Mojang Selling Out

[owsf2000]

That subject probably says it a bit more harsher than I really intend it but no matter how I try to word it, it's all the same.

Apparently Microsoft is close to closing a deal to buy Mojang for 2 billion.

Apparently this has been in the works for a few weeks now. That's long enough to cover the whole bukkit shakedown and the GPL DMCAing going on for bukkit to help ensure it comes to a halt. I wonder if these guys knew about the deal... And I wonder if that's the main reason for the sudden intention for Mojang to start enforcing the eula.

So I guess I'll make a few predictions.

1. Minecraft popularity will likely begin a headlong crash.

2. There will probably be a move away from java into windows-specific programs.

3. I will start to become more productive again as my interest in the game starts to dwindle with the loss of bukkit plugins and a large, diverse plugin/mod community.

In all honesty I see a major clampdown on all mods and plugins in the future.

Regardless of their other games, Mojang is basically Minecraft. They're shooting themselves in the foot in the long run (Some ACs on Slashdot appear to be claiming to be on the inside, thus posting as AC, and seem to indicate that the devs are basically being let go when this goes through. Something about Microsoft not being interested in amateur indie java programmers.)

Oh well. 2 Billion for Notch and a couple others. I hope Notch plans on retirement because I honestly don't think he'll be able to repeat this kind of success or even produce anything to hold a candle to it.

Comments

[kane-magus.livejournal.com]

Okay, so I was wrong. His newest blog post is about something completely unrelated (http://notch.net/2014/09/doom/) to the Microsoft thing. With the timing of this post, though, I still see it as little more than him saying "See?! I'm still a game developer! I'm still making games! Sort of! I haven't sold out! Not really! Don't hate me!" without even mentioning any of that. There's still a high likelihood that he'll eventually make one or the other posts I predicted above, though.

"I’ve been streaming most of the development on hitbox.tv. There’s a a friendly and reasonably regular crowd of people hanging out there watching me work, and I feel like moving on to a new project might be letting them down. Hopefully at least some of them are more interested in the journey I take than the product of that work. If I do move on to something new, I’m sure someone with more patience than me to see things through can take over the project." (emphasis mine)

Translation: "Sort of like how selling Mojang to Microsoft, which I'm not going to mention at all in this post even though it's obviously going to be the thing that everyone is expecting me to talk about, is letting a whole lot more people down, but I hope those people also stick with me anyway because my journey is more important than the product of my work. Other people will handle Mojang and Minecraft while I'm off enjoying my $2B."

Riiiiight. ¬_¬

[kane-magus.livejournal.com]

Ah, there (http://notch.net/2014/09/im-leaving-mojang/) is the response I was expecting. I see he mostly decided to go with the "boo hoo hoo you guys are so mean I'm taking my ball and going home" (http://kane-magus.livejournal.com/602143.html) route.

I still don't understand why he had to flush his game and company down the toilet in the process, though. Well, you know, aside from the $2,000,000,000, of course.

[kane-magus.livejournal.com]

And here (https://mojang.com/2014/09/yes-were-being-bought-by-microsoft/) are Mojang's "official" reasons for why they sold out to Microsoft. I don't even care enough anymore to make an actual post about this.