Notch to sell Minecraft to M$ for more than $2b

Lucky Day

Lucky Day

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Sounds like a good exit point to me.
The other two - very simplified - options I see are either growing Minecraft slowly by replacing the old console platforms by the new ones, or growing quickly by bringing in a couple of people from Disney for example, who know how to role the big dice when it comes to franchise building. Both would include the opportunity for an IPO. The last option would be by far the most promising, but also the most risky and the one needing most involvement by Persson to keep it on track.
So why not exit now while the product is healthy and there's still fantasy in the market?
 
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Good for him if he is smart he should take it.:)

Maybe he will invest some of that money to make more games like Age of Wonders III. I also have never played MineCraft as it never appealed to me.
 
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Ugh. Well, at least it's not EA I guess. Notch is relatively young; if this is true, can't fault him for trying to cut his ties and move on with life.
 
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So is Notch the only winner here? My understanding is Notch owns the intellectual property and licenses it to Mojang. If Microsoft buys Mojang its not really worth that much in my opinion without that, hopefully Microsoft is smarter than Ebay and get all of the IP turned over to them (the Skype founders pull that trick). Also seems like Microsoft is about 2 years late to the party but then what I know I'm not worth $2B.

Edit: now that I read the full article it basically says that but isn't definitive.
 
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Wow that's a lot of money. Sure, Minecraft is big but.. wow, that really is a lot of money. I'll be honest: I'd sell, so I'm certainly not going to get on his back if that's what he decides to do.
 
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It's more than facebook paid for occulus rift :) It's a kind of a sick price.

Of course Notch has been holding his independent flag strong and people might look down on him if he sells to Microsoft. But I think he realised that it's too much adminstration for him with Minecraft and it prevents him from working on his own new creative projects as he'd really like to do.

One thing is sure, he doesn't really need that kind of money, he is already extremly rich.
 
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If it's true that Mojang transfered more than 100M$ per year to Notch's company who holds the rights, then 2B$ for the whole thing isn't unrealistic.
 
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Can't blame him at all to sell for that sick price.

I'd retire and just travel for the rest of my life.
 
I wonder if Notch will end up doing with his money, if this deal goes through. He has previously stated that he did not know what to do with the money he got from Minecraft. While he did (as stated above) use some of his money to fund certain games that he wanted to see, he also spent a lot of money on "strange" things, like the 2km yard sale, which is going on right now (it's an annual thing, but this year, he seem to be one of the big sponsors). You have to respect a person who's first reaction when he gets a lot of money is not to spend most of it on himself, but to help other people.
 
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I hope he turns out to be a philanthropist...the amount of money he has earned for something that is not 'rocket science' and which largely seems to have carried on under its own self-sustaining momentum, is obscene. I never understood the attraction of Minecraft myself...but that is neither here nor there. I know that I would send a large chunk of that money in the direction of education, health support in the third world etc. But of course, the usual response is "well, I made it, so why should I? What did they do to help?". That attitude is why the world is still a shambles - people only want to give if they get something in return, and they more they have, the more entrenched that attitude seems to become. I have great respect for the super-wealthy who (even if later in life) start dedicating their lives to spreading their wealth to help others. Very, very uncommon sadly.
 
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xSamhainx said:
people still play this?
Click to expand...

It got even bigger when it found its way to consoles and phones. ie.



In my search I discovered there were rumours it wouldn't work on the Fire. Not that anyone is buying it anyway...

Considering his snarkiness towards MS and any of the majors, such as removing support for the Oculus Rift when it sold out to Facebook, there's a certain irony. I recall a number of people in regards to the EA purchase of Bioware.
 
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It's official M$ is buying Minecraft here is post about it on Mojang page.

And holly crap $2.5 Billions I knew game was popular but is it really enough popular to be worth THAT much.
 
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Well, as I already predicted... here is Notch post about that:

I'm leaving Mojang

I don’t see myself as a real game developer. I make games because it’s fun, and because I love games and I love to program, but I don’t make games with the intention of them becoming huge hits, and I don’t try to change the world. Minecraft certainly became a huge hit, and people are telling me it’s changed games. I never meant for it to do either. It’s certainly flattering, and to gradually get thrust into some kind of public spotlight is interesting.

A relatively long time ago, I decided to step down from Minecraft development. Jens was the perfect person to take over leading it, and I wanted to try to do new things. At first, I failed by trying to make something big again, but since I decided to just stick to small prototypes and interesting challenges, I’ve had so much fun with work. I wasn’t exactly sure how I fit into Mojang where people did actual work, but since people said I was important for the culture, I stayed.

I was at home with a bad cold a couple of weeks ago when the internet exploded with hate against me over some kind of EULA situation that I had nothing to do with. I was confused. I didn’t understand. I tweeted this in frustration. Later on, I watched the This is Phil Fish video on YouTube and started to realize I didn’t have the connection to my fans I thought I had. I’ve become a symbol. I don’t want to be a symbol, responsible for something huge that I don’t understand, that I don’t want to work on, that keeps coming back to me. I’m not an entrepreneur. I’m not a CEO. I’m a nerdy computer programmer who likes to have opinions on Twitter.

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.

Considering the public image of me already is a bit skewed, I don’t expect to get away from negative comments by doing this, but at least now I won’t feel a responsibility to read them.

I’m aware this goes against a lot of what I’ve said in public. I have no good response to that. I’m also aware a lot of you were using me as a symbol of some perceived struggle. I’m not. I’m a person, and I’m right there struggling with you.

I love you. All of you. Thank you for turning Minecraft into what it has become, but there are too many of you, and I can’t be responsible for something this big. In one sense, it belongs to Microsoft now. In a much bigger sense, it’s belonged to all of you for a long time, and that will never change.

It’s not about the money. It’s about my sanity.
Click to expand...
 
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What a cool guy! I wish him lots of fun and that he finds good uses for the money that fate threw his way.
 
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Even if it was about the money, who could blame him? Personally, I never thought Minecraft was innovative or particularly special - except perhaps for the multiplayer implementation. The core concept was extremely derivative of old games like Boulder Dash or Rogue-like sandboxes.

As such, I can definitely understand wanting to get away from it all - and just sell it.

Microsoft are desperately doing what they can to buy their way into the industry, now that they've utterly messed it up with the new Xbox.

Hardly a surprise :)

That said, of course it has SOMETHING to do with the money. No reason to claim differently - and I personally guarentee that he doesn't love all of his fans ;)
 
Go Notch!

I hope he continues to investing in small gaming companies.
 
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