"You're picking on the wrong guy"

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]