Yep, my guess was just about right as to the reasons. But holy crap, $2.5 billion?!?? And from his personal blog: "It’s not about the money. It’s about my sanity." (Although the money has to be very nice regardless!)
How much money can there be left in Minecraft to make 2.5 billion worth it? I own six accounts and I'll never buy another one.
It's very popular with kids (my brothers' kids go nuts for it) and kids are getting old enough to play every day and pestering their parents for an account. That aside there's also the branding and merchandising rights. If memory serves the rule of thumb for any corporate buyout is usually around five or six times the company's annual intake. From what I've heard of the kind of business Mojang does, that figure is about right. Though I'm a little surprised as his choice of buyer, I can't really blame Notch for cashing out. He never signed up to be the CEO of a major software company, nor did he ask to be the de-facto figurehead of the indie gaming scene.
Microsoft is trying desperately to increase their share in the mobile market. I sincerely doubt they'll do anything to disrupt the fans' enjoyment of the game because that's what their profitability depends on. They might add a lot of cross-pollenation stuff with other properties.
There's a good bit of merchandising money involved. Can't blame Notch for taking the cash. That's "fuck you" money right there. Dude can do whatever he wants for the rest of his life.
Yeah, from what I understand from Microsoft's side, since they're having difficulty with their own platform, they figure they might as well put their foot into the doors of other mobile platforms. That's a pretty big incentive as they get one of the top-rated apps on those platforms. Instant win for them. On the customer side of things, I'm really skeptical, but I guess we'll have to see how they handle Minecraft. If they end up pissing off the modding community, that could hurt quite a bit for the long term.
Of course its great for Notch. Who wrote a silly Java game that just made him a billionaire. And its probably great news for XBox players, who'll hopefully get all the updates that pc players have enjoyed. As for us, I'm just not sure what to think other than just wait and see, and be grateful that it wasn't bought by EA. Translation: "We counted the number of zeroes on the check."
No doubt somewhere in the world at this very moment XB1 Minecraft bundles are being run off a conveyor belt and stacked up like minecraft blocks in some warehouse, ready to hit the streets.
Except, one famous game is not going to suddenly make their platform attractive. There's no doubt its going to hurt minecraft in the long term. Microsoft wouldn't intentionally kill the game, but they'll definitely accidentally do it by tacking on things that would be beneficial only for Microsoft.
If Microsoft decides to make Mojang adopt the "Microsoft Way," then yeah, that'll kill it good and dead. Mojang apparently has a lovely company culture and MS is certainly inept enough not to recognize it, and just unwittingly stamp it out.
Pretty much. I think there's an element of naivity there on their part. Yeah, which we've seen them do in the past. I think there's a reason for people to feel nervous about this. It wouldn't even have to be something major, but something subtle that ends up eroding something away, like say, the spirit of the game. Speaking of Notch, he reminds me of the Flappybird developer who panicked and couldn't cope with the popularity of his game and subsequently pulled it.
Well, maybe not on the pulling, as Notch didn't do that, but based on that letter that was posted by Mojang and the words followed by Notch, he was uncomfortable by the game's success and never meant it to be the success it was. Flappybird's developer shared the same feelings about his game. I dunno, but I'm seeing parallels between the two, but maybe it's just me.
I really don't think he minds the success, it's just he doesn't know how to deal with it from a business perspective. He's a programmer, not a businessman. I'd probably do the same, given the chance.