Alright, maybe I should weigh in with a proper, reasoned opinion this time, rather than emotionally-relevant memes. The reason the idea of Microsoft buying Mojang (and therefor, Minecraft) fills me with horror isn't out of some misplaced idea they'll start taking away or limiting what's already available. No, not even to push Sony off "their turf" - though I'll grant you the idea that MS would strangle development of Minecraft PS Version to help boost the XBone's sales and relevance isn't entirely far-fetched. No, there's only one reason I can think of why they'd be willing to pay a $2-bil pricetag for a company with but a single, ubiquitous game to its credit. And this guy pretty much nailed it: Two billion USD is a lot to shell out for a game that's already topped ridiculous sales volume and made itself a household name. Stands to reason then, sales of the game itself aren't a driving force behind the buy-out, since as Spartan said, you don't put down that kind of investment unless you expect a return on it. So what's left to capitalize on? A: Multiplayer. They want Realms, they want XBox Live integration (for Xbox version) - and more than likely, they want every subscription dollar and seasonal / crossover DLC they can squeeze out of it. What they don't want is someone else trying to make a buck off their new property: that means anyone earning an income from the Minecraft name, whether it be server operators, popular youtubers, mod-makers, or any other niche you can think of. Some good might come of this, in terms of Minecraft's ongoing development. Hell, we might even continue to see free updates adding in new stuff. And as I mentioned earlier, they're not EA, which means at least they won't be nickel-and-diming us for every piece of new content they can dream up. Just the special maps, the COD player skins (to coincide with whatever COD is releasing that year), and probably some holiday-themed goofy stuff not unlike the promos we see here already. Bottom line: I don't think this will "ruin minecraft for evar!!!11!1one!" but it's very likely to have a nasty impact on multiplayer / server communities as M$ digs its talons in to get control over their game. And unlike Mojang, I expect they have both the resources and the motivation to pursue it. Aggressively.
Yeah , and you would need to buy account(s) on each new windows version, otherwise it would be singleplayer demo
if that happens let's just hope that it dosen't go like every other good thing sold to bigger companies or groups
They don't want Minecraft. They want Mojang, for whatever reason. Mojang have only made one (Scrolls was semi-successful at launch, but player count and sales numbers quickly dwindled) successful game, that's Minecraft - and Minecraft is running on low on steam, in my opinion.
Not to mention, Mojang would have listened and RESPECTED what we have built on servers over the years, but Microsoft will be like a demolition company not even caring to destroy entire communities.
Microsoft isn't completely oblivious either, they want to keep the fans from Minecraft for whatever else they plan on making with Mojang. The outrage would be shockingly huge if they tried to get rid of servers.
What? Microsoft already have a multitude of much better, well-equipped developers under their belt. If they wanted a company to to make a game, they would not use Mojang, because they are a bad developer. Microsoft want to buy Mojang out because they want money off Minecraft, which would probably give them a lot more than the £2 billion they spent tryig to acquire them.
Are we thinking of the same Microsoft? Because they can be pretty tone-deaf and oblivious to what people actually want. Not that they'd be so stupid as to shut down public servers overnight, but you can bet their long-term strategy aims to stomp out private owners and get players forking the cash over to them instead. It's astonishing how people can get used to complete bullshit if the changes are phased in gradually. Just look at YouTube. A EULA update here, an "authentication patch" there, and we're all left wondering how we let them get away with it...
..one little update on this story..just heard from someone who seems to know a bit more than us, mere mortals, that Mojang is not for sale! They want to stay INDIE and not sell it to anyone for any money! ________________ ..but as we know how things usually go when the "buyer" is Microsoft, the wants and hopes might not be enough to stop them from "absorbing" Mojang like they have done to other "smaller companies" that none remembers their names anymore...
Since Mojang isn't a publicly traded company we don't have to worry about them being absorbed. Hopefully your source is right.
You may want to check out the date of that information. It is not everyday that the largest financial reporting sites post articles about almost complete deals without extensive evidence.
Don't forget how the community made Microsoft change quite a few features of the Xbox One with a lot of raging.
I haven't forgotten. It was glorious. But between the Bukkit drama and the EULA issues before that, how many severs do you think would finally say "that's it, I'm out," if Microshaft started putting the screws to them too? There's a point at which things just become more trouble than they're worth, and it wouldn't surprise me if multiplayer communities simply thinned out too much to raise the kind of unholy hell it'd take for Microsoft to sit up and pay attention. 'Course, that is all speculation, and I wouldn't mind being proven wrong. I just don't have a lot of good will for the folks who thought an always-on(line) Xbone with mandatory HAL9000 peripheral was a good idea.
The biggest stink that the community could possibly make would be to produce an alternative. The sponge project intends to take the place of bukkit, which is good. I don't fully understand how much Forge is reliant on minecraft's server code, but I believe it is still in part dependant, but, I think if it became necessary, the community could cut ties with mojang's authentication servers and make a clean cut once and for all. The game name would change and one of the non-mojang clients would become required to connect. This is a lot of work and would delay updates for quite some time, but I believe the community is already up to the challenge based on their response to the whole bukkit takedown. This is the leverage that we have against the dooms day predictions that people are concerned about. If there was no alternative, I believe Microsoft would shut everyone down in a heartbeat, but they might play ball while the community is poised to react. The threat might also kill the deal or even give Mojang pause to reconsider.
The last few weeks of Minecraft experience: EULA changes - Bukkit discontinued - Microsoft buy-out. What's gonna be next?
The whole EULA ("an acronym that I don't understand") issue didn't affect me. But this feels so white and black, life or death to me; and It gets to me every time not to play Minecraft. There's nothing I can do about it and nothing for myself to blame for. The internet can sometimes make users feel negative if they aren't cautious, like this ongoing rumor.
I have to add that if all of this negativism of Minecraft right now is hurting your feelings, like they have been for me, then find a way to lose your focus. Until it happens for me, I'll be too obsessed to accomplish anything in the game because it makes me feel like my work is absolutly pointless. And if I make it too bad, depression will follow.
I really don't expect Microsoft to do anything to make users of their products unhappy. Recently, they have done nothing but apologize and back track whenever people got angry. I expect they will take over realms (and likely make it a more viable option) but they won't do anything drastic. They announced deatures for the xbone, people yelled loudly, they changed. Windows 8 happened, People yelled loudly, they are currently trying to change. Players are currently barely able to make money off of Minecraft as of now, Other than outright banning all donations to servers, they can't make it any worse. It is also very important to remember that their view on business is changing. Somewhat recently, their new CEO told everyone that they should focus on making their services amazing for everyone, not just windows users. If this new outlook on business caries over, they won't kill off the other Minecraft versions and will actually actively try to make everything great.
