According to recent rumors, Microsoft Corp. is in talks with Minecraft developer Mojang for a possible buy out. This news, if true, would come as a surprise given Mojang’s founder Marcus “Notch” Persson’s has a reputation for publicly vilifying large corporations. “Notch” has mentioned in the past of other companies attempting to buy the franchise or studio.
“We make a lot of money because Minecraft is a huge phenomenon and we’ve got extremely passionate and friendly fans who make the game the phenomenon it is, and we’re very fortunate and grateful, but it’s not what drives us. Mojang does not exist to make as much money as possible for the owners. As the majority shareholder, I’d know. Every time a big money making deal comes up that would make a lot of money, it’s of course very tempting, but at the end of the day we choose to do what either makes the most sense for our products, or the things that seem like fun for us at Mojang.”
Mojang is the third highest selling video game ever made with 50 million copies sold across PC, 4 consoles, and even mobile devices. An attractive title with numbers like that would make most large companies think of purchasing the IP for themselves. The deal with Microsoft would be interesting, as “Notch has stated in the past that he has “turned down money like that” in reference to the acquisition of the Oculus Rift by Facebook for $2 billion.
