$2.5B Minecraft Deal With Microsoft Confirmed

PCunicorn said:
Doesn't matter much to me. Look at Skype, that hasn't really changed because of MS.
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Hardly a parallel. There are more examples of game developers that Microsoft has ruined after acquisition than the other way around.
 
To everyone saying they would sell their mother and anything else for 2.5 billion, would you if you already had HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS? Nobody seems to hit on the fact that Notch was already rich as fuck. You can afford to have values you stand by when you have that kind of money that you can't when you're pulling a low 5 figures.

This is elevating him into Forbes rich. I wonder if he seriously has a plan for what to do with that kind of money. If I had billions, I would feel some sort of responsibility to better the world somehow.
 
Never really understood the pull of this game,

Then again I grew up with Lego, Lincoln Logs & Popsickle sticks. I don't know if building things virtually is as cool as real life though.
 
tetris42 said:
To everyone saying they would sell their mother and anything else for 2.5 billion, would you if you already had HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS? Nobody seems to hit on the fact that Notch was already rich as fuck. You can afford to have values you stand by when you have that kind of money that you can't when you're pulling a low 5 figures.

This is elevating him into Forbes rich. I wonder if he seriously has a plan for what to do with that kind of money. If I had billions, I would feel some sort of responsibility to better the world somehow.
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Still yes. Sure you can do a lot of things with a few hundred million dollars, but you can do anything you want with 2.5 billion dollars.

Plus that money makes a statement about what you made. Sure you could sell it two a small company for a couple of million, but that says your game was only worth a few million. To sell it for 2.5 billion says you created something amazing.
 
mt2e said:
The 1.8 update to Minecraft was the final version, RIP.
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Seems like it's been in a good place for awhile now. Any additional features that people want can be added by mods, on the PC. If Microsoft fucks up newer versions, PC users can just use the last non-MS version. I don't think the sky is falling or anything.
 
Krenum said:
Never really understood the pull of this game,

Then again I grew up with Lego, Lincoln Logs & Popsickle sticks. I don't know if building things virtually is as cool as real life though.
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I don't get it either. I (still) will spend hours on Legos with my son, but found Minecraft to be boring as hell. I really have no idea why they'd buy it for anywhere near that much. At least it is a profitable business (unlike a lot of the other tech buyouts lately), but its still based on a fad.
 
Krenum said:
Never really understood the pull of this game,

Then again I grew up with Lego, Lincoln Logs & Popsickle sticks. I don't know if building things virtually is as cool as real life though.
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You probably weren't building any of these with legos and popsickle sticks:
http://www.pcgamesn.com/minecraft/best-minecraft-builds-ever-30-incredible-projects

There's a lot of mechanical stuff you can do in-game as well. People can nerd-out all they want without needing to make constant trips to RadioShack and it's a helluva lot cheaper.
 
tetris42 said:
This is elevating him into Forbes rich. I wonder if he seriously has a plan for what to do with that kind of money. If I had billions, I would feel some sort of responsibility to better the world somehow.
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No, he's only partial owner of Mojang. He's not "getting 2.5 billion".

Then there's the government in his country that's going to rape a good chunk of it. He'll end up with hundreds of millions for sure but not even a billion after taxes etc. Sweden's taxation rate is pretty insane.
 
Shmee said:
Still yes. Sure you can do a lot of things with a few hundred million dollars, but you can do anything you want with 2.5 billion dollars.

Plus that money makes a statement about what you made. Sure you could sell it two a small company for a couple of million, but that says your game was only worth a few million. To sell it for 2.5 billion says you created something amazing.
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Christ, I probably can't say anything that would have any impact with a statement like that. It sounds like you're praising endless greed. I'm pretty sure Mojang could have sold Minecraft to a more ethically responsible company and still made a ton of additional money, but yes, less than 2.5 billion. As for judging something as amazing or not based on how much money someone is willing to pay for it, I seriously have no words for that line of thinking, our values are just too radically different.
 
