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[TimeEffect]

MC2 ia going to be so hype. So many parts of the gane can be fleshed out, and the online can become so much bigger with The Cloud!

And Minecraft demos are something I see being built into Windows.

By the way, I wanted Sony to push LBP in this direction for so long but it seems MS has taken over this Play Create Share that makes Minecraft so huge and popular amongst kids, adults, teachers, and parents. I still wonder if Mm is creating something similar to this.

 

[Fuz]

Not a smart move, imho.
They probably wanna try to make Minecraft the digital Lego.

 

[Cth]

I don't understand how Microsoft wants to break-even till summer 2015? How are they going to make so much profit in less than a year?

Not sure how much the merchandising stuff plays into things, but a quick search shows that the company has been considering/approached about making films and tv shows.

Especially given the whole Halo/Uncharted/Assassins Creed/Quantum Break/etc baby steps that have been made recently. And given how popular the LEGO movie was, maybe a Minecraft film is one thing being considered.

Either way, it's definitely about the IP and how it can be utilized, and not necessarily about the game or sequels (although the idea of pre-loading Windows with it is a genius one)

 

[NumberThree]

https://minecraft.net/stats

Nope, still hasn't peaked.

From what I see the page only has the amount of total copies sold and the amount of copies sold during the last 24 hours? This isn't nearly enough information to say whether the game's success has peaked or not.

 

[JNA]

Now we can put a face to the name:

Are you sure the man in the picture is not Tim Dog?

 

[Ronin Ray]

For less money couldn't they have made a run at capcom or added more and made a ran at take two. You want to become big in japan make monster hunter exclusive to the Xbone. You want to win the console race then take two is what would do it. in my perfect world I would have liked to see that money go to new studios to make new games.

 

[Jomjom]

lol wow.

Someone needs to make a thread and make a list of things that this is not about Xbox console only. Looks like majority of people are still clueless about how big this IP is and how fast its growing among kids.

WhatsApp was bought for 19B or something. Is it worth it? For now no. But what Facebook saw was how quickly it was growing everywhere.

Yeah probably because the majority of posters here are young people who don't have kids and are in the "I'm too old and cool for Minecraft to care" group. This IP is HUGE. It completely dwarfs Mario and all of the Nintendo IPs for kids today.

For less money couldn't they have made a run at capcom or added more and made a ran at take two. You want to become big in japan make monster hunter exclusive to the Xbone. You want to win the console race then take two is what would do it. in my perfect world I would have liked to see that money go to new studios to make new games.

I think this is exactly what they should and will do. I have a feeling the acquisitions aren't over. Mojang was just the start. A lot of the major game devs and publishers could be had for less than what they paid for Mojang. MS could easily buy SE for instance and make the TR nonsense look silly. Imagine what FF and DQ exclusively on Xbox would do for it around the world and especially in Asia.

 

[Shining Sunshine]

Also worth noting while 2.5 billion sounds crazy expensive MS make crazy money. Last quarter alone they had a profit margin of 6.48 billion

http://m.microsoft.com/investor/pressrelease.aspx

That profit isn't coming from games, or phones, or tablets.

 

[Dabanton]

I feel bad for Xbox fans that aren't fans of Minecraft. For them this is 2.5 billion that could have helped strengthen the platform and Xbox portfolio with a bunch of other games and new IP.

I think you need to do a bit more reading around this purchase and the money they used for it.

 

[Bolts-n-Rays1109]

MS thinking they can break even on this $2.5bil deal by the end of next June seems pretty crazy. They've got to have something big planned, right?

 

[The Shogun]

That profit isn't coming from games, or phones, or tablets.

Exactly which is why this purchase isn't about Xbox.

They plan on building this into its own platform. That post was to clarify to those that are asking why this money wasn't used to purchase Take Two or buikd new IPs. Those are investments without huge returns. MS plays the big profits game and while 2.5 billion may seem like a lot for them it is relatively small. This isnt about Xbox its about making a huge monetization stream.

 

[Alienous]

MS thinking they can break even on this $2.5bil deal by the end of next June seems pretty crazy. They've got to have something big planned, right?

"Minecraft is under new management. Pay up ($60) to continue playing, otherwise we break your virtual Minecraft kneecaps.

- Microsoft".

