‘Minecraft’ Buyout By Microsoft Complete as Mojang's Notch Says His Farewell

The keyboard of the Windows 8 tablet operating system is shown in this publicity photo released ot Reuters September 13, 2011. REUTERS/Microsoft/Handout — The keyboard of the Windows 8 tablet operating system is shown in this publicity photo released ot Reuters September 13, 2011. Reuters/Microsoft/Handout

After the many rumours of talks on the buyout, as well as the different prices that were placed on the table, it is finally official: "Minecraft" will be under the wing of Microsoft from now on after a buyout of $2.5 billion.

The company announced this via the Xbox Wire, stating that it is the day that "Minecraft" will be joining Microsoft. Xbox head Phil Spencer traces the relationship of Minecraft developer Mojang and Microsoft, stating that they saw the potential of "Minecraft" as a franchise when it climbed the charts of the Xbox Live as one of the most played games on the Xbox 360.

Earlier, it was reported that one of the reasons why Microsoft is purchasing "Minecraft" is to expand the reach of its mobile platform, Windows Phone. The Xbox 360 and Xbox One platforms for the title is already popular to begin with, but seeing how big the game is even on the iOS and Android, there is a chance for the company to expand in this aspect. While Spencer did not explicitly state this in his announcement, he did mention the plan for the franchise to reach all platforms.

"'Minecraft' adds diversity to our game portfolio and helps us reach new gamers across multiple platforms. Gaming is the top activity across devices and we see great potential to continue to grow the 'Minecraft' community and nurture the franchise. That is why we plan to continue to make 'Minecraft' available across platforms-including iOS, Android and PlayStation, in addition to Xbox and PC," Spencer said via the Xbox Wire.

The last part of Spencer's statement should bring some PlayStation fans at ease, as there was a brief doubt for the future of "Minecraft" on the PlayStation platform, considering how it is the biggest competition of "Minecraft." But it's also good to see that Microsoft is planning a few more things for the franchise, as Spencer also mentioned the innovation of the title and the use of more developed tools to enrich the "Minecraft" community.

Interestingly, Mojang's Markus "Notch" Persson has also given his two cents' on his next plans after the buyout. And this is detailed in his farewell letter over his blog, titled, "I'm leaving Mojang."

The letter details the latter events that have happened with him in connection with "Minecraft," and it seems that since the EULA incident, Notch has gotten to thinking about his connection with his fans. In an open and honest farewell letter, he admits that one reason for getting out of Mojang is to finally be able to get away from the image of him that he never imagined he would have in the first place.

"Considering the public image of me already is a bit skewed, I don't expect to get away from negative coments by doing this, but at least now I won't feel a responsibility to read them," Notch said in his letter.

In fact, Notch even left a very determined message that even though he aims to get back into web experiments, he may easily abandon it if they even start to get the same "Minecraft" success.

Notch closes his farewell with what could be the best way to encapsulate his feelings about "Minecraft" and about his own path:

"Thank you for turning 'MInecraft' into what it has become, but there are too many of you, and I can't be responsible for something this big. In one sense, it belongs to Microsoft now. In a much bigger sense, it's belonged to all of you for a long time, and that will never change. It's not about the money. It's about my sanity."