Minecraft Sold to Microsoft: Is it a Start of a New Era?
Microsoft has been in the news again for buying Mojang; the Swedish firm that is responsible for bringing up one of the most popular games, Minecraft. The statement has been verified by the Swedish firm itself on last Monday saying that Microsoft has bought Mojang for $2.5 billion. That famous game; Minecraft that had been sold more than 54 million copies had bought the attention of millions of gamers to this game developing firm. The deal has been announced by Phil Spencer, the Xbox chief. Mojang has started to assure its huge number of fans that “everything is going to be OK”, though Markus ‘Notch’ Persson, including the co-founders of it will leave the company. But the good news is both Microsoft and Mojang separately assured all the fans of this multi-million selling building bid that the gaming progress will never be affected because of this deal.
Minecraft has developed and identified themselves as a global phenomenon since 2009 when they launched a project called “alpha”. Since then they have sold more than 50 million copies on computers, smartphones and consoles. Minecraft has already established themselves as one of the highest selling apps on Apple’s iOS store and Android’s Google Play as well. Besides, they have recently been released for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox with a view to boosting their sales further. Last year, Minecraft generated revenue of an amount of $326. This seemed too much stress for them.
Despite many rumors, Mojang website explained the reasons behind taking this decision, “Over the past few years he’s made attempts to work on smaller projects, but the pressure of owning Minecraft became too much for him to handle. The only option was to sell Mojang. He’ll continue to do cool stuff though. Don’t worry about that.” On their new buyer Microsoft, they said, “There’s no reason for the development, sales, and support of the PC/Mac, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4, Vita, iOS, and Android versions of Minecraft to stop. Of course, Microsoft can’t make decisions for other companies or predict the choices that they might make in the future.”
This take over has came just a year after the Microsoft has bought Nokia, the Finnish mobile phone company. Microsoft has announced that Mojang gaming team would join the gaming studio which has been a success because of making titles like Forza, Halo & Fable.
About this acquisition, CEO of Microsoft said, “Gaming is a top activity spanning devices, from PCs and consoles to tablets and mobile, with billions of hours spent each year,” she also said, “Minecraft is more than a great game franchise – it is an open world platform, driven by a vibrant community we care deeply about, and rich with new opportunities for that community and for Microsoft.”
But it is clearly indicating the fact that Microsoft is trying to boost the sales of its Windows smartphones by grasping the millions of fans of the Minecraft Company.