that's crazy, it's not worth nearly that much' when asked if they should spend over 2 billion bucks on mojang.
A good indicator of a good executive would be, for example, one who says 'no, that's crazy, it's not worth nearly that much' when asked if they should spend over 2 billion bucks on mojang.
That's not how business works. If Microsoft wants to publish a game on a Playstation platform, they can do so. There's no reason to "prevent" them of doing so. Sony and any other business where the guys who run it have at least half a brain will take the money that the sales will give instead of removing it just because "lol wutz they are competitors, bettah remove it bcz reasons lol".
I can guarantee 100% that Sony will not ever remove Minecraft of their own platforms by their own will.
gamechanger87
Member
Its not out of the cards. They are acting like a first party studio already, and if Remedy is open to it and QB takes off don't be surprised if MS floats an offer. Remedy may not want to sell and thus the offer is more a gesture of goodwill. Not sure how the agreement between MS and Remedy is structured, but they may have an opportunity to match any offer on the Company.
With Mojang, there was a really eager seller.
Veritigo_X
Member
Who knows how much longer it will stay a Java game though. If I were Microsoft that would be the first thing I change about Minecraft. They already have a working C# implementation of it for Xbox they could use as a starting point. I'm more partial to C++ but C# would still have a performance increase.
axisofweevils
Holy crap! Today's real megaton is that more than two people can have the same first name.
Paracelsus
Member
Lego doesn't have a Lego 2 that requires Microsoft-branded prosthetic hands to be played.
Cizeta-Moroder
Banned
Microsoft very rarely even acknowledges the existence of Linux. I could see them dropping Linux support if they ditch Java. Then again, Skype is still fine and dandy on Linux. Impossible to tell at this point.
gamechanger87
Member
Based on what I've seen on Twitter from the rest of the team, the guys actually working on the game day-to-day are staying.
Mojang has almost no value. The absurd pricetag is for Minecraft brand, which is a global franchise at this point.
ThoughtsOfSpeaking
Banned
Bigger than angry birds.
As of today, Minecraft is a platform, not just a gaming franchise.
Ol No Bones
Banned
Don't underestimate the name. It is almost universally recognized. With actual marketing you can create something big.
FinalStageBoss
Banned
Anyone who thought that MS would buy this and just drop minecraft support on non MS platforms was insane. MS will probably get this on Nintendo finally.
The Shogun
Banned
Put it this way. Think of massive games like Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Assassin's Creed, Grand Theft Auto, etc.
Minecraft has more sales and a larger userbase than all of those.
A Minecraft 2 done right has astronomical sales potential not to mention its merchandising and toys.
The team that is and has been working in the game is staying. Notch hasn't worked on Minecraft for a while now.
People going on about Minecraft getting a direct sequel, a "Minecraft 2", are being silly. It won't happen. Minecraft is too big, it isn't about a sequential series of games, it's going to continue growing as what it already is.
A Minecraft 2.0 version update, on the other hand ~ We'll be seeing that, probably on every platform, although a period of timed exclusivity wouldn't be surprising. And it will probably be a paid expansion rather than a normal version update. (Although if it catches up the platforms lagging behind vanilla PC in content it would be worth it imo.)
A Minecraft 2.0 version update, on the other hand ~ We'll be seeing that, probably on every platform, although a period of timed exclusivity wouldn't be surprising. And it will probably be a paid expansion rather than a normal version update. (Although if it catches up the platforms lagging behind vanilla PC in content it would be worth it imo.)
Mojan made 200 million profit last year. At 12x profit that's actually a pretty reasonable valuation. Especially considering only half of that came from game sales, the rest was merchandising.
Veritigo_X
Member
I wanna hear their strategy on this one.
Sure, if things do go bad though a company like MS can handle a loss that big fairly well. They'll make a lot of money back before then anyway and a hell of a lot more if they nurture this IP correctly.
I Wanna Be The Guy
U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!
This picture made me realise something. This deal pretty much confirms that Nintendo platforms will never get Minecraft at all. I mean yeah they wont pull existing versions or the almost done Vita version, but there's no way another version of Minecraft for a competing system will ever come out from now on.
Steverulez
Member
Thing is, Mojang didn't even own Minecraft, Notch Developments did (as far as I can tell, also Scrolls is definitely Mojang owned) so if Microsoft didn't want Mojang they presumably didn't need to purchase them.
Obviously they have the knowledge/expertise of the product so it makes sense to, but yeh I doubt Mojang were worth a whole lot in this deal
RustySpoon
Member
tl;dr - Savvy accounting departments full of numbers magicians.
kerotan_eater
Banned
How can they break-even in one year's time? Mojang doesn't make 2.5 billion per year ... the maths doesn't make sense. Even if it did, why sell it for only a year's worth of revenue?
Holographix
Banned
Microsoft expected a lot this generation; not like they haven't been proven wrong before.
all of the copies sold to date would be less than $2.5bn in revenue, let alone profit (although PC versions are pretty much only profit)
got to be some accounting/offshore fund creativity going on to break even in FY2015. Although with MS' year being from June that would be by June 2016? Still too short
I honestly still find this move perplexing. I mean sure they've generate revenue but even Minecraft revenue is arguably small stuff for MS overall. They've now said in black and white they'll support all platforms so how the hell will this do what MS needs most which is help their mobile and tablet platform penetration?
Very curious to see how it all plays out but I'm just missing the angle - unless this signals that at some point MS is seriously going to either spin off or drop Xbox and focus on going platform agnostic with content and services.
Very curious to see how it all plays out but I'm just missing the angle - unless this signals that at some point MS is seriously going to either spin off or drop Xbox and focus on going platform agnostic with content and services.
Wow, one or two years for break even. Wtf are they planning?
They have no fucking idea what they are doing.
NervousXtian
Thought Emoji Movie was good. Take that as you will.
You could never make back the 2.5b trying to just sell Xbone's.
People buy Minecraft on every platform they own.. they don't buy a platform FOR Minecraft.
That's not going to change.
Diddy Kong
Banned
There goes my hopes for a Wii U port 
. Good on them for leaving the Playstation editions be though.
. Good on them for leaving the Playstation editions be though.