Microsoft buys Minecraft / Mojang for 2.5 BELLLION DOLLAS!


Video Games


Link detailing it Here

Notch's feelings on it;

Notch wrote:


I'm leaving Mojang

I don’t see myself as a real game developer. I make games because it’s fun, and because I love games and I love to program, but I don’t make games with the intention of them becoming huge hits, and I don’t try to change the world. Minecraft certainly became a huge hit, and people are telling me it’s changed games. I never meant for it to do either. It’s certainly flattering, and to gradually get thrust into some kind of public spotlight is interesting.

A relatively long time ago, I decided to step down from Minecraft development. Jens was the perfect person to take over leading it, and I wanted to try to do new things. At first, I failed by trying to make something big again, but since I decided to just stick to small prototypes and interesting challenges, I’ve had so much fun with work. I wasn’t exactly sure how I fit into Mojang where people did actual work, but since people said I was important for the culture, I stayed.

I was at home with a bad cold a couple of weeks ago when the internet exploded with hate against me over some kind of EULA situation that I had nothing to do with. I was confused. I didn’t understand. I tweeted this in frustration. Later on, I watched the This is Phil Fish video on YouTube and started to realize I didn’t have the connection to my fans I thought I had. I’ve become a symbol. I don’t want to be a symbol, responsible for something huge that I don’t understand, that I don’t want to work on, that keeps coming back to me. I’m not an entrepreneur. I’m not a CEO. I’m a nerdy computer programmer who likes to have opinions on Twitter.

As soon as this deal is finalized, I will leave Mojang and go back to doing Ludum Dares and small web experiments. If I ever accidentally make something that seems to gain traction, I’ll probably abandon it immediately.

Considering the public image of me already is a bit skewed, I don’t expect to get away from negative comments by doing this, but at least now I won’t feel a responsibility to read them.

I’m aware this goes against a lot of what I’ve said in public. I have no good response to that. I’m also aware a lot of you were using me as a symbol of some perceived struggle. I’m not. I’m a person, and I’m right there struggling with you.

I love you. All of you. Thank you for turning Minecraft into what it has become, but there are too many of you, and I can’t be responsible for something this big. In one sense, it belongs to Microsoft now. In a much bigger sense, it’s belonged to all of you for a long time, and that will never change.

It’s not about the money. It’s about my sanity.


Poor guy. Not everyone is cut out for massive attention. And if what you want to do with your life is code interesting little games, the money is likely not much of a consolation. Probably for the best for him.

Paizo Employee Developer

I only played Minecraft briefly when it first came out on Xbox, but I found the lack of story led to boredom, despite having complete creative freedom and ultimately the ability to build whatever the heck I wanted.

I heard the other day on a podcast, however, that BBC recently finalized a license with Microsoft to put Doctor Who skins and monsters into the game, so I'll be playing it again, I guess, so I can build my own TARDIS. How to make it bigger on the inside in a game like that, I haven't quite figured out yet.


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Mark Moreland wrote:
I only played Minecraft briefly when it first came out on Xbox, but I found the lack of story led to boredom, despite having complete creative freedom and ultimately the ability to build whatever the heck I wanted.

It's really one of those games that appeals best to people who can entertain themselves for hours on just creating. I used to be like that when I was younger, with LEGO and such, and probably would have killed for a game like Minecraft when I was in that 10-15 age range; nowadays though I likewise would not be able to much stick with it without a plot.

Also I lack the patience for building things and the free time I had at that age =P When I was a kid I could just sit and stick blocks together for hours on end, even if I never actually managed to make anything recognizable when I was done. Now as an adult, I find myself getting frustrated with projects if I can't see any sort of distinct progress toward an ultimate goal within at most an hour.

Sovereign Court

Used to play it, building massive fortresses. Sad now that I never took screenshots.


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Notch has caught huge amounts of trash from the internet about anything and nothing. Once incident I heard about years ago was that some morons felt he wasn't updating the game enough and so tried hacking the servers to hold his stuff hostage. That itself is a 'screw you guys' event


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Mark Moreland wrote:
I only played Minecraft briefly when it first came out on Xbox, but I found the lack of story led to boredom, despite having complete creative freedom and ultimately the ability to build whatever the heck I wanted.