 

[Muppet of a Man]

Wow, I'm actually impressed that Microsoft did the smart thing and plans to continue support all platforms, including IOS, Android, and Playstation. They are obviously serious in their intent to grow the brand and make money off the venture, something that I do not think would have happened had they narrowed support only to the Xbox brand and Windows platforms.

 

[ThoughtsOfSpeaking]

Neogaf mobile really needs a easier way to add people to your ignore list.

 

[Haunted]

https://minecraft.net/stats

Nope, still hasn't peaked.

Selling a steady rate of 10k+ copies every fucking day seems unbelievable to me.

 

[Killer]

2.5 billion dollars. Fucking ridiculous.

 

[Steverulez]

Selling a steady rate of 10k+ copies every fucking day seems unbelievable to me.

It was 15k a few days back, dropped by 1/3!

 

[Liamario]

You wave that banner, son!

It's embarrassing. He's not even trying to hide. The fanboy microsoft deserves- not the one they need.

 

[MightyHedgehog]

Selling a steady rate of 10k+ copies every fucking day seems unbelievable to me.

And that's just the desktop/laptop versions. Console and mobile ones are selling faster, I believe.

 

[ThoughtsOfSpeaking]

Exactly which is why this purchase isn't about Xbox.

They plan on building this into its own platform. That post was to clarify to those that are asking why this money wasn't used to purchase Take Two or buikd new IPs. Those are investments without huge returns. MS plays the big profits game and while 2.5 billion may seem like a lot for them it is relatively small. This isnt about Xbox its about making a huge monetization stream.

I find it sad that some gamers here cant see past their own nose.

Whether Minecraft 2 finds its way on Playstation platforms or not, this purchase has nothing to do with Xbox and the Xbox one will only marginally benefit from it.

 

[Haunted]

"Minecraft is under new management. Pay up ($60) to continue playing, otherwise we break your virtual Minecraft kneecaps.

- Microsoft".

 

[Cornbread78]

Yeah probably because the majority of posters here are young people who don't have kids and are in the "I'm too old and cool for Minecraft to care" group. This IP is HUGE. It completely dwarfs Mario and all of the Nintendo IPs for kids today.



I think this is exactly what they should and will do. I have a feeling the acquisitions aren't over. Mojang was just the start. A lot of the major game devs and publishers could be had for less than what they paid for Mojang. MS could easily buy SE for instance and make the TR nonsense look silly. Imagine what FF and DQ exclusively on Xbox would do for it around the world and especially in Asia.

Well, I'm definately part of parentGAF and my daughter is a Minecraft addict. I mean, when she isn't at school, doing her homework or playing socer, she's glued to Minecraft, or the Minecraft chat rooms on her cell phone. (There are some really, I mean really, crappy people on those boards, beware parent GAF...) The Minecraft forums were blowing up with this new last week and the kids are scared to death of this announcement and how MS plans to monotize the game and what they plan to do to it and these are teanagers/ pre-teens...

 

[EatinOlives]

I don't know how Mojang would fare in on this. MS will clearly want to expand the development team, they're not going to keep a team of a few dozen in Sweden running the $2.5 billion trinket they just purchased. And they sure as hell won't be developing any new projects, because MS didn't buy Mojang for their projects, or dev team. They bought Mojang for Minecraft.

In that sense this isn't like Rare, which put out a metric shitton of widely varied games and eventually got hollowed out by Microsoft's incompetent handling of that team. They're only buying Mojang because it was the only way to get Minecraft. I don't think they, or anyone else for that matters, really cares all that much about what Mojang is or wants to do.

 

[OccamsLightsaber]

300 million investment for Gaikai and it's soon to be paying dividends as Sony puts that tech in all their devices. How the hell the MS to get 2.5 million back from Minecraft?

 

[LX_Theo]

Yup. There's no chance 2.5B spent on new IPs would have brought anywhere near the revenue or new users the Minecraft IP will bring in. 2.5B used on new IPs would have likely just resulted in a bunch of failures and maybe a few small hits that sell 1 million copies. Basically 2.5b wasted with no results seen until at least three years from now. Mojang was literally the best possible use of 2.5B possible.

If it wasn't released for other platforms already, then you might have a point. You don't though, so you just sound like a fanboy.

 

[ThoughtsOfSpeaking]

It's embarrassing. He's not even trying to hide it anymore. The fanboy microsoft deserves- not the one they need.

