Sorry your browser is not supported!

You are using an outdated browser that does not support modern web technologies, in order to use this site please update to a new browser.

Browsers supported include Chrome, FireFox, Safari, Opera, Internet Explorer 10+ or Microsoft Edge.

Geek Culture / Microsoft Considering 2 Billion Dollar Purchase of Mojang

Author
Message
Dark Java Dude 64
Community Leader
13
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 21st Sep 2010
Location: Neither here nor there nor anywhere
Posted: 12th Sep 2014 01:53
So discussion of Minecraft is probably a little antiquated on this forum and in general, but I still found this interesting.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/microsoft-near-deal-to-buy-minecraft-1410300213

So what will happen? Skype suffered a nice decrease in quality when Microsoft purchased them.

Clonkex
Forum Vice President
13
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 20th May 2010
Location: Northern Tablelands, NSW, Australia
Posted: 12th Sep 2014 05:02
Whaaaaat. M$ is buying Mojang?? Baaaaad. Very bad.

Quote: "Skype suffered a nice decrease in quality when Microsoft purchased them."


Indeed it did.

The thing is, ever since Gates left M$, it's been getting worse. It can't keep up with the times, it's too controlling and it changes all the wrong things. I mean, look at Games For Windows Live. That was utter crap. It didn't work half the time and the saves were encrypted to your account. And now they've discontinued the service, so multiplayer just stops working in heaps of games - and unlike when Gamespy shut down, M$ offered no alternative. PLUS, GFWL is completely closed-source and locked down, so the community can't even fix the issue.

I love Windows 7. I always have and always will. But I detest M$ with a passion.

M$ tries to turn everything into a new source of revenue... even things that shouldn't be. And it'll do that with Minecraft too... and will ruin it.

M$ needs to go completely the other direction. Instead of locking everything down and trying to keep hold of everything, they need to be more open and less controlling. They should release Windows for free.... and make it open-source. Imagine the boom in Windows users then! The custom versions! The properly repaired bugs from community devs who actually care about the software! The decades-old problems that Windows has always suffered being fixed! How exciting that day would be.

The simple fact is that M$ is too big. One day it will crumble under its own weight.

Van B
Moderator
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 8th Oct 2002
Location: Sunnyvale
Posted: 12th Sep 2014 12:14
Really Notch might as well. It's not like he'll ever put in the effort required to make another Minecraft. Dude might as well sell up and retire IMO... he can be a flamboyant investor in crowd funded projects and indie projects to ease his success guilt. Or he could fund a sequel to Indie Game The Movie, or anything he likes really. Why is he still working again! - I think he's awesome but you need to be hungry to get a project finished properly, and he doesn't look hungry to me.

I am the one who knocks...
The Zoq2
14
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 4th Nov 2009
Location: Linköping, Sweden
Posted: 12th Sep 2014 17:08 Edited at: 12th Sep 2014 17:09
I really hope this is true, mojang and minecraft sort of started the stream of new indie games and being brought by microsoft can only mean bad things for the company. I want to believe that this rumour is false since notch has been very anti big company in the past, he stoped developing minecraft for oculus when that was brought by facebook for example. The worrying thing is that nobody from mojang has commented on this, if the rumour didn't have any truth to it, they would tell us. Someone on reddit speculated that microsoft want to aquire the minecraft xbox version which would make some sense, especially since mojang arn't even the developers of that and since they have already favoured microsoft with the console versions of the game.

Quote: "Why is he still working again! - I think he's awesome but you need to be hungry to get a project finished properly, and he doesn't look hungry to me."


I don't really think he does work that much anymore, he started the 0x10c game a while back but abandoned it and other than that he has only done some stuff on gamejams as far as I know.

Say ONE stupid thing and it ends up as a forum signature forever. - Neuro Fuzzy
Blobby 101
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 17th Jun 2006
Location: England, UK
Posted: 13th Sep 2014 00:07
To be honest, I don't think this is such a bad thing - Notch has said he'd leave afterwards if this deal goes through, so all you'd have would be MS running Minecraft (and other than little kids, who's still playing Minecraft?) and Notch with a fairly hefty chunk of money in his pocket to fund some future projects.

All we really lose is the Mojang name.

TheComet
16
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 18th Oct 2007
Location: I`m under ur bridge eating ur goatz.
Posted: 13th Sep 2014 01:54
2 billion is way too little in my opinion.

I like offending people. People who get offended should be offended. -- Linux Torvalds
Quik
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 3rd Jul 2008
Location: Equestria!
Posted: 13th Sep 2014 02:38
Quote: "To be honest, I don't think this is such a bad thing - Notch has said he'd leave afterwards if this deal goes through, so all you'd have would be MS running Minecraft (and other than little kids, who's still playing Minecraft?) and Notch with a fairly hefty chunk of money in his pocket to fund some future projects."


I do get back to it.. from time to time..



Whose eyes are those eyes?
Clonkex
Forum Vice President
13
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 20th May 2010
Location: Northern Tablelands, NSW, Australia
Posted: 13th Sep 2014 16:40
Quote: "and other than little kids, who's still playing Minecraft?"


...only everyone. I doubt many people play vanilla MC (many being relative), but MC with mods is still booming, particularly since the Yogscast almost play Minecraft almost in exclusion to other games (though less so recently). MC is still a popular game.

Quote: "All we really lose is the Mojang name."


If that were all, I'd be just fine with that, but I know all too well that M$ are going to screw it up. Mark my words.

