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Microsoft buying an Indie games developer "Mojang" for $2 Billion

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  • Zwebbie
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    Zwebbie polycounter lvl 18
    This whole situation just makes me feel a bit sorry for Zachary Barth for having come up with most of MineCraft in the form of Infiniminer without (to my knowledge) having gained enough money to buy his own country. Not that I begrudge Notch his success, but shoulders of giants and all that.

    Edit: unless Microsoft is after those sweet, sweet Scrolls dollars, of course.
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  • eld
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    eld polycounter lvl 18
    It's about getting lucky hitting the right formula, infiminer while being first at a thing never was THE game of all games.

    The world is full of first offs that we never hear about.
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  • Greg DAlessandro
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    Greg DAlessandro polycounter lvl 6
    What I don't get is why. They already have Minecraft on their system. They spend ~2billion so I doubt they are in it for the merchandise.
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  • claydough
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    claydough polycounter lvl 10
    Rust and Garry's Mod developer Garry Newman chimes in on his blog...
    supposedly garnering some media attention:


    http://garry.tv/2014/09/15/selling-out/
    Once you start hiring people your whole attitude changes. You’re not just fucking about with your life anymore.. you’re fucking about with other people’s lives – and the lives of their families. You can’t just sell out and fuck everyone over. Companies like Blitz that go bust, don’t pay people what they were owed, let 175 staff go, then started up under another name almost straight away. Those are the guys you don’t want to be. I am sure more than the top guys at Mojang became very financially rich due to this deal and that’s something that should be admired – not seen as a bad thing.
    Whether or not Minecraft itself is “fucked” because it’s owned by Microsoft is debatable. I’m sure Microsoft didn’t just buy it because they’re struggling desperately to stay relevant and some of their kids play it a lot. But even if they did it really isn’t in their favour to pay a shitload of money for it and then completely fuck it up. That wouldn’t make any sense. Time will be the judge on that, I guess.
    Long story short. I’d have done the same thing. The money is enough to very much take care of all the staff. The game is in relatively safe hands. Mojang’s legacy is as a huge success story instead of a one hit wonder. Everyone wins. Can you seriously say you’d have done it differently?
    more coverage and discussion of Garry's Mod developer Garry Newman's Blog enty @ Gamasutra as well:

    http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/225821/Rust_creator_Notch_isnt_a_sellout_hes_a_smart_studio_head.php
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