Tweet
What Are Devs Saying About Microsoft's $2.5B Minecraft Acquisition?
Mojang--and, by extension, its hit game Minecraft--are now owned by Microsoft, following today's $2.5 billion acquisition of the Swedish game developer. The deal was formally announced by the two companies today following recent reports suggesting the Xbox maker would purchase the company. Coinciding with the news, Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson revealed he will leave the company to explore his own small projects.
Naturally, this is major news for the games industry; beyond Notch leaving, there's the sheer size of the deal and the importance of Minecraft, which is poised to be one of the most influential games ever.
As a result, the development community has been busy commenting on the situation on Twitter. We've gathered up a selection of developer tweets on the subject--which range from jokes to congratulations to reflections on the significance of the deal--for you to check out below. (We haven't seen much in the way of talk from Microsoft or Sony employees, though Xbox boss Phil Spencer did change his avatar to a Minecraft block.)
Markus "Notch" Persson (very rich former owner of Mojang)
[INDENT]Lots of people asking what this means for me personally. Thank you all for your concern
Naturally, this is major news for the games industry; beyond Notch leaving, there's the sheer size of the deal and the importance of Minecraft, which is poised to be one of the most influential games ever.
As a result, the development community has been busy commenting on the situation on Twitter. We've gathered up a selection of developer tweets on the subject--which range from jokes to congratulations to reflections on the significance of the deal--for you to check out below. (We haven't seen much in the way of talk from Microsoft or Sony employees, though Xbox boss Phil Spencer did change his avatar to a Minecraft block.)
Markus "Notch" Persson (very rich former owner of Mojang)
Respectfully, I'm not going to be doing any interviews.
— Markus Persson (@notch) September 15, 2014
Lydia Winters (Mojang "director of fun")— Markus Persson (@notch) September 15, 2014
Please be kind to the Mojangstas. The founders made this decision, so we have a lot of emotions going on too 
— Lydia (@LydiaWinters) September 15, 2014
Erik Broes (Minecraft developer)— Lydia (@LydiaWinters) September 15, 2014
Everyone is still here. We have to see what Microsoft brings to the table. Talks with them soon I hope? 
— Erik Broes (@_grum) September 15, 2014
Nathan Adams (Minecraft developer)— Erik Broes (@_grum) September 15, 2014
[INDENT]Lots of people asking what this means for me personally. Thank you all for your concern