GaryJohnson said:
It's not just a game. At some point your work, your creations, become a part of you and your identity. Giving that up in tantamount to selling a piece of your soul.
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BS dude... Notch has said publicly many times that he was looking to get out of Minecraft. I think you're just substituting your own wish that you had something this cool happen to you...

Minecraft was never his life, soul or even dreams... As he stated "It was a fun 'PROJECT' that happened to get popular"
 
tetris42 said:
Christ, I probably can't say anything that would have any impact with a statement like that. It sounds like you're praising endless greed. I'm pretty sure Mojang could have sold Minecraft to a more ethically responsible company and still made a ton of additional money, but yes, less than 2.5 billion. As for judging something as amazing or not based on how much money someone is willing to pay for it, I seriously have no words for that line of thinking, our values are just too radically different.
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I guess we do have different values, but my thoughts were on perception not on values. People will perceive a $2.5 Billion acquisition differently than a $100 Million acquisition.

Plus it also comes down to how you feel about your product. People are saying it is like selling a part of your soul, but to him it probably wasn't. It is like when you build a cool custom car. It was fun, and it looks cool and runs great, but after awhile you get bored, so you sell it and build a new one. There is nothing wrong with that, you didn't sell you soul, you just moved on.
 
Shmee said:
I guess we do have different values, but my thoughts were on perception not on values. People will perceive a $2.5 Billion acquisition differently than a $100 Million acquisition.
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Well you value the perception of how rich other people think you are then, I think that is a value. Besides meeting base needs, I see money as a means to engaging in projects I want to do. 100 million grants so, so many opportunities in itself, I think it's absolutely valid to question if you have to sacrifice further values to go above that. I mean whether you're worth 100 million v. 1 billion, who are you really bragging to? In either scenario, you still have more means than 99.9% of the populace.

Plus it also comes down to how you feel about your product. People are saying it is like selling a part of your soul, but to him it probably wasn't. It is like when you build a cool custom car. It was fun, and it looks cool and runs great, but after awhile you get bored, so you sell it and build a new one. There is nothing wrong with that, you didn't sell you soul, you just moved on.
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I do agree entirely on that, however Notch has made it clear in the past he has not been a fan of Microsoft and has disagreed with their ideology, and he's not alone. By selling Minecraft to them, that's making him kind of a hypocrite. If he had sold it to Valve, CD Projekt, (I would say Bethesda, but them trying to lay a lawsuit on him wasn't exactly a charmer), etc. then I doubt you would see anywhere near the kind of backlash.
 
tetris42 said:
To everyone saying they would sell their mother and anything else for 2.5 billion, would you if you already had HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS? Nobody seems to hit on the fact that Notch was already rich as fuck. You can afford to have values you stand by when you have that kind of money that you can't when you're pulling a low 5 figures.

This is elevating him into Forbes rich. I wonder if he seriously has a plan for what to do with that kind of money. If I had billions, I would feel some sort of responsibility to better the world somehow.
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There is a big difference between a millionaire and a billionaire.

And having all the money in the world won't fix this broken planet the problem is human beings and the way we think. And things have been so fucked up for so long its too late to start over now.

Best you could do is buy your own island and try to start over on it but even then you still have to deal with the rest of the world.
 
tetris42 said:
Well you value the perception of how rich other people think you are then, I think that is a value. Besides meeting base needs, I see money as a means to engaging in projects I want to do. 100 million grants so, so many opportunities in itself, I think it's absolutely valid to question if you have to sacrifice further values to go above that. I mean whether you're worth 100 million v. 1 billion, who are you really bragging to? In either scenario, you still have more means than 99.9% of the populace.

