Microsoft bids $2 billion for Minecraft

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/video/microsoft-bids-billion-minecraft-25406269

 

Also, Mojang don't like big companies. That's why they won't add support for Oculus Rift.

 

yep & yep..
I'm very skeptical about it too. Nevertheless it's good advertising for Mojang!
And Notch doesn't seem to like the big monopolies.

 

It's not going to happen.

 

Mojang aren't idiots, it wont happen

 

Not for that price anyway.

 

Sorry to break it to you fellas. Microsoft has just acquired Mojang for 2.5 billion dollars. This has been confirmed by both parties.

Mojang's post: https://mojang.com/2014/09/yes-were-being-bought-by-microsoft/

Microsoft's post: http://news.xbox.com/2014/09/games-minecraft-to-join-microsoft

Notch's goodbye: http://notch.net/2014/09/im-leaving-mojang/

Well, it's happened. I can't believe it. I don't know what to say. This contradicts everything Notch has said. He said himself he wanted the chance to create his "own Valve", in response to a job offer by Valve.

I got no idea where Minecraft is headed now. Hopefully it will stay the same.

Emotions aside, what the HECK was Microsoft thinking? There is no way Mojang is worth 2.5 billion, or even 1 billion. The only thing worth anything is the userbase, and I still don't know how that's worth a couple billion dollars.

EDIT: Sorry there, just saw your post.

 

Dang, I was typing it and then you posted.

Anyways, wonder what this means for Minecraft. Apparently it's still out across all platforms. In that case, this deal is worth even less.

They say they will keep the community intact but I don't know if I can trust them on that. Microsoft doesn't have experience running a game with a community like this(Do they?). If they ruin this game...

 

So, minecraft is no longer an indie game, which was one of the best parts

 

Uh, the MC community is shit anyhow, except for sub groups like Shadecrest

 

Well, by community I meant mods, Youtube, servers, forums. Some servers do suck but Minecraft isn't Minecraft without the community.

 

Holy... shit.

 

Oh, I know that! But YouTube.. uh... That's good except SkyMilksMinecraft and Co.

 

*tin foil hat on, 100% paranoid speculation*

Minecraft is Java. It's almost exclusively run on a LAMP stack (Linux Apache MySQL Php).

Part of the reason why Microsoft bought Mojang is to convert all their games to a Microsoft code base which would run on the latest version of .Net, therefore forcing the community to run Azure cloud servers provided by Microsoft partners for their hosting solutions, and in the process reducing the total market share of LAMP stacks while increasing the number of Azure cloud servers out on the internet. I'm sure while writing the Xbox One version of Minecraft, the game is already .Net, they just need to make sure it's got all the latest features baked into it.

They will also intentionally bloat the code over time so it runs slower even though it's moving from Java to .Net (and should make it faster) for the sole purpose of making it to make sure it runs at least as slow if not slower and requires people to buy stronger hardware over time, as that is their agreement with Intel.

Microsoft will also likely change it from a numbered versioning scheme to instead based on dates like Minecraft 2015. This will initially rolled out this Christmas with the 2.0 release (and the first Microsoft .Net release) titled "Microsoft 2015, piss off your playerbase edition"

 

Heh, I was listening to "Foil" by Weird Al at that moment. Tin foil hats everywhere!

 

I dont see this effecting the community of Minecraft, Mojang still owns Minecraft, its just that Microsoft owns Mojang im sure the game and community will not change, if they do, it will probably be for the better.

Although if Cybers foil hat theory is correct, o guess that would mean more expencive too run servers. correct??

 

Yeah, you know why I've been running SpaceEngineers locally. Because while it's .Net and runs amazingly well. Microsoft servers are FUCKING EXPENSIVE to run in comparison to a LAMP stack. It would be even more expensive if we're talking SQL Server. Although ADO.Net and even EntityFramework works just fine connecting to MySQL so I doubt if we went to Microsoft servers that it would require SQL Server.

Likely IF (again tin foil hat on) this happened, I would see Microsoft initially releasing it as an "option" and then having a "deal" for Micorosft official hosts to initially offer Microsoft Azure hosting for cheaper than most competing LAMP servers. People would jump all over it. Then over time Microsoft would implement features which didn't work "as well" on LAMP server hosts (particularly if the playerbase was connecting with Microsoft clients) and bugs would begin to pile up until eventually everyone had to switch to a Microsoft host.

Also, I didn't mention this earlier but if they do switch to a .Net client, likely the game's API would expand, get better, and mods would be "loadable" but direct modification of client (aka dropping stuff into the jar) would no longer be possible because it would be a precompiled Exe. It would make some modding impossible, but again they would broaden the built in modding support to make it easier for players to just drop in mods.