Rumour confirmed: Microsoft Purchase Minecraft for $2.5B (Post#122)
- Thread starter Rangers
- Start date
Its been rumored that Notch approached MS, so may be MS still has very little ideal on how its going to employ the franchise.
2009 called and wanted its condescending back
Blockland released in 2007....
Silent_Buddha
Legend
And how many people know about Blockland?
And how many people know about Minecraft?
And how many people know about the other dozens upon dozesn of Minecraft clones that have come out since 2009?
Being first doesn't matter. Was the iPad a bad idea since it came out years and years after the Windows XP Tablet edition?
PalmOS bad since the Apple Newton had come out years prior? Originality doesn't matter if it doesn't catch on.I think everyone can agree 2 billion USD is a head scratching number if the rumors of the aquisition are true. But noone can deny that at least currently Minecraft is a mega blockbuster. And sales have continuously increased YoY for the past 5 years, with 2014 likely to have by far the largest sales to date.
Which also makes the potential for paid DLC significantly larger. Especially on consoles which do not have access to PC mods. Note that the revenue and profit numbers for 2013 only include DLC sold for X360. And much more limited DLC than is currently available for 2014.
The profit potential on PC is obviously more limited.
I could envision a scenario where the base Minecraft game is offered free for Xbox consoles but not competing consoles. And then you have a plethora of paid DLC on all consoles.
Free would make the Xbox console somewhat more attractive. Available on all consoles increases revenue generation on competitors consoles.
Hell, I believe Minecraft has the dubious distinction of being the most Youtubed game in existence, likely by an order of magnitude over any other game except possibly Skyrim. There are multiple Youtube channels that I used to go to for humorous gaming exploits and playthroughs that have since converted to covering Minecraft and everything Minecraft and only occasionally showing another game. That speaks to the popularity of the game with the masses.
If Microsoft (or anyone else) can find a way to tap into that... The sky is the limit. The problem is trying to tap into that while at the same time not alienating existing Minecraft aficionados.
Regards,
SB
I'm not saying it's not popular I'm saying it's not original and as it's already a rip off of another game, which I'm sure notch knew about, there's nothing stopping anyone else ripping it off. So 2 billion seems way too much. They will never recoup that outlay and it's not going to stop other platform providers getting this type of game. Q-games already seem on the case as it is.
Let's put this into perspective, it's sold 12 million copies? It's not gta, cod or halo. Good sales for an indie game, probably the best ever, but 2 billion with notch leaving... madness.
Kids play minecraft they don't buy dlc.
Let's put this into perspective, it's sold 12 million copies? It's not gta, cod or halo. Good sales for an indie game, probably the best ever, but 2 billion with notch leaving... madness.
Kids play minecraft they don't buy dlc.
Huh? Minecraft has sold 54 million copies for a single game, not an IP.
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Deleted member 11852
Guest
Take Two took 2.4 billion dollars in revenue last year, with 400 million dollars operating profit. Anybody looking to buy them will likely need more than $2Bn.
But the danger in acquiring a large company is you can't guarantee the talent will stay after the acquisition. Look at Microsoft's three big gaming studio acquisitions: Rare (2002) where most of the original team had gone within 18 months. Bungie (2000) had to left Microsoft to break out of Halo Hell. Lionhead Studios (2006) where like Rare, many of the original team had gone within a few years.
Yea but that was a GTA year and while i'm sure gta for the pc/xone/ps4 will sell very well along with the new civ they don't allways have years like that .
Seems like rockstar likes to make gta and MS can leave them making GTA for the xbox primary and pc secondary and they would be happy. Sid seems to like to keep making his same games also he has been doing it for over 20 years at this point. They also make phone /mobile ports like Civ Rev and X-com . So they can continue that also.
I think GTA 6 only on xbox one would be a bigger deal than minecraft 2 only on MS platforms. GTA is still a game that can't really be played well on mobile devices or tablets. So it would certainly have more of a bang
Reuters is reporting 2.5B announcement Monday. Wow http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN0H72EV20140912?irpc=932
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Deleted member 11852
Guest
In 2012 they took $824m in revenue so they're not exactly scraping by ;-) And don't forget Take Two have been hinting at a Red Dead Redemption sequel for a couple of years. I'd put money on that hitting nextgen in 2015.
Rockstar has an incredibly successful track record and is one of the few companies with a war chest to fund five-year long game development cycles. Plus if you buy Take Two to make their games exclusive, you can kiss the PlayStation platform revenue goodbye.
My apologies, thought someone posted in this thread it had sold 12 million.
That was probably on consoles or somesuch.
Aaaaaand here comes MS's next big investment that will fail to bring returns big enough to justify itself.
In other words, here comes the next reason for 'analysts' to claim Xbox needs to be dropped.
(Kin? Blame Xbox. Zune? Blame Xbox. Surface? Xbonexen is losing money, sell Xbox!!)
In other words, here comes the next reason for 'analysts' to claim Xbox needs to be dropped.
(Kin? Blame Xbox. Zune? Blame Xbox. Surface? Xbonexen is losing money, sell Xbox!!)
D
Deleted member 11852
Guest
The assumption here is the acquisition is intended to buoy up Xbox or MGS but it could well be completely independent.
Minecraft is used in a lot of different ways, it's being used by schools as a virtual environment to teach kids anything from social skills to problem solving as well as a platform to teach computer programming. Recently the UK's ordnance survey released a map of the UK as a minecraft map. There is no doubt some marketing royalties to be had a well.
I still can't see how the rumoured cost of acquisition would add value to Microsoft's Xbox division but maybe that's not it. Perhaps that would just be a side benefit for the IP going forward.
Perhaps the purchase of Minecraft to achieve what Project Spark did not, whatever Microsoft's aspirations really were for that.
XBOX is a symptom of the disease, which is lack of focus and infighting. Microsoft shouldn't be in the console business, it just causes problems with their main business. Microsoft shouldn't have Surface RT, it just causes problems with their main business.
Kin and Zune were just generic incompetence though.
Honestly I don't know what to think about this... :|
Silent_Buddha
Legend
Capcom and Take-Two would likely be closer to 8-12 billion or more (I'd wager much more) to aquire. Neither are on the ropes and both are making profits. If it comes down to it, it'd be much better to wait until they fell apart and then pick and choose which development studios to pick up.
Microsoft is already a publisher of games so buying either one would lead to significant redundancies in personnel. In other words, a few months after acquisition there would have to be significant layoffs on the order of what happened after the Nokia acquisition in order to get rid of redundant personnel. And while necessary, layoffs are never good PR and never good for company morale.
Regards,
SB
I can only see this as good news; Mojang will become the main team handling Minecraft and likely increase in size, pumping out new Minecraft content on the regular.
Obviously Microsoft keeps it multiplat, I see them transitioning Xbox into a software and services only division and stepping away from gaming hardware after XB1.
Notch, now a billionaire, uses some of that dough to bankroll many new games that may otherwise not exist or fail to get enough capital.
Obviously Microsoft keeps it multiplat, I see them transitioning Xbox into a software and services only division and stepping away from gaming hardware after XB1.
Notch, now a billionaire, uses some of that dough to bankroll many new games that may otherwise not exist or fail to get enough capital.