I do agree entirely on that, however Notch has made it clear in the past he has not been a fan of Microsoft and has disagreed with their ideology, and he's not alone. By selling Minecraft to them, that's making him kind of a hypocrite. If he had sold it to Valve, CD Projekt, (I would say Bethesda, but them trying to lay a lawsuit on him wasn't exactly a charmer), etc. then I doubt you would see anywhere near the kind of backlash.
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I think he was going to get backlash regardless, and despite his problems with Windows 8, he has Tweeted quite often about how good they were to work with, so if they are good to work with and have a ton of cash why not?
 
Fuck...$2.5B. My only concern is that now Wincraft 9 is going to have those same shitty tiles that were brought to us by Windows 8, but now stackable.

:p
 
Makaveli@BETA said:
There is a big difference between a millionaire and a billionaire.
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Prior to this, he was worth 600 million dollars, I'm sure not being a billionaire was really holding him back.

And having all the money in the world won't fix this broken planet the problem is human beings and the way we think. And things have been so fucked up for so long its too late to start over now.

Best you could do is buy your own island and try to start over on it but even then you still have to deal with the rest of the world.
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Well I didn't say "fix", just that I personally see that not using that level of wealth to better humanity in some fashion as irresponsible, it's a situation very few obtain and has to potential to change history if used in targeted ways. You could very well be right about everything being too late, but that's still a hell of a lot of resources to work with to not try. You say the problem is how humans think, well that's ABSOLUTELY something that can be influenced in future generations.
 
Meant to add, this is a good acquisition for MS. Sony has a polished product with EQ: Landmark but that can't run on any system like Minecraft can.

Its also rumored that DX12 will introduce some form of Voxel acceleration. If that's true then we can see a vastly improved visuals in Minecraft.
 
Not sure why he couldn't have hired someone to "handle" the company while he did other things, without completely selling out... I guess it's a psychological thing, letting go of the past to move on or something... either way, I hope the best for the guy, he always seemed pretty cool to me, maybe this'll motivate him to produce something great again, or at least relax a bit. I know having a ton of money can be stressful. Life without love is bankrupt.
 
tetris42 said:
Prior to this, he was worth 600 million dollars, I'm sure not being a billionaire was really holding him back.

Well I didn't say "fix", just that I personally see that not using that level of wealth to better humanity in some fashion as irresponsible, it's a situation very few obtain and has to potential to change history if used in targeted ways. You could very well be right about everything being too late, but that's still a hell of a lot of resources to work with to not try. You say the problem is how humans think, well that's ABSOLUTELY something that can be influenced in future generations.
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You are right he was close to it with 600 million. But would you have turned it down if you didn't any interested in doing it and wanted to do other things?


I'm not sure cause we corrupt every generation that is born.

Unless we can get to some kinda star trek utopia where people stop lusting for money and wealth and to better mankind.

My money is on a war killing everyone before that happends tho.

Or if aliens show up and we unite to fight them that maybe our only saving grace.

We are just too juvenile with the bickering and borders and i'm better than you bs even though we are all the same species.

Of course we all hope for a better world so lets drink to that.
 
Makaveli@BETA said:
Most of you would sell your mother for 2.5billion

don't even play.
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This right here. You could do wonders around the world for that kind of flow. Set your family, friends and enemies up for life. I really hope Marcus does something cool for himself and for gamers as well.

Kyle Bennett, would you sell [H]ard OCP for $2.5 Bn?
 
Trimlock said:
Meant to add, this is a good acquisition for MS. Sony has a polished product with EQ: Landmark but that can't run on any system like Minecraft can.
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Er, Minecraft is actually fairly resource-intensive. I guess you can kick everything to the lowest possible detail but then it looks awful and you can only see about 10 feet in front of you.
 
Makaveli@BETA said:
You are right he was close to it with 600 million. But would you have turned it down if you didn't any interested in doing it and wanted to do other things?
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If I had hundreds of millions of dollars and wanted to sell a company I was no longer interested in, but millions of people appreciated, I would try and make sure the buyer respected the same values the gamers did. I think a lot of people are doubtful about MS being that company.

