Minecraft has already proven that it’s a pixelated license to print money, and Microsoft apparently wants the lucrative brand under its umbrella. A report on the Wall Street Journal states that the Redmond-based firm is in talks to purchase Mojang, the organisation behind the bricklaying game.
According to the publication – which cites an unnamed source with “knowledge” on the matter – the deal will be worth an eye watering $2 billion should it go through, and “could be signed as early as this week”. Perspective: that’s a similar sum to what Facebook paid to acquire virtual reality startup, Oculus VR.
It’s an enormous figure, but it may not exactly be unmerited – the smash indie hit has sold almost 54 million units to date. However, the firm’s other projects have failed to really get off the ground, meaning that the acquisition would likely be all about the Minecraft name. The big question is: what would that mean for the future of the franchise on Sony’s systems?
Well, with the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 versions already out, and the Vita edition supposedly not far away, we can’t see it having a colossal impact right now. We suppose that the worst case scenario is that said versions would fail to net future updates, but even that seems difficult to believe. Honestly, it's hard to speculate without more details, so we’ll have to wait and see what Microsoft’s plans for the firm are – if these reports are even true, of course.
[source online.wsj.com, via polygon.com]
Comments 40
Weird.
Sounds like MS. Buying brands instead of creating. Im not sure one IP is worth 2 billion, especially if Mojang cant produce another smash hit.
@3Above That's exactly it - the only possibility I can think of is that there's a Minecraft 2 in the works that we don't know about. Even then, they're not going to sell 54 million copies on Microsoft platforms alone.
In my mind I gave always grouped Mojang along with Zynga and Rovio. One hit wonders who if forced to develop games in the normal 2 yr cycle that most studios do would not be so highly regarded.
I'm really tired of that slimey greedy corporation. They lack talent so they have to buy every thing up. Gosh will they just go away already.
@get2sammyb Thats possible but what could possibly be added to minecraft that cant/hasnt been done with mods? And as you say without PS4 PS3 and Vita there would significantly less sales. Unless MS is just after the licensing fees for the game.
Ugh. I really hope this isn't true. For one I'm not a big fan of mine craft to begin with, and second just imagine what kind of awesome talent they could attract by taking that 2 billion dollars and building a studio from the ground up for brand new Innovative IP. it would be such a better use for money and it would be completely 100% beneficial to the gaming industry. Very dissapointing to me if it's true.
They do this when the japanese refuse to buy the xbox one. https://www.youtube.com/user/thepepoteman/videos , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H46e9XJr3-k , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Romm7YhT6m0 , instead of building up 1st parties they just rather buy up 3rd parties so non xbox owners won't be playing them.
They'll need to recoup some of their $2Bil so I don't see them pulling any versions for awhile. But as our astute night owl Mr Barker pointed out - Minecraft 2.
And for those of you saying its Minecraft, you can already make what you want, may I present to you Little Big Planet, Little Big Planet 2, and Little Big Planet 3.
And 1 thing Minecraft has not done very well is monetize itself. Oh sure it sells, but where's the subscription service, or the DLC? Minecraft is like Lego, how many Lego games are there - Hobbit, Batman, Marvel, Pirates, Potter, etc. I don't know how many worthwhile licenses MS actually owns besides Halo, but I'm sure they can afford the licensing fees to some good ones. Lego still hasn't done TMNT, Dreamworks Dragons, Madagascar, Ice Age or Cloudy w/ a Chance of Meatballs.
And have I mentioned the merchandising?
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=minecraft&sprefix=minec%2Caps
I see $1.8B for the Minecraft name and $200mil for the game. Has to be as good of an investment as $8.5B for Skype.
Imagine if you could have bought Gamefreak and the Pokemon license from Nintendo in 1997, a year after Red and Green came out. What would that be worth today? It was reported to be $24B in 2009, but there have been several games, movies and a whole lot of cards since then.
http://www.vooks.net/Pokemon-franchise-statistics-released--theyve-sold-a-lot/
Oh, and I picked Pokemon b/c I have 2 sons, 1 in elementary school and 1 in middle school, and all they and their friends talk about is Pokemon and Minecraf,so it's not a huge stretch. NY sports teams are a mess of late.
Needs to hurry and come to Vita if this does happen...
Well I'm just glad its not Sony tbh.
And it does sound like a desperate move not even going into fanboy propaganda
2 billion that seem like alot for a game like minecraft why dont they use that money towards something useful i think minecraft has goten dull and boring just my opinion
Amazing how Microsoft are disgusting but if Sony were doing it it would be a brilliant tactical move in the console war.
Hmm. Lets hope not.
@rastamadeus There is no question. Assuming the rumour is true, it IS a brilliant tactical move (though expensive!).
As someone who loves Minecraft, owns a PS4 and not an XBO, I just don't personally want it to happen. Honestly though, MS needs to do something, so I could imagine this being true. Just don't want it to be.
Microsoft may be able to sell Xbox One if, they made Minecraft 2 exclusive to Xbox but, wouldn't they get same flag as when they try to pass off Rise of Tomb Raider as exclusive for Xbox?
