Microsoft buys Mojang

General Discussion
146

I’m terrible with legalities and whatnot.

What is, say, the worst case scenario that could happen to private servers? I’m guessing nothing’s really going to happen much on that front. But could the institute some sort of licensing fee for owning your own server? Do you think they would? Is that even a thing?

But what worries me is that all this is going to slow down patches and updates too. (in the short term at least)

Right now, there’s a terrible entity-handling problem in 1.8. In the past I remember problems like this getting alleviated even shortly after a big release, such as the Adventure update (which ironically was Beta 1.8). Adventure Update 1.8 quickly became 1.8.1.

147

To be honest, I don’t see why this would potentially kill Minecraft in regards to modding. For future updates perhaps, but we can always just stay at the current version (or 1.7.1 in Forge’s case).

148

I never used SkyDrive but yeah … Is it only used by Microsoft? I primarily work with Linux and Mac, partially with Windows 7 but never again with Windows 8 / 8.1

  • Morph
149

I’ve refrained from posting this outside of IRC channels so far, but due to the massive amount of fear-mongering going around the community I will post it here.

The acquisition hasn’t taken place yet and the articles posted in the OP are all very similar to each other except the one from microsoft.com, which states:

Since minecraft reportedly netted $100M last year that leaves about $2.4B left over. To gather that much requires much more than realms and DLC alone can make up for.

So how are they going to gather that extra profit?

Video Content and Mobile Sales. Its no question that Minecraft will become available on Windows Phone next and will make up some of the difference. The majority of the profit will come from video content. Many people were disappointed with the XboxOne’s focus on video content, exclusive deals with sports networks and what not.

Microsoft has plucked one of the more popular segments of youtube’s gaming community. Its very possible for them to gain major revenue by providing minecraft channels on their console and online. Youtube is owned by their competitor, Google, and any new viewers they can gain from this market will most likely be young and developing their future viewing habits.

This is an opportunity for Microsoft to gain viewers, and the advertisers that come along with it.

I’m told microsoft also has a deal with twitch.tv (owned by Amazon and also a video content provider,) to provide streaming services on the XboxOne.

What you should take away from all this is that one of the most profitable areas of the Minecraft community is not game sales, it has been the advertising seen on the Minecraft video channels.

You may also find that Minecraft becomes a free game with Windows 9, but that is pure speculation.

Edit: Regarding killing off modding, I’m sure microsoft knows that changing too much will narrow the viewer-count of their product. Also look at the profitability of the recent Lego Movie, we’re going to see a movie, calling it here.

3 Likes
150

azure dot microsoft dot com

151

That"s a realms I’d pay for.

152

Thanks! As I said before I know Azure, but I never heard from anyone using it :wink:
Anyway, I’m curious about it! Maybe it is better that Microsoft is now continuing the development of Minecraft.
Notch did a really - no he did an awesome job! But as he said, he did’t want that anytime … He is a nerd, like me :smiley:
Any probably like many other peoples here at Sponge!

  • Morph
153

to put this simple, this wasn’t Mojang’s fault. Notch was the majority shareholder, and Microsoft simply bought the shares off him. If anything, this is Notch’s decision. Not Mojang’s. Even Mojang’s team has been surprised by this move, Carl and Jakob even left when it was known. Whereas the rest has remained.

Yes they’ve lied to us before, done mistakes before, but haven’t it all turned out well either way?
The only ones I’m skeptical to atm is Microsoft. Then again, Microsoft has no reason to ruin Minecraft in any way. If they do they lose money on the deal which we all know that they don’t want to.

I’m not saying people aren’t allowed to be worried, I’m worried myself. Just, take it in consideration that Mojang’s not completely to blame for this purchase. It was mostly Notch. (Although I understand his decision. If I had made something I didn’t intend for to get big, I’d get freaked out eventually as well.)
Be grateful for what he left us, and look forwards to the future. Maybe it turns out better?

1 Like
154

Notch didn’t get fedup of us, he just got fedup of being something he didn’t want to be.
He does care, he just doesn’t want to be an idol or anything, much like Dong Nyugen (Flappy Bird creator) didn’t want the game to explode the way it did.

If lots of people started using things I’d written I’d actually be more upset about it than happy because then everyone would be making a fuss over it and such.

Sometimes it’s just what the developer wants, small projects.

1 Like
155

actually 2.5 billion dollars is to much… and in swedish money its 17 billion kr

156

Lets hope he doesnt blow it all in one place :smiley:

157

why did even notch sell it idk if it was notch!!! i read that web but he quited mojang so he didint have something to do with the mojang community ik he made it…

159

I think microsoft has done this largely for the licensing purposes and as system seller for Xbox one. And the rights to make DLC and eventually a sequel, ofcourse.

I don’t think they would be indulging in the massively negative PR that would be trying to monetise existing PC users.

160

This reminds me of
http://www.spigotmc.org/threads/spigot-acquisition.15278/

1 Like
161

I hope that this is something that does happen!

162

Found this under a youtube video.

minecraft 2.0
-command blocks removed
-added diamond dlc for 15.00§
-all mods removed
-minecraft content on youtube is only owned by microsoft
-added herobrine

let’s hope there wont be something like this ^^

1 Like
163

cough EULA cough
cough Ruining tnt cannons cough

164

Stop trying to predict the future…

If you’re all too caught up worrying about tomorrow’s Minecraft, you won’t have the time to enjoy today’s.

2 Likes
165

Yeah, you know, when jeb_ took over mc it was a big deal, now nobody even cares a bit, and most people have adjusted to the change, even embraced it in fact. Who says this is all bad?

166

Especially them mentioning the bit with the development tools gives me hope that modding will not only continue, but grow under Microsoft, as they seem to have seen it’s value for the game, and of course for them (after all, they’re not stupid…).