As for the fatalism about the world, again, it's not unfounded, but I bet if you were looking to spend a billion or more on bettering humanity, you could get some pretty excellent advice from some of the best minds on the planet.

runudownquick said:
This right here. You could do wonders around the world for that kind of flow. Set your family, friends and enemies up for life.
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Again, I'm sure his 600 million was really holding him back to the point, everyone knows you can barely make ends meet with that. I'm sure he needed that extra money so that he could only take a top-shelf bid from MS and not less from another company with a better reputation.
 
I can't wait to see what they do to Minecraft. If I don't like the changes I can keep playing the version I'm on currently.

I can't see them spending 2.5 billion and letting it just die off.

I don't keep up with a lot of gaming stuff but when is the last time Microsoft killed a game?
 
DPI said:
No, he's only partial owner of Mojang. He's not "getting 2.5 billion".

Then there's the government in his country that's going to rape a good chunk of it. He'll end up with hundreds of millions for sure but not even a billion after taxes etc. Sweden's taxation rate is pretty insane.
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http://www.forbes.com/sites/maxjede...billionaire-status-on-rumored-microsoft-deal/

Forbes says he will clear a billion. Apparently he owns about 71%. Corporate taxes in Sweden are 22% and I guess he is paying close to that because his ownership stake is under Notch Development.
 
ir0nw0lf said:
Everyone has their price. We just found found how much it was for Notch. Amazing how his anti-Microsoft attitude changed.
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Put it this way. 2.5 BEELEEYUN simoleons changes ANYONE'S opinion.

And if you want a pseudobiblical reference, it's about 666 times the median comfortable salary ($75K/year) is over a lifetime of work (~50 years).

That kind of money pretty much ASSURES you never EVER *have to* work again.
 
MavericK96 said:
Seems like it's been in a good place for awhile now. Any additional features that people want can be added by mods, on the PC. If Microsoft fucks up newer versions, PC users can just use the last non-MS version. I don't think the sky is falling or anything.
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Minecraft is already hosed. Bukkit and CraftBukkit are still tamed by legal and legit DMCA. None of it will be resolved until legal is resolved. I hear that something like 1/3 of Bukkit is what has been DMCA'd. In addition to that, most of Bukkit's developers have resigned. Yes, RESIGNED and left.

The Minecraft community hit its plateau, and now the game shall spiral to its doom.
 
Greatone123 said:
I can't wait to see what they do to Minecraft. If I don't like the changes I can keep playing the version I'm on currently.

I can't see them spending 2.5 billion and letting it just die off.

I don't keep up with a lot of gaming stuff but when is the last time Microsoft killed a game?
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Well it's more like their history with PC gaming has been pretty damn spotty. They shifted a lot of development away from PC gaming when they launched the Xbox and haven't really gone back much. Some things off the top of my head:

-PC gamers have been barred off from all Halo games since Halo 2.
-MS pulled the plug on Halo 1 and 2 multiplayer, killing it years before the HD re-release was even announced.
-Fable 2 was cancelled for PC, although ironically Fable 3 wasn't.
-They intentionally prevented Alan Wake from being released on PC when it was originally meant to be, the only reason it came out 2 years later is because the devs really wanted it to be there also.
-I know fans of the Mechwarrior series have been so upset with their treatment of the franchise, they made a petition trying to get MS to relinquish it (like that will work)
-Dependence on Games for Windows Live has hurt and killed (without cracks anyway) a LOT of games, which they pulled the plug on.

Anyway, there's probably more, that's just what comes to mind. It's just bizarre to see really, since Microsoft has been trying to pull away from PC gaming as a platform for a long time now. By all means, correct me, but I think the only PC-centric game they've been involved with in the past decade has been MS Flight Simulator? I think they haven't been involved with ANY PC game that's involved serious modding since Dungeon Siege 1 in 2002, and they were just the publisher. So for them to snatch up Minecraft, a PC-centric mod-heavy title, it's entering into uncharted territory for them, there's seriously no precedent I can think of within the company.
 
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