Omnimaga
General Discussion => Gaming Discussion => Technology and Development => Minecraft Discussion => Topic started by: DJ Omnimaga on September 15, 2014, 12:07:24 pm
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Basically M$ bought Mojang
https://mojang.com . what do you think this means for the modding community and the future of the game on non-XBox consoles?
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Basically M$ bought Mojang
https://mojang.com . what do you think this means for the modding community and the future of the game on non-XBox consoles?
I think that little to nothing will change. Possibly accounts will be integrated into Microsoft ID's and there will be better integration into other Microsoft platforms. I doubt that anything major will change. Microsoft isn't the big bad evil company people seem to think it is.
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Basically M$ bought Mojang
https://mojang.com . what do you think this means for the modding community and the future of the game on non-XBox consoles?
I think that little to nothing will change. Possibly accounts will be integrated into Microsoft ID's and there will be better integration into other Microsoft platforms. I doubt that anything major will change. Microsoft isn't the big bad evil company people seem to think it is.
This. Everyone I talk to says it's horrible, but I don't see them tossing their xbaxes or installing Linux. I think people should realize that the team behind Minecraft has changed over the years too and it's not just going from the original creators to people entirely different. Nonetheless, Alpha to 1.8 will still be here to play regardless of how MS change it.
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I see people installing Linux >.> but yes, even I run windows at home as my main operating system.
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They bought mojang for $2.5 billion O.O Mojang sold 16,704,375 copies of minecraft as of right now. At $27 per copy that sums up to $450 million. How is M$ expecting to get their investment back? I mean: it's not like minecraft will be around forever (or will it?) M$ probably has big plans with mojang, otherwise they would not have invested that much money in it.
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Oh, so they bought it now? welp.
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Well, I'd guess that minecraft will be exclusive to Microsoft platforms now. Other than that I unno. I actually don't know much about the minecraft community. If they're smart though, they'll continue to support community mods. Maybe they'll require being approved by Microsoft though, so nothing malicious is made.
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Basically M$ bought Mojang
https://mojang.com . what do you think this means for the modding community and the future of the game on non-XBox consoles?
I think that little to nothing will change. Possibly accounts will be integrated into Microsoft ID's and there will be better integration into other Microsoft platforms. I doubt that anything major will change. Microsoft isn't the big bad evil company people seem to think it is.
My main concern was about the Playstation 3 and Playstation 4 versions of Minecraft, since Sony's consoles are Microsoft Xbox 360/One's arch rivals. Could Microsoft pull the plug from the PS versions and make it PC/Xbox exclusive? Also this could reduce even further chances to see the game appear on the Wii U and portable consoles in the future. Else, it would be like if Halo came out on the Wii U and PS4.
As for modding, I am not as worried about M$ as if I was about Apple, because Microsoft isn't as close-minded towards 3rd-party stuff as Apple is, but I worry that they could try to require an XNA Developer account or something similar like people who develop Xbox Indie Games (IIRC it was $100 a year). That said, chances that this happen are less likely, though.
That said, they better be careful because people can easily create clones of Minecraft that runs on every console or Linux anyway.
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We still have 1.8 and nobody can take that away from us. Server and client software can work independently from the mojang servers if offline mode is turned on (basically bypasses account verification)
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Ah ok that's good then. I guess as long as they don't force an update or something in the same fashion as TI we are safe. :P
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I thought this was a joke at first O.O
M$ might just change the game idea completely :P
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Can we stop using the "M$" shorthand for Microsoft?