Fixed. Dudes post have had that undercurrent for a while, but I guess he is finally confident to put his bias in the open.

Lets hope his concern trolling in PS4 threads finally stops.

 

[PseudoViper]

Oh well... we shall see what comes of this.

 

[ThoughtsOfSpeaking]

300 million investment for Gaikai and it's soon to be paying dividends as Sony puts that tech in all their devices. How the hell the MS to get 2.5 million back from Minecraft?

If PSnow takes off. At this point im not sure it will for a good while.

 

[The Shogun]

I find it sad that some gamers here cant see past their own nose.

Whether Minecraft 2 finds its way on Playstation platforms or not, this purchase has nothing to do with Xbox and the Xbox one will only marginally benefit from it.

Agreed. Honestly this purchase makes a lot of sense as long as MS isnt crazy and planning on making Minecraft exclusive.

People in the gaming world often forget MS is a sofrware based business. Lately they've been trying to enter the hardware market but have seen marginal success there at best.

Purchasing or developing a mega popular piece of software and then monetizing it across multiple platforms / hardware is Microsoft's entire business model in a nutshell.

 

[Morokh]

Now it's jut a matter of 'when' they'll start ruining it.

 

[Cth]

In case anyone wanted some figures to start with so we can piece together some trends..

March 18, 2014

http://time.com/28891/minecraft-is-still-generating-insane-amounts-of-cash-for-developer-mojang/

In total Minecraft has sold more than 35 million copies across various platforms. The PC version alone generated almost $250,000 in revenue in the last 24 hours.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=788708

Mojang raked in 816 million Swedish kronor ($128 million) last year, up from 325 million kronor in 2012. Revenue soared 38% to 2.07 billion kronor, according to figures made available to The Wall Street Journal.

EDIT: https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=2.07+billion+kronor+in+dollars
(2.07 bil kronor = 289,702,503.00 US Dollar)

Last year, 38% of the company's revenue came from sales of the PC version of "Minecraft," while the versions for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 accounted for 30% of sales, Ms. Severinson said. Roughly a quarter of revenue stemmed from mobile.

The rest came from "Scrolls," a strategy card-trading game, as well as merchandise sales.

 

[Aeqvitas]

People have been clamoring for MS to build up more 1st party studios. This is preferable to them just moneyhatting the game as an exclusive, yes?

 

[lilltias]

Can't wait for the free version of Minecraft 2 for win 8 and Xbone, filled with tons of IAPs!

Wanna find more coal. You can always pay up )))))

 

[Haunted]

Just a simple Steam release of Minecraft would sell millions all over again.


edit: also, I didn't know Mojang had 40 employees. They grew quite a bit! Last time I followed related news, they were at 14.

 

[Exile20]

Might have been stipulated by Notch in agreeing to sell. Not to mention cutting support is a good way to puss people off and create yet another PR mess they don't need.

I would laugh if the game ran horribly on purpose on the Vita.

 

[Zoned]

Lol at people still thinking this has something to do with Xbox gaming. This deal is meant to push Windows mobile segment by producing content under the Minecraft label. MS wants to sell phones at all cost, and having exclusive Minecraft tag helps.

 

[ThoughtsOfSpeaking]

Agreed. Honestly this purchase makes a lot of sense as long as MS isnt crazy and planning on making Minecraft exclusive.

People in the gaming world often forget MS is a sofrware based business. Lately they've been trying to enter the hardware market but have seen marginal success there at best.

Purchasing or developing a mega popular piece of software and then monetizing it across multiple platforms / hardware is Microsoft's entire business model in a nutshell.

Microsoft isnt crazy. Slow, full of infighting but not crazy.

 

[Cornbread78]

"Minecraft is under new management. Pay up ($60) to continue playing, otherwise we break your virtual Minecraft kneecaps.

- Microsoft".

Fit's perfectly with what Mojang said about it:

What about the other editions of Minecraft? Will they stop being developed?
There’s no reason for the development, sales, and support of the PC/Mac, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4, Vita, iOS, and Android versions of Minecraft to stop. Of course, Microsoft can’t make decisions for other companies or predict the choices that they might make in the future.

That would work for MS to monotize the game further. They will make that 2.5 back in no time. It's a risky but potentially very profitible investment.

