Minecraft Sold to Microsoft :/

[HLPrincess]

I'm not sure if it's serious, but I love Minecraft and now I feel it's appraoching a catastrophy. Good that this game is open source, as I think it will be gradually changed into one, huge microsoft app.

And we'll have to call it "MiMi"

Got the joke?

I read open letter of Notch to Minecraft fans, here: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2683175/heres-markus-notch-perssons-farewell-letter-to-minecraft-fans.html#tk.fb_pc

and all I though that he just doesn't have guts :/ and he's being moody, angry on people and sells his biggest achievement to piss everyone off

Ross pointed out rightly that he could have sold it to a company that doesn't have a history of "killing PC games". It could've been VALVe, for example or some other at least moderately user friendly company.

And Notch said a few negative things about Microsoft before, so he comes out a bit hypocritical, that's how I see it.

It's hard to judge things from the outside though, so who knows what happened? This is mostly my personal interpretation. I feel unhappy how this went.

If any of you like Minecraft, leave your opinion on this topic.

Thanks!

 

[BTGBullseye]

My opinion: If I had an offer of $2.5 BILLION to stop working on something that had become a chore, I'd take it too.

 

[HLPrincess]

My opinion: If I had an offer of $2.5 BILLION to stop working on something that had become a chore, I'd take it too.

 

[Ross Scott]

My opinion: If I had an offer of $2.5 BILLION to stop working on something that had become a chore, I'd take it too.

Well I don't want to be too hard on Notch since he's a fan of the videos actually, but I think everybody making the "of course I would sell" argument doesn't already have 600 million dollars in the first place. There's not a whole hell of a lot you can't do with 600 million that you can with over a billion when you have that kind of money to begin with. I was thinking about it actually, if I had that kind of money, I would feel some sort of responsibility to try and better humanity in some way, it's just an incredible sum. I actually sent Notch an email telling him I respect his decision if he turns around and uses the money to start a cult.
I think the controversy comes from selling it to Microsoft. Like I'm making up numbers here, but I bet if he sold it to Valve or Riot Games for 1.5 billion, I doubt there would be too much controversy and he still would have made out like a bandit on top of having already made out like a bandit to begin with.

 

[Vapymid]

Yes, but those people would not have offered the silly money that MSFT was paying.

Microsoft is desperate for something that could take it out of stagnation and desperate people often pay desperate prices.

That poses a dilemma: is Notch twice as immoral - selling to evil Microsoft AND, at the same time, gouging the buyer? Or does taking advantage of Microsoft somehow neutralises the evilness of dealing with the devil in the first place?

I'm confused

Regards

 

[BTGBullseye]

There's also the fact that since there is a new person in charge of MS, the company direction may be going back towards something good, and this may be a good thing in the end.

 

[Alyxx Thorne]

My opinion: If I had an offer of $2.5 BILLION to stop working on something that had become a chore, I'd take it too.

Well I don't want to be too hard on Notch since he's a fan of the videos actually, but I think everybody making the "of course I would sell" argument doesn't already have 600 million dollars in the first place. There's not a whole hell of a lot you can't do with 600 million that you can with over a billion when you have that kind of money to begin with. I was thinking about it actually, if I had that kind of money, I would feel some sort of responsibility to try and better humanity in some way, it's just an incredible sum. I actually sent Notch an email telling him I respect his decision if he turns around and uses the money to start a cult.
I think the controversy comes from selling it to Microsoft. Like I'm making up numbers here, but I bet if he sold it to Valve or Riot Games for 1.5 billion, I doubt there would be too much controversy and he still would have made out like a bandit on top of having already made out like a bandit to begin with.

Yeah, Microsoft has a ton of stigma nowadays. Probably up there with EA among being considered an evil corporation thing.

I think Notch should definitely focus on spending the money where it matters.

 

[DarkSaber]

I'm fine with Microsoft owning Minecraft, just as long as they don't pull the usual crap in this game. Like paying for 'better' blocks or exchanging real world money for rare resources. It's there in every RPG, but if they do it to Minecraft, then I'm leading a pitchfork-wielding crowd to their front door.

 

[Lord Sinister]

If Minecraft had been sold to Valve, would it not also have potentially become shackled to Steam? As long as it remains available stand-alone, and maybe even continues to receive content updates as it has done in the past, I would hope things will ultimately be okay.

 

[Vapymid]

I'm fine with Microsoft owning Minecraft, just as long as they don't pull the usual crap in this game. Like paying for 'better' blocks or exchanging real world money for rare resources. It's there in every RPG, but if they do it to Minecraft, then I'm leading a pitchfork-wielding crowd to their front door.

Well, they can always do this:

Spoiler

It appears you are mining a mine - would you like help with that?

If Minecraft had been sold to Valve, would it not also have potentially become shackled to Steam?

I'm sure it would. I don't know of any DRM-free game released by Valve since they've managed to trick gamers into Steam.

Regards

 

[HLPrincess]

Oh wow, so many comments!

Well, I came back to Minecraft like a week ago and I was actually posistively surprised with the latest update (1.8.1 I guess) so FOR NOW it's okay. I can play again!

 

[Selkie]

I'm really not surprised. If there's one consistent thing I've heard from most game designers and industry people is that the game industry is incredibly tiring, so much so that a lot of people burn out and quit after only several years. Microsoft basically offered Notch what a lot of the industry would consider an early retirement.

Whether that's the case with him I can't say but I like to see this as freeing him up so he can work on new projects should he desire. As for where Minecraft is headed, I still can't say. I've recently tried out the new update and I do like a lot of what they added. Besides, if the game ever gets pushed into a bad state you can always find older version of the game on modding platforms. I know you can still find versions of the game on ATLauncher from years back. I don't know if it's all of them though.

 

[BTGBullseye]

Besides, if the game ever gets pushed into a bad state you can always find older version of the game on modding platforms. I know you can still find versions of the game on ATLauncher from years back. I don't know if it's all of them though.

Why do people constantly forget torrents?

 

[Selkie]

This suggestion was for people who already own the game. And not everyone wants to use torrents.

Not to mention this method would be faster and easier since, with the case of ATL, you find the uploaded version, hit New Instance, and boom. copy works. This all happens through the launcher itself so no need to hunt online for the version.

 

[BTGBullseye]

Same for the good torrents... Besides, there's no way that MS can ever get rid of the torrents, but they can always get rid of the other download locations.