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I just picked that up reading this thread :P
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Muaha that topic title certainly caught my attention. (Considering the price of Microsoft Office and Windows) What concerns me is the forlorn attitude I read in some articles coming from Notch. Something like him abandoning all his future projects as soon as they started getting big. Several heads at Mojang are leaving :(
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Well as some people mentionned, he probably started this alone to make some money and didn't realize how big it would get. Then he probably needed a bigger team and it probably evolved over time and he eventually got bored of keeping Minecraft and other programs up to date. Also selling the company to a big entity was probably pretty attracting in terms of sales price. I don't know for how much he sold Mojang, but just because of Minecraft alone it must have been pretty lucrative. The main concern is what Microsoft will do with Minecraft and the third-party mods after its sale:
-Will Minecraft retail price be increased based on popularity? (For example, launch prices are $59.99 in North America and popular games remain between $39.99 and $59.99 for years, while Minecraft always retailed for $19.99 or less and I'm unsure if Minecraft can be considered a mini-game that is usually sold on PSN/Wiiware for $4-8 like other independent games). And I did see older game prices go up in the past: Dragon Crown PS3 and Shin Megami Tensei IV 3DS are notable examples. Granted, Microsoft prices are not as bad as they were a few years ago (I still remember seeing Office 2000 for $499.99 in Staples flyers on a regular basis a decade ago and now they high-end copy of Office 2013 is like $250 max)
-Will Microsoft be open towards the modding community as Notch was or will they be like Apple?
-Will they still develop the game for rival gaming consoles?
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As Mojang published a set of rules concerning the equal status of all players of Minecraft, Microsoft would make many more enemies than they have right now by changing much about this policy. Minecraft has a good equipment to maintain a game as big as Minecraft, which is hard for a small Indie studio. That they invest such a gigantic amount of money suggests that they expect a good deal for themselves, but that doesn't necessarily mean that everything will be changed and Microsoft would squeeze Minecraft tot get as much money as possible before leaving it. A part of the Minecraft community will be gone after this deal, but I hope it opens new opporunities for Minecraft.
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Ah right I didn't know about that. Maybe they signed an agreement for the sale, after all, so that some stuff cannot be changed. Kinda like in sports when certain big teams are purchased and sometimes they include agreements that the team cannot be relocated to another city for the next 30 years without a big penalty, but again in the case of sports teams there is always a league above them that has the last word.
EDIT: Another worry I just had: Could Microsoft decide to make the PC version Windows 8.1-only? When they released Halo 2 they required Vista even though Vista had just come out at the time, so perhaps to sell more copies of Windows 8.1 they could drop Windows 7/Vista support for newer versions of the game?
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Well as some people mentionned, he probably started this alone to make some money and didn't realize how big it would get. Then he probably needed a bigger team and it probably evolved over time and he eventually got bored of keeping Minecraft and other programs up to date. Also selling the company to a big entity was probably pretty attracting in terms of sales price. I don't know for how much he sold Mojang, but just because of Minecraft alone it must have been pretty lucrative. The main concern is what Microsoft will do with Minecraft and the third-party mods after its sale:
-Will Minecraft retail price be increased based on popularity? (For example, launch prices are $59.99 in North America and popular games remain between $39.99 and $59.99 for years, while Minecraft always retailed for $19.99 or less and I'm unsure if Minecraft can be considered a mini-game that is usually sold on PSN/Wiiware for $4-8 like other independent games). And I did see older game prices go up in the past: Dragon Crown PS3 and Shin Megami Tensei IV 3DS are notable examples. Granted, Microsoft prices are not as bad as they were a few years ago (I still remember seeing Office 2000 for $499.99 in Staples flyers on a regular basis a decade ago and now they high-end copy of Office 2013 is like $250 max)
-Will Microsoft be open towards the modding community as Notch was or will they be like Apple?
-Will they still develop the game for rival gaming consoles?
he sold it for 2.5 billion according to various news websites.
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Here are his thoughts on the matter:
http://notch.net/2014/09/im-leaving-mojang/
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I actually saw that quoted in a news article when I googled it.
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Although from reading that post, if I was him and made another hit, I would just leave twitter and silently start a new email. Then I would let the cash flow in for a few weeks while seeking for new ownership. :P
This is what I did with my music, money-wise, sort-off, after a wave of complaints last july/august about the metal stuff. I decided to terminate the two metal albums hosting on iTunes/Spotify just before their annual hosting bill comes in (although there is an alternative with no annual fee if I decide to pay for it) and I ended a Bandcamp promotion.