 

[The Flash]

Pleasantly surprised to see that they won't be shutting down the PS/iOS/Andriod versions. Not bad MS.

 

[Zombie James]

My thoughts after digesting this for a few hours:

• I think this is a colossal waste of money for Microsoft to spend on one IP. They could have funded or created many more for many years with that money.
• Microsoft's history with studio acquisitions has been horrible and I have almost zero faith that they won't fuck this up.
• I feel sorry that the pressures of single-handedly creating one of the biggest hits in gaming got to Notch, and I do hope he gets better, but it's hard for me to really sympathize for someone who instantly became $2B+ richer.

 

[Freeman]

People have been clamoring for MS to build up more 1st party studios. This is preferable to them just moneyhatting the game as an exclusive, yes?

Yes. Except if you like Minecraft. It won't change much to Xbox Owners just like buying timed exclusive doesn't.

 

[NervousXtian]

Again, MS didn't buy this for the Xbone.

This is a very unique opportunity... and one that doesn't come around often.

It's a cross-over IP that transcends platforms. Notch went to MS, not MS to Notch.

You don't spend 2.5b to make a MS exclusive studio. You spend 2.5b to expand the franchise.

All this talk of contracting is just absurd.

 

[balladofwindfishes]

Lol at people still thinking this has something to do with Xbox gaming. This deal is meant to push Windows mobile segment by producing content under the Minecraft label. MS wants to sell phones at all cost, and having exclusive Minecraft tag helps.

Are people going to run out and buy Windows Phones because it has Minecraft? I... don't see that happening. The population that mostly buys and plays Minecraft isn't really known for their disposable income, and if parents buy their kids a smart phone, it'll probably be one the parents have or a cheap Android phone.

I think this was mostly for the merchandise. That stuff flies off of shelves and is a much better business than making video games.

 

[Netherscourge]

Microsoft would probably make MORE money keeping it a universal platform game and not a 100% Microsoft exclusive.

In this case, you want to sell the game itself, and not just move more Xbox Ones/360s/Surface/Windows Phone/etc...

And it's not just Microsoft vs. Sony here.

It's Microsoft vs. Sony, Google, Nintendo & Apple.

To ignore those player-bases would be financial suicide.

 

[The Shogun]

Again, MS didn't buy this for the Xbone.

This is a very unique opportunity... and one that doesn't come around often.

It's a cross-over IP that transcends platforms. Notch went to MS, not MS to Notch.

You don't spend 2.5b to make a MS exclusive studio. You spend 2.5b to expand the franchise.

All this talk of contracting is just absurd.

100% correct. Great analysis of the situation.

 

[Jomjom]

It's embarrassing. He's not even trying to hide. The fanboy microsoft deserves- not the one they need.

Yeah you have loads of people in here saying this deal is bad when objectively 2.5B is chump change to MS (even more insignificant if they used the offshore money that they can't bring back home) and all the salty concern posts about Rare and I'm the fanboy.

I'm calling it like it is. This is a great acquisition. People clamor for Mario and Nintendo on other consoles; MS today has purchased the IP that is greater than all of that for kids.

It's admirable that Sony tries to build their own in-house studios, but we've seen that buying studios is just as if not more effective. For all of Sony's hard work they've basically only got two amazingly profitable studios, ND and Polyphony - three maybe if you count SSM. MS bought Bungie and the Halo IP and that has had more success than any one of those 3. Without that purchase the 360 and xbone likely wouldn't even exist today.

 

[Cornbread78]

Pleasantly surprised to see that they won't be shutting down the PS/iOS/Andriod versions. Not bad MS.

No reason to really. They will continue to make pure porfit off of it now and theyget free advert. by having the XBOX/MS logo on the loading screen.

 

[Vestal]

Just like Office, OneDrive, OneNote MS will want this on as many platforms as possible.

The question remains though, will Sony and Nintendo allow it to be on their system. Will they allow a big Microsoft splash screen to appear on their consoles.

This truly brings up a very interesting situation.

 

[The Flash]

No reason to really. They will continue to make pure porfit off of it now and theyget free advert. by having the XBOX/MS logo on the loading screen.

Exactly. They'll make back there 2.5B in no time. That's chump change to these guys.

 

[KillGore]

A microsoft published game on a playstation platform. That's going to be strange.