Microsoft acquires Minecraft maker Mojang for almost two billion euros
Microsoft has acquired Mojang, the company behind the Minecraft games. It has been rumored for some time that Microsoft wanted to take over the indie game studio. Microsoft has paid 2.5 billion dollars for the games maker; converted about 1.94 billion euros.
Microsoft confirmed its acquisition of Mojang on Monday afternoon, after it was rumored last week that Microsoft would buy the game studio for $2 billion. The acquisition amount thus appears to be even higher than that. The founders of Mojang, including the original Minecraft programmer, Markus Persson, are leaving the company.
Persson said he decided to sell Mojang because the ownership of the company was causing him too much stress. For example, fans personally blamed him for the new Minecraft license terms, which caused a stir. “While I want nothing to do with that,” writes Persson, aka ‘Notch’. “I have become a symbol. I don’t want to be a symbol.”
As part of Microsoft, Mojang will continue to support the Minecraft franchise on various platforms, Microsoft writes. This also happens on non-Microsoft operating systems iOS and Android and the competing Sony console PlayStation. Microsoft says it plans to “grow and nurture the Minecraft community and franchise.”
Mojang promises that the community will remain important and that it is “in no one’s interest to stop players from making cool stuff.” It is not yet known whether Mojang employees will have to work on other projects after the transition to Microsoft. It is also not yet known what the takeover means for side projects of Mojang, such as the card game Scrolls.
Mojang has 28 employees and the company makes a turnover of 224 million euros in a year, with a profit of 97 million euros. Mojang has sold 50 million copies of Minecraft in the past five years. Minecraft is available for a variety of platforms, including Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Xbox One, as well as PC, iOS, Android and Sony’s PlayStations. Last week, Microsoft announced its arrival to the Xbox One.