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MICROSOFT HAS CONFIRMED it will buy Mojang, the creator of the popular videogame Minecraft, for $2.5 billion (€1.9 billion).
The deal will see Mojang join Microsoft Studios which has created games like the Halo, Forza and Fable series.
In a statement announcing the move, Mojang said that the deal was completed because of the resources Microsoft can offer it.
There are only a handful of potential buyers with the resources to grow Minecraft on a scale that it deserves. We’ve worked closely with Microsoft since 2012, and have been impressed by their continued dedication to our game and its development. We’re confident that Minecraft will continue to grow in an awesome way.
In a separate statement, Microsoft said that it will invest in the series to help provide a better experience for players.
Microsoft’s investments in cloud and mobile technologies will enable ‘Minecraft’ players to benefit from richer and faster worlds, more powerful development tools and more opportunities to connect across the Minecraft community.
While there has been no news relating to the future of the Mojang staff – the company expects that the vast majority (if not all) will continue to work there – the company’s founders, Markus Persson, Carl Manneh and Jakob Porser, are leaving.
Minecraft is an open-world sandbox game where players must gather materials, craft tools and survive. The series has sold more than 50 million copies across all platforms and is the most popular paid game on iOS and Android.
Rumours of a deal between the two companies emerged last week and the deal is expected to close by the end of the year.
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Now we’ll have bugs as well as zombies
Expect patches for the game every Tuesday!
They should integrate it with Excel, so that I can look busy at work…
Alternatively, you could build the excel program in minecraft!
Will Microsoft be able to deal with Herobrine?
He’s the silent partner.
Hmmm … Minecraft without Notch. It’s been a while since I was actually interested in Minecraft (got back into it revenge with the Oculus Rift mod) but I always felt confident that it was going in the right direction with Notch running things (which it did). Without him, I’m not so sure.
Notch hasn’t been directly involved for nearly 3 years now. Still sad to see them sell out
I don’t think he sold out. His frustration was very apparent over the last few years. I believe him when he said he needed out to preserve his sanity.
And why not get handsomely paid for creating one of the biggest games in history.
It’s ruining the industry. All the big companies buying out the small.
Not true. The popularity and quantity of indie games is at an all time high.
For every company that gets bought up, newer, younger devs are stepping up.
Notch? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Microsoft will not know how to add things. And they will mess everything up
Don’t think its a good idea. Microsoft don’t know the game like the real developers do
microsoft are buying a person?
And Microsoft will sell it to Lego in 1,2….
have your say