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Microsoft purchased Mojang/Minecraft Sept 2014, five years later is there any doubt this may have been one of the best IP purchases made?

samred

samred

Amico fun conversationalist
Member
Nov 4, 2017
2,600
Seattle, WA
I suppose it finally evened out the purchase of Rare, among others.

But, yes, Satya Nadella and Phil Spencer were the right freaking stewards for that acquisition. They immediately understood that Mojang's value wasn't in locking down the IP but in letting its flag fly EVERYwhere as an advertisement for how awesome "Xbox" is. Services, not devices, as a lead priority. That strategy's success will continue to trickle down for the next 5-10 years of Xbox rollouts, I believe.
 
killerrin

killerrin

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,250
Toronto
Samurai G0SU said:
my 3ry and 6yr old love playing minecraft. had to buy it for them too.
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This, it's basically a mandatory expense once they get old enough to request it. Every new child is a new version that has to be bought on a new platform. Since Microsoft bought it, I've had to purchase 4 versions of minecraft, A license for my sister on PC/Android, a License for my Switch, a License for my Dad on PC so he could play with us (it's now one of his favourite games).

If my younger sister ever gets a Switch, that's another mandatory license I got to buy.

Has magic powers said:
I'm still waiting for Minecraft 2
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Technically, they already released Minecraft 2. It's called Bedrock edition and they did it in such a way that people never even realized because they gave it away for free for years if you owned Java.
 
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Dokkaebi G0SU

Dokkaebi G0SU

Member
Nov 2, 2017
5,922
killerrin said:
This, it's basically a mandatory expense once they get old enough to request it. Every new child is a new version that has to be bought on a new platform. Since Microsoft bought it, I've had to purchase 4 versions of minecraft, A license for my sister on PC/Android, a License for my Switch, a License for my Dad on PC so he could play with us (it's now one of his favourite games).

If my younger sister ever gets a Switch, that's another mandatory license I got to buy.


Technically, they already released Minecraft 2. It's called Bedrock edition and they did it in such a way that people never even realized because they gave it away for free for years if you owned Java.
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are licences tied to xbox live accounts or by device?
 
SlipperyMoose

SlipperyMoose

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
2,231
It's one of the smartest purchases they have ever made and it was the start of the Phil Spencer studio buying. The next big purchase was of the Gears IP.
 
killerrin

killerrin

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,250
Toronto
Samurai G0SU said:
are licences tied to xbox live accounts or by device?
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On PC and Xbox? It's tied to your Microsoft Account. It's also crossbuy between those two platforms. Also on Xbox any user that has that Xbox set as their home Xbox (1 per user) allows any user to play the games on it. So at most you can split a single license 3 ways, assuming 2 Xboxes and a PC.

That said, on any other system (PS4, Switch, Android, iOS, Java) it goes off of their own user accounts and you have to have a separate license on those platforms to play.
 
Dokkaebi G0SU

Dokkaebi G0SU

Member
Nov 2, 2017
5,922
killerrin said:
On PC and Xbox? It's tied to your Microsoft Account. It's also crossbuy between those two platforms. Also on Xbox any user that has that Xbox set as their home Xbox (1 per user) allows any user to play the games on it. So at most you can split a single license 3 ways, assuming 2 Xboxes and a PC.

That said, on any other system (PS4, Switch, Android, iOS, Java) it goes off of their own user accounts and you have to have a separate license on those platforms to play.
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thank you for this info! i'm preparing myself in future purchases with minecraft as my kids get older and new devices lol
 
killerrin

killerrin

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,250
Toronto
Samurai G0SU said:
thank you for this info! i'm preparing myself in future purchases with minecraft as my kids get older and new devices lol
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There are tricks you can do to put off the amount of licences you have to buy, some of them build into the Xbox with Library Sharing using the Home Xbox Feature. But for the most part, you can only put it off for so long.

You'll start off with a single Xbox License attached to your Gamertag on your Xbox. Your kids will play on the Xbox splitscreen, and you'll be on your PC or on another Xbox. Though eventually they'll want their own gamertag and they'll stuck on your home Xbox. Eventually they'll get tired of split-screen, or they will argue over the skin their character has and will fight over it, upon which it's probably best to get them their own license on the device they use the most that you have extras of (Switch, iOS, Android, Xbox/PC). That will last them for awhile.

Eventually as they get older, they'll hear from a friend that Minecraft has some new features in the fabled "Minecraft Java Edition". Like right now, Minecraft Java Edition added Bees to its Beta version, now Bee's will eventually make their way to the console, but it'll take some time, and in the meantime I get to hear from my sister how much she wants to mess around with the Bees. They could also want to start playing with Mods which is a whole other playground for them to be in. So when all is said and done, that's another version you have to buy (unfortunately Microsoft stopped their promotion where if you bought Java Edition you got the Bedrock (Xbox/PC) Version for free).

By the time the whole cycle is up, you're looking at each kid having any combination of the following at their disposal
- Bedrock Edition License (Xbox/PC, Switch, PS4)
- Java Edition License (PC/Modding)
- Mobile License (iOS, Android)
- Any additional Licenses that may be forced on you depending on how a Console Upgrade Cycle plays out... Xbox/PC will likely port the licenses, though I can't say the same for PS4/Swich.

Needless to say, it adds up overtime. And may lord have mercy on your soul/bank-account if they ever get into Roblox (Minecraft is like a Gateway drug to it considering the artstyle), You'll never hear the end of it on their quest for more Robux.
 
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Raider34

Raider34

Banned
May 8, 2018
1,277
United States
Mojang was a good purchase still wondering why Microsoft hasn't bought Roblox Corp and put Roblox everywhere it has 65 million players just on ios/Android/MacOS and Xbox One imagine if it were on PS4 and switch it would do major numbers. I find myself buying Roblox like crazy for my kids with their allowance money.
 
dude

dude

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,702
Tel Aviv
mutantmagnet said:
An example of Notch's worldview bdefore and immediately after the purchase.


Gender in Minecraft

[Keep in mind I am no longer the lead developer on Minecraft, Jens is. This post is about what I thought about back when I was making it] If it wasn't for the fact that the default Minecraft character...
notch.tumblr.com notch.tumblr.com


At the time the purchase made he wasn't a horrible person.

Sometimes people change and in Notch's case it was for the worse.
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Man, I almost forgot I respected the hell out of Notch at some point.
Good thing he teleported into space before he could turn into a giant shithead, huh.
 
WhiteRabbitEXE

WhiteRabbitEXE

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,708
Arizona
The crazy thing is, not only was an objectively good deal, Minecraft is in literally every way better under MS. It's been a perfectly managed acquisition. Between expanding the platform lineup (particularly adding in Nintendo platforms), Bedrock, Better Together, the upcoming graphics engine updates, and the interesting spin-off projects in the works, among more, they've really done everything right.

Oh, and getting it away from Notch before he came out as being what we know him as today.
 

martincrimson87

Banned
Dec 15, 2017
1,590
This is Resetera. Anything Ms does will be under heavy scrutiny. That acquisition was brilliant as well as some Middleware acquisitions they did the past few years (havok and more)
 
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