Do we not think that if Microsoft is buying this it will be less of an 'Xbox' purchase and more of a wider initiative? I mean, I imagine they want Minecraft for Windows and Windows Phone, too, right? I can't imagine this is a purely Xbox acquisition
Silly. Its not as if PlayStation can't go out and make a cheap rip off exclusive for PS. Nevermind.
@get2sammyb If MS pays 2 billion for MC i will laugh my ass off. The xbox division is a bleeding money part of MS...
@rastamadeus Amazing why the same person is always throwing the hypocrite card at us
@get2sammyb It would definitely be bigger than just for Xbox if they did buy it, for me I don't care to much because I'll just play it on PC if it happens and future projects (like maybe a Minecraft 2 don't come to Sony).
Good heavens!
@mitcHELLspawn Could not agree with you more
@rastamadeus This would still be absolute bullcrep if Sony Nintendo or whoever were doing it
@Sanquine - it snot just about Xbox though.
The numbers, as of June 2014, for anyone who cares:
PC and Mac - 15 million (by by Mac version)
Xbox360 - 12m
PS3 - 3mil
iOS and Android - 16.5 million
Who knows, maybe this has nothing to do w/ the Xbox and MS just wants to make it exclusive for Windows phones where it's not currently avaible? Could be.
Another aspect everyone has overlooked - there hasn't been a Minecraft movie yet. The Lego movie made half a billion dollars in theaters and another $50 million on DVD. So if Microsoft made a Mincecaft movie and 3 sequels it could recoup it's $2bil investment right there
http://www.the-numbers.com/movie/LEGO-Movie-The#tab=summary
It's not just buying a game or a developer, it's buying a family and kid friendly brand.
And no I'm not delirious or deluded:
http://www.cnet.com/news/minecraft-movie-in-the-works-at-warner-bros/
I don't think its' going to be that easy man.
@MorriganIsHot Did you take those yourself? lol
@Jazzer94 If Microsoft bought minecraft they could make only for Xbox One if they chose. With windows phone and xbox not doing as well as they want, this would be enough incentive to make it a mobile/console exclusive.
And don't think it can't happen because it very well can!
@rjejr wow, I'm on Cnet all the time and I missed that. I think I'm beginning to see the bigger picture here.
I hate this buying out crap! I lost one of my favorite android mobile app because apple bought them out. Can these companies chill.
@wittypixel - I swear I almost cried when EA bought Popcap as PvZ and Peggle were 2 of my favorite games at the time and EA, well the less said about them the better. PvZ2 sucks, Garden Warfare went Xbox, still waiting for word on the new Peggle. So my worries were well founded.
Oh, EA paid $1.3Bill for Popcap 3 years ago. Peggle and PvZ are great franchsies, but Minecraft is bigger, so $2B sounds about right to me.
http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/12/confirmed-ea-buys-popcap-games-for-750-million-plus-earn-out/
@wittypixel No I haven't and if I were a minecraft fan I still wouldn't waste money on the ONE just for 1 game. I had a 360 only for Gears and now I'm done with the series I had no interest in keeping the 360. I'm happy with just Wii U and PS4 for this gen.
@MorriganIsHot cool, well welcome to the club! lol and @rjejr I agree, i don't like EA as a company. You can see in their titles and the way the structure their games they're all about profit.
I just hope Mojang says no. I don't think MS putting the hands into Minecraft will make me or anyone happy.
M$ may just want to make money out of it and have the game on every system including PS system. Xbox may not be their priority anymore just like their games going to Windows
@wittypixel - I imagine a few parents being happier if MS were to incorporate the mod scene into the game - too many parents jumping thru too many hurdles w/ the various versions of all the mods and forge. My 9 yr old is currently running 1.6.4 and 1.7.2 I think. A streamlined incorporation along the lines of the many DLC packs for LBP might be worth the money to some.
But overall I'ld agree it's probably bad for gamers.
Lets hope that money goes to good use.
@BLPs I'm almost tempted to link that infamous video, but no.
So it's been about 24 hours now since the rumour broke and Notch hasn't sent out a Tweet refuting it, so that makes it true in my book. Just saying.
Its a shame if true because the PlayStation versions wouldn't get the latest updates that roll out.
I'll be getting the XB0 next year at some point as I like the Halo series and have a few friends on XB Live so if there is a Minecraft 2 in the future I'll still get to play it. For now though I'll be sticking with my PlayStations.
Love the hypocrisy here. Bullying? It's f**king business for Christ's sake. Was it bullying when Sony bought out former independent developers in the past? It's not bullying when Sony demands to own the IP for a game it publishes, even if it didn't create the IP, but it's bs, if MS does it. I love this site and like everybody else am a huge fan of the PlayStation brand but the Sony nuthugging and constant MS bashing is beyond pathetic.
@rastamadeus
You expected a different reaction?
@BLPs
Rare was losing talent before MS took over, the move to MS just made things worse. Honestly, do you think if something wasn't up that Nintendo would have let go that easily? Nintendo saw a new company in the console industry trying to make a splash and played them for fools. Some of what happened with Rare is MS' fault (sticking the talent left on Kinect and doing nothing prior to Kinect to build the studio back up) but there's much more to this story than the ridiculous 'MS ruined Rare' nonsense that is always posted in every game forum whenever the name is brought up.
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