September 15th, 2014 
Mark Mojang–and, by extension, its hit game Minecraft–are now owned by Microsoft, following today’s $2.5 billion acquisition of the Swedish game developer. The deal was formally announced by the two companies today following recent reports suggesting the Xbox maker would purchase the company. Coinciding with the news, Minecraft creator Markus “Notch” Persson revealed he will leave the company to explore his own small projects.
Naturally, this is major news for the games industry; beyond Notch leaving, there’s the sheer size of the deal and the importance of Minecraft, which is poised to be one of the most influential games ever.
As a result, the development community has been busy commenting on the situation on Twitter. We’ve gathered up a selection of developer tweets on the subject–which range from jokes to congratulations to reflections on the significance of the deal–for you to check out below. (We haven’t seen much in the way of talk from Microsoft or Sony employees, though Xbox boss Phil Spencer did change his avatar to a Minecraft block.)
Markus “Notch” Persson (very rich former owner of Mojang)
Respectfully, I’m not going to be doing any interviews.
— Markus Persson (@notch) September 15, 2014
Lydia Winters (Mojang “director of fun”)
Please be kind to the Mojangstas. The founders made this decision, so we have a lot of emotions going on too 🙂
— Lydia (@LydiaWinters) September 15, 2014
Erik Broes (Minecraft developer)
Everyone is still here. We have to see what Microsoft brings to the table. Talks with them soon I hope? 😀
— Erik Broes (@_grum) September 15, 2014
Nathan Adams (Minecraft developer)
Lots of people asking what this means for me personally. Thank you all for your concern <3 I will remain at Mojang for now & see how it goes
— Nathan Adams (@Dinnerbone) September 15, 2014
Mans Olson (lead designer on Mojang’s Scrolls)
It seems I’m about to be a Microsoft employee. Not sure what’ll happen, and we don’t have all the information yet.
— Måns Olson (@MansOlson) September 15, 2014
Chet Faliszek (Valve writer)
A $2.5 billion money hat composed of $100 USD bills would roughly weigh 55,000 pounds.
— Chet Faliszek (@chetfaliszek) September 15, 2014
Chris Remo (Campo Santo developer; Idle Thumbs co-founder)
Minecraft will be seen among history’s most foundational games. An entire generation of games and designers will be different because of it.
— Chris Remo (@chrisremo) September 15, 2014
Manveer Heir (BioWare Montreal designer)
Congrats to @notch and the other fine folks at Mojang on becoming even more filthy rich. Great set of people. Wish them the best in life
— Manveer Heir (@manveerheir) September 15, 2014
Dylan Cuthbert (Q Games founder)
@notch congratulations mate!
— Dylan Cuthbert (@dylancuthbert) September 15, 2014
Jason Killingsworth (Riot Games writer)
In related news, I just sold my “Minecrosoft” pun for 2.5 dollars.
— Jason Killingsworth (@RiotWhiski) September 15, 2014
I keep trying to think of $2.5 billion and then my evolved primate brain blue-screens, then i try again, same thing, unable to fathom.
— Jason Killingsworth (@RiotWhiski) September 15, 2014
Dan Pearce (10 Second Ninja developer)
MINECRAFT BOUGHT FOR 5 DESTINYS
— Dan Pearce (@GameDesignDan) September 15, 2014
*Opens Windows 8* *Metro tiles turn into Minecraft blocks* *Distorted face of Notch appears and lets out garbled scream*
— Dan Pearce (@GameDesignDan) September 15, 2014
Seriously, though, congrats to Notch.
— Dan Pearce (@GameDesignDan) September 15, 2014
Phil Tibitoski (Octodad developer)
@notch Well done dude. Interested to see what you take on next. 🙂
— Phil Tibitoski (@PTibz) September 15, 2014
Paul Kilduff-Taylor (Mode7 Games co-founder)
@notch @MojangTeam many congrats!
— Paul Mode7 (@mode7games) September 15, 2014
Nina White (Owl Cave Games co-founder)
I guess now’s a good time to announce that Owl Cave’s been bought by the state of Denmark for €27 and a copy of Geist on Gamecube
— Nina White (@ashtonraze) September 15, 2014
Dan Marshall (Ben There, Dan That developer)
Huge congrats to @notch and @mojangTeam. Can’t fathom how difficult it must be managing that monster. Enjoy what’s next!
— Dan Marshall (@danthat) September 15, 2014
MICROSOFT: if you own Mojang, that means you ALSO own the rights to “Mine Craft” which is a VERY popular game. Thought you should know.
— Dan Marshall (@danthat) September 15, 2014
David Goldfarb (former Payday 2 director)
Congrats to @notch for getting out to the tune of 2.5b. I am happy to say I knew and liked you before you were a billionaire. :).
— David Goldfarb (@locust9) September 15, 2014
Ben Cousins (former Battlefield executive producer)
This is an incredible accelerator for the Swedish games startup scene
— Ben Cousins (@BenjaminCousins) September 15, 2014
Shams Jorjani (Paradox Interactive vice president)
Huge congrats to Mojang for the sale to Microsoft. Onwards and upwards to new adventures!
— Shams Jorjani (@ShamsJorjani) September 15, 2014
I sincerely hope this means we’ll see a 100 new indie studios here in Sweden.
— Shams Jorjani (@ShamsJorjani) September 15, 2014
Ian Hardingham (Mode 7 co-owner)
The PS4 just made Notch rather a lot of money.
— Ian Mode7Games (@IanHardingham) September 15, 2014
Erik Wolpaw (Valve writer)
I forgot I had a twitter account. Notch: Make Psychonauts 2 happen! (Please)
— Erik Wolpaw (@Wolpaw) September 15, 2014
Andrew Fray (Spry Fox programmer)
I’m with @mode7games: the microsoft sale is an amazing achievement and huge moment in the history of video games.
— Andrew Fray (@tenpn) September 15, 2014
Mike Bithell (Thomas Was Alone developer)
$2.5bn for Mojang is probably the tech bargain of the decade. MS just took ownership of a generation’s childhood, will pay off for years.
— Mike Bithell (@mikeBithell) September 15, 2014
Kinda excited by what an unencumbered @notch will get up to next. All that freedom, and all those resources. Must be exciting.
— Mike Bithell (@mikeBithell) September 15, 2014
Nathan Vella (Capy co-founder)
Congrats @MojangTeam & @Xbox. Heck of a deal. Excited to see where it all goes from here!
— Nathan Vella (@Capy_Nathan) September 15, 2014
Robert Boyd (Zeboyd Games designer)
Let it be know that we are willing to sell the Cthulhu Saves the World IP for a mere $2.5 million, a real bargain.
— Robert Boyd (@werezompire) September 15, 2014
To anyone thinking $2.5 bil for Minecraft was too much, think of it this way – this is as close to buying the Pokemon IP as you can get.
— Robert Boyd (@werezompire) September 15, 2014
Can’t help but think that Notch selling Mojang is due to the Internet hate machine. Guy just got tired of being the target of negativity.
— Robert Boyd (@werezompire) September 15, 2014
Tim Schafer (Double Fine founder)
He was already sick of being famous. Now he’s sick of being famous AND hearing about Psychonauts 2. 🙂
— Tim Schafer (@TimOfLegend) September 15, 2014
Cliff Bleszinski (former Epic Games design director)
Sobering statement on the Internet and success when Notch’s statement ends with this: “It’s not about the money. It’s about my sanity.”
— Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) September 15, 2014
| Chris Pereira is a freelance writer for GameSpot, and you can follow him on Twitter @TheSmokingManX |
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