Microsoft is Buying Mojang for $2.5 Billion

Microsoft confirmed this morning that it’s buying massively popular game Minecraft and the studio behind it, Mojang. The purchase amount is $2.5 billion. Don’t panic: Microsoft says it “plans to continue to make Minecraft available across all the platforms on which it is available today: PC, iOS, Android, Xbox and PlayStation.” Though Microsoft is purchasing theMinecraft intellectual property — game, licensing, and any other rights involved — it isn’t getting the game’s creator, Markus “Notch” Persson. A note from the Mojang team says, “Notch, Carl, and Jakob are leaving. We don’t know what they’re planning. It won’t beMinecraft-related but it will probably be cool” (Carl Manneh is Mojang’s CEO and Jakob Porser is a co-founder).

Notch’s own statements are far more serious. “I don’t see myself as a real game developer,” his statement leads with. He says that Minecraft became far larger than he ever expected, and that massive entity has become overwhelming for him to deal with. Moreover, he’s done with “big” games forever. “As soon as this deal is finalized, I will leave Mojang and go back to doing Ludum Dares and small web experiments. If I ever accidentally make something that seems to gain traction, I’ll probably abandon it immediately,” he writes. Addressing the subject of the buyout’s price, Notch says, “It’s not about the money. It’s about my sanity.”

 

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