I felt the same way. My children, however, play it like electronic Legos. They'll spend hours creating some pretty cool and incredible (for their ages) stuff. It massively encourages and inspires their creativity. It is literally the best "kid" game I've ever seen.


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Sissyl wrote:
Poor guy. Not everyone is cut out for massive attention. And if what you want to do with your life is code interesting little games, the money is likely not much of a consolation. Probably for the best for him.

I suspect the money probably is a consolation. With the money he can keep coding interesting little games without worrying as much about making money at it.

Beats having a job doing something you don't enjoy and making interesting little games in your spare time.


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Sebastrd wrote:
Mark Moreland wrote:
I only played Minecraft briefly when it first came out on Xbox, but I found the lack of story led to boredom, despite having complete creative freedom and ultimately the ability to build whatever the heck I wanted.
I felt the same way. My children, however, play it like electronic Legos. They'll spend hours creating some pretty cool and incredible (for their ages) stuff. It massively encourages and inspires their creativity. It is literally the best "kid" game I've ever seen.

Exactly. My kids get on together and can spend a couple hours goofing off and building random junk. My son built a chicken ranch once and spent all his time capturing chickens. I tried it, lasted about 15 minutes.


thejeff wrote:
Sissyl wrote:
Poor guy. Not everyone is cut out for massive attention. And if what you want to do with your life is code interesting little games, the money is likely not much of a consolation. Probably for the best for him.

I suspect the money probably is a consolation. With the money he can keep coding interesting little games without worrying as much about making money at it.

Beats having a job doing something you don't enjoy and making interesting little games in your spare time.

Possibly. It is also a good way to lose social contact you need, and has a tendency to make others react badly to you. It is not a common problem, but some find it a serious one.


Simon Legrande wrote:
Sebastrd wrote:
Mark Moreland wrote:
I only played Minecraft briefly when it first came out on Xbox, but I found the lack of story led to boredom, despite having complete creative freedom and ultimately the ability to build whatever the heck I wanted.
I felt the same way. My children, however, play it like electronic Legos. They'll spend hours creating some pretty cool and incredible (for their ages) stuff. It massively encourages and inspires their creativity. It is literally the best "kid" game I've ever seen.
Exactly. My kids get on together and can spend a couple hours goofing off and building random junk. My son built a chicken ranch once and spent all his time capturing chickens. I tried it, lasted about 15 minutes.

I enjoyed the game for a number of months after I joined a friend's server and built a few monuments there. I drifted away when the world started expanding to a point where everyone was so far away from eachother that we all had our own thing no one else ever saw. The community projects were the most fun. I cannot get into single player mode at all.

Shadow Lodge

So, I'm guessing PlayStation Minecraft has recieved it's last update ever.


I hope not.


No, apparently part of the contract is to keep the two Sony ones running. Now, whether we've seen the last update that isn't six months after the Xbox versions is another matter entirely...

Honestly, I can't see Microsoft going wrong with Minecraft - but I also have trouble seeing how they plan to make 2.5 billion back when so many players already own the game. It's hard to justify Minecraft 2, so I suspect microtransactions might be making an appearance - pay $2 to get the diamond you need without switching to creative mode and such.

Hopefully it'll be no bigger an issue than Disney buying everything else, but we'll see.


I really enjoyed my time playing Minecraft. First played it during its early versions (I think I was Donor #200 or something like that), then hosted a short-lived creative server. Forgot it for some time until a couple of years ago, when I started running a fully-featured Adventure server with a large group of friends. It was entertaining, but eventually died out. Haven't played since, but I still keep the maps archived.

Best of lucks to Notch and my thanks for such a fun experience.

Mark Moreland wrote:

I only played Minecraft briefly when it first came out on Xbox, but I found the lack of story led to boredom, despite having complete creative freedom and ultimately the ability to build whatever the heck I wanted.

I heard the other day on a podcast, however, that BBC recently finalized a license with Microsoft to put Doctor Who skins and monsters into the game, so I'll be playing it again, I guess, so I can build my own TARDIS. How to make it bigger on the inside in a game like that, I haven't quite figured out yet.

Maybe you could put a Nether Portal at the entrance and build the interior of the TARDIS in the Nether.

Distances are 8 times longer in the Nether, so if you, say, build the TARDIS with a 3x3 cube base, the interior could be 24x24 cubes instead.


IIII'm not sure if I like this...

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