Blobby 101
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 17th Jun 2006
Location: England, UK
Posted: 13th Sep 2014 17:49
Quote: "MC is still a popular game."
I know it's still popular (my nephew loves it), but I'd assumed most actual gamers who played it would've got bored of it by now - it's a 5 year old game xD Either way though, fair enough - but I don't see Microsoft utterly ruining it, even if they start charging for updates or something you always have the option of modding it like people always did.

Phaelax
DBPro Master
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 16th Apr 2003
Location: Metropia
Posted: 13th Sep 2014 19:37
Don't know what Mojang is nor do I play minecraft. I find this news irrelevant.

The Zoq2
14
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 4th Nov 2009
Location: Linköping, Sweden
Posted: 13th Sep 2014 19:39
I still play quite a lot of minecraft, but thats just because I have been playing on a server for a few years and made some friends on it. Most of the time I don't even play the game, I just fly around in creative and talk to people

Say ONE stupid thing and it ends up as a forum signature forever. - Neuro Fuzzy
Clonkex
Forum Vice President
13
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 20th May 2010
Location: Northern Tablelands, NSW, Australia
Posted: 14th Sep 2014 02:57
Rudolpho
18
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 28th Dec 2005
Location: Sweden
Posted: 15th Sep 2014 13:13
He better hurry it up then before the new Swedish government re-introduces the heavy profit taxes...

Quote: "Don't know what Mojang is"

It's probably "mojäng" spelled with an A in place of the Ä, which is a slang word for "(probably mechanical) thing" or the likes of that.


"Why do programmers get Halloween and Christmas mixed up?"
MrValentine
AGK Backer
13
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 5th Dec 2010
Playing: FFVII
Posted: 15th Sep 2014 19:37
$2.5B complete...

Jeku
Moderator
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 4th Jul 2003
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Posted: 15th Sep 2014 21:43
I think this is nothing but fantastic news for the indie game scene. To think that you can make a little game in your bedroom and eventually sell the company for several billion dollars! That is a pipe dream! So what if Microsoft buys your "artistic creativity" from your company? The owner has already stated he's leaving the company and starting a new one anyway.

Senior Developer - CBS Interactive Music Group
TheComet
16
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 18th Oct 2007
Location: I`m under ur bridge eating ur goatz.
Posted: 15th Sep 2014 23:14
Can't wait to sign into MineCraft with my Microsoft Live Account

I like offending people. People who get offended should be offended. -- Linux Torvalds
baxslash
Valued Member
Bronze Codemaster
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 26th Dec 2006
Location: Duffield
Posted: 15th Sep 2014 23:25
Notch is going back to just doing Ludum Dares and messing around with ideas. Sounds like he was never really up to much more than that anyway, I don't blame him. If I had a few hundred million in the bank I'd probably do Ludum Dare and muck about with game ideas most of the time too...
Quik
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 3rd Jul 2008
Location: Equestria!
Posted: 16th Sep 2014 00:00
Quote: "Notch is going back to just doing Ludum Dares and messing around with ideas."


This seems like the ONLY thing to do if this was the case; To embrace your creative mind - and not having to worry about other stuff to make ends meet



Whose eyes are those eyes?
bitJericho
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 9th Oct 2002
Location: United States
Posted: 16th Sep 2014 00:01
Quote: "Don't know what Mojang is nor do I play minecraft. I find this news irrelevant."


Why are you even here

Blobby 101
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 17th Jun 2006
Location: England, UK
Posted: 16th Sep 2014 00:21 Edited at: 16th Sep 2014 00:24
Quote: "If I had a few hundred million in the bank"

For what it's worth, Notch owned a 70% stake in Mojang, giving him the best part of 1.75 billion dollars before tax and things. Not a bad outcome from a game he made in his spare time!

Edit: My maths is a bit out there, but I'm gonna leave it. It's not too far wrong

Seditious
10
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 2nd Aug 2013
Location: France
Posted: 16th Sep 2014 03:22
Does it necessarily mean MS will be running the show?

Quote: " If I had a few hundred million in the bank I'd probably do Ludum Dare and muck about with game ideas most of the time too..."


I'd probably donate most of it to charity. Or start a cat home.
Clonkex
Forum Vice President
13
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 20th May 2010
Location: Northern Tablelands, NSW, Australia
Posted: 16th Sep 2014 14:18
Quote: "Does it necessarily mean MS will be running the show?"


Given their record, I'd say yes, even if not immediately.

Van B
Moderator
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 8th Oct 2002
Location: Sunnyvale
Posted: 16th Sep 2014 15:56
Maybe he should give some money to the people who made Infiniminer

Maybe he should give some money to the people making the iOS version, so they can finish that off before MS bury it in bedrock - damn thing was just about to get infinite worlds too.

Maybe he can sponsor his own yearly competition for indie and hobbyist game developers. That would be pretty nice.

I am the one who knocks...
TheComet
16
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 18th Oct 2007
Location: I`m under ur bridge eating ur goatz.
Posted: 16th Sep 2014 17:52


I like offending people. People who get offended should be offended. -- Linux Torvalds
Clonkex
Forum Vice President
13
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 20th May 2010
Location: Northern Tablelands, NSW, Australia
Posted: 17th Sep 2014 01:37

Login to post a reply

Server time is: 2024-03-29 09:21:46
Your offset time is: 2024-03-29 09:21:46