http://www.cnet.com/news/microsoft-t...-maker-mojang/
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Personally I think they overpaid, its a fragile thing messing with this sort of success that isn't from the actual developers but the modders/community.
If I was Microsoft my game plan would be:
1. Support Minecraft on all current platforms and add Microsoft ones.
2. Don't hold out on Minecraft updates on 'other systems'
3. Support the modding community
4. Allow mods on the Xbox One version.
If they want to extend the brand they should differently take notes from the Lego franchise. I can see them making Lego type toys, Lego type adventure games with minecraft style and the such. Can they make a buttload of money? Yes, but will they?
I mean look at how them buying Rare turned out.
How so? $2.58 is a bargain if there ever was one. :pQuote:
Originally Posted by fruitsofherwomb
I don't see Rare and Mojang being equivalent purchases. With Rare, Microsoft was buying a game development house with a good but declining track record. With Mojang and Minecraft, Microsoft is acquiring a brand ridiculously popular with an entire generation of future consumers. Minecraft is more than just Minecraft to Microsoft; it's about turning young people onto the Microsoft brand (and maybe pushing its phones and other properties in the process).
Lets just hope that the Minecraft brand isn't tarnished by the greedy Microsoft executives. I can see it now, "MINECRAFT THE ULTIMATE KINECT EXPERIENCE". Oh, the horror, lol.
It can go a lot of ways with that. I mean, Minecraft + Azure servers for awesome persistent multiplayer worlds.
I'm sure the MS versions will wind up being the definitive ones, but hopefully they won't screw up anything about it.
Rare cost them $375 million and while they where on a decline which was one of the things Microsoft could have done was save them. Give them money, build up the talent and make good games. Instead they got gutted and now make Kinect games and avatar hats. What a legacy.Quote:
Originally Posted by Benjamin
Minecraft was made buy a few guys just to make a game and got popular due to online community. Yes, we are now dealing with fans that are strongly opinionated and some that put in a lot of work for free to make the game popular, like mods which is one of the biggest selling point for the game. I won't be shocked if they make their own version of Minecraft that is easier to mod/get working. Its not like the game Minecraft is that special when it comes to what the game is.
So they have a game that 'defined a generation', which is great, but only made $326 million in revenue last year. They paid OVER half of what Disney paid for Marvel Comics which defined multiple generations.
So, if your asking me if it was 'worth it', no it isn't worth it. The founders already left, seems to be the same as when Rare was bought out.
For hindsight: SEGA bought Creative Assembly (Total War franchise), Sports Interactive (Football Manager: ONe of Steams top 5 played games all the time), Relic (Company of Heroes, Dawn of War some of the highest selling RTS games) and Index Holding (Owner of Atlus the publisher) for less than 300 million.
Yes, they overpaid.
They should've bought Square instead.
bit late. lol.
I agree. I've not stated anything remotely otherwise (unless you overlooked my obvious simple joke :p ). That said, those games collectively do not have the audience and brand recognition of Minecraft, though I'd definitely agree that the companies you mention above represent a far better value per dollar on the investment. Minecraft represents a huge, generational audience that the company believes is worth buying. An optimistic view would be akin to buying The Beatles catalog; that Minecraft is so entrenched in a generation that it's future long term value alone far exceeds the high purchase price.Quote:
Originally Posted by fruitsofherwomb
I'm not sold on the idea myself. There are better ways to invest this money. Microsoft is so poorly mismanaged when it comes to its games division; chasing last year's hits with Rare, Kinect, and now Minecraft. Odd, too, how many Minecraft clones there are out there, even with many of them selling millions on the company's own Xbox 360. Why couldn't Microsoft just develop a more enhanced, similar product to put out as a substitute? It'd certainly cost a whole lot less than $2.5 billion.
Eh, there is a lot to be said for originality... How many of those clones can you actually name seriously? And not just throwing obvious word combinations together that probably wind up naming a few.Quote:
Originally Posted by Benjamin
Minecraft itself has weathered the clones pretty well... most of them have either found niche markets or fallen by the wayside.
If MS made a similar game, it would likely be passed by most as just them trying to make a quick cash grab on the popularity of Minecraft... just like so many others have done.
Sure, they could have tried to make something inspired by that kind of gameplay, something unique and interesting... but that's a pretty risky proposition.
I'm not sure if MC is worth a 2.5B pricetag or not, but it's certainly worth a lot... IF they use it correctly... which, of course, remains very much to be seen.
Quite a few, actually, but that comes from someone who's been pretty involved following the Xbox Indie scene and seeing a number of Minecraft clones come through by extension. I think something like Murder Miners would have been feasible for Microsoft to come up with, and it could have had the benefit of a Halo tie-in to bolster appeal.Quote:
Originally Posted by EclecticGroove
Right now this seems dumber than buying Oculus would have been for the company or investing it elsewhere, but money's been crazy lately. Remember Facebook tried to buy Snapchat for $3 billion -- $3 billion for a simple picture and text app. I think the trend these days for some companies is the thought of buying marketshare. It's just that consumers are fickle, and who knows if recent hits are going to become next year's Farmville and MySpace.
I'm imagining the day where there will be only three companies in the gaming world: Microsoft and it's XXXBone, Sony and it's Playstation 9000 and the Google NSA Ultra Playbox.
Nintendo will be only making mobile games;
SEGA will only have a big virtual amusement park in Japan called the 'The ORBI'.
It's going to be super!