After almost a week of circulating rumors that the company that developed Minecraft, Mojang, would be bought by Microsoft, it has today been confirmed that this is the case.
A post on the developer’s official website cites that Microsoft bought the development studio, which operated out of Stockholm, Sweden, for 2.5 billion dollars. That’s a pretty hefty sum, considering Minecraft started out as a small play around with technology by one man, Markus ‘Notch’ Persson. The announcement discusses how Notch never wanted for his small indie game to become such a titan in the gaming industry.
The community-driven developer also confirmed that the game:
“…will continue to evolve, just like it has since the start of development. We don’t know specific plans for Minecraft’s future yet, but we do know that everyone involved wants the community to grow and become even more amazing than it’s ever been.”
The first public build of Minecraft became in available in May 2009, and instantly caught the attention of the gaming industry as a whole. The sandbox title has infinite possibilities in an endless world, allowing the community to create their own shareable mods and maps that helped to expand on what was already a rapidly growing game.
Since Minecraft‘s release, Notch stepped down as lead developer to work on other projects, with colleague Jens “Jeb” Bergensten taking over his role. It has been confirmed that whilst most Mojang employees will continue to work for the company for the time being, the studio’s founders Markus Persson, Carl Manneh and Jakob Porser, will be leaving the company to work on other things.
The follow-up title to Minecraft, entitled Scrolls, remains on the rocks, so make sure to stay tuned to PopWrapped for further developments in the acquisition story.
Do you think Microsoft acquiring Mojang will be a good decision for the long term development of Minecraft? Let us know!
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