[Losi]

So I guess the rumors I've been hearing have been true. What a bummer, I don't like it when indie developers sell their games to big corporations. So what are your thoughts on the selling of MC? Is it for the better or worse?

Full article here: article

After a week of rumours, Minecraft maker Mojang has today confirmed they're being bought by Microsoft. The studio has also announced that founders Marcus "Notch" Person, Carl Manneh and Jakob Porser are to leave. Blimey!

The announcement comes courtesy of Mojang's Owen Hill, (that's former PC Gamer web editor Owen Hill,) who has detailed why the sale took place:

"Minecraft has grown from a simple game to a project of monumental significance. Though we’re massively proud of what Minecraft has become, it was never Notch’s intention for it to get this big.

"As you might already know, Notch is the creator of Minecraft and the majority shareholder at Mojang. He’s decided that he doesn’t want the responsibility of owning a company of such global significance. Over the past few years he’s made attempts to work on smaller projects, but the pressure of owning Minecraft became too much for him to handle. The only option was to sell Mojang. He’ll continue to do cool stuff though. Don’t worry about that.

Edit: Added video of one of my favorite youtuber's views on the subject.

[Lain]

Inb4 Games for Windows Live.

I can seriously see the game being torn to bits by Microsoft's greedy jew hands.

[Losi]

Inb4 Games for Windows Live.

I can seriously see the game being torn to bits by Microsoft's greedy jew hands.

Microsoft says they're listening to the community so they don't fuck up the game or the company; ex. Rare.

[Flashwave]

Inb4 Games for Windows Live.

I can seriously see the game being torn to bits by Microsoft's greedy jew hands.

Games for Windows Live is still a thing?

[Shebang]

It's sad to see Notch leave the project he started.. Hopefully he continues on his other work (0x10c, etc).

Edit: His official letter to fans:

"I don’t see myself as a real game developer. I make games because it’s fun, and because I love games and I love to program, but I don’t make games with the intention of them becoming huge hits, and I don’t try to change the world. Minecraft certainly became a huge hit, and people are telling me it’s changed games. I never meant for it to do either. It’s certainly flattering, and to gradually get thrust into some kind of public spotlight is interesting.

A relatively long time ago, I decided to step down from Minecraft development. Jens was the perfect person to take over leading it, and I wanted to try to do new things. At first, I failed by trying to make something big again, but since I decided to just stick to small prototypes and interesting challenges, I’ve had so much fun with work. I wasn’t exactly sure how I fit into Mojang where people did actual work, but since people said I was important for the culture, I stayed.

I was at home with a bad cold a couple of weeks ago when the internet exploded with hate against me over some kind of EULA situation that I had nothing to do with. I was confused. I didn’t understand. I tweeted this in frustration. Later on, I watched the This is Phil Fish video on YouTube and started to realize I didn’t have the connection to my fans I thought I had. I’ve become a symbol. I don’t want to be a symbol, responsible for something huge that I don’t understand, that I don’t want to work on, that keeps coming back to me. I’m not an entrepreneur. I’m not a CEO. I’m a nerdy computer programmer who likes to have opinions on Twitter.

As soon as this deal is finalized, I will leave Mojang and go back to doing Ludum Dares and small web experiments. If I ever accidentally make something that seems to gain traction, I’ll probably abandon it immediately.

Considering the public image of me already is a bit skewed, I don’t expect to get away from negative comments by doing this, but at least now I won’t feel a responsibility to read them.

I’m aware this goes against a lot of what I’ve said in public. I have no good response to that. I’m also aware a lot of you were using me as a symbol of some perceived struggle. I’m not. I’m a person, and I’m right there struggling with you.

I love you. All of you. 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."

[JzJad]

It's sad to see Notch leave the project he started.. Hopefully he continues on his other work (0x10c, etc).

Edit: His official letter to fans:

"I don’t see myself as a real game developer. I make games because it’s fun, and because I love games and I love to program, but I don’t make games with the intention of them becoming huge hits, and I don’t try to change the world. Minecraft certainly became a huge hit, and people are telling me it’s changed games. I never meant for it to do either. It’s certainly flattering, and to gradually get thrust into some kind of public spotlight is interesting.

A relatively long time ago, I decided to step down from Minecraft development. Jens was the perfect person to take over leading it, and I wanted to try to do new things. At first, I failed by trying to make something big again, but since I decided to just stick to small prototypes and interesting challenges, I’ve had so much fun with work. I wasn’t exactly sure how I fit into Mojang where people did actual work, but since people said I was important for the culture, I stayed.

I was at home with a bad cold a couple of weeks ago when the internet exploded with hate against me over some kind of EULA situation that I had nothing to do with. I was confused. I didn’t understand. I tweeted this in frustration. Later on, I watched the This is Phil Fish video on YouTube and started to realize I didn’t have the connection to my fans I thought I had. I’ve become a symbol. I don’t want to be a symbol, responsible for something huge that I don’t understand, that I don’t want to work on, that keeps coming back to me. I’m not an entrepreneur. I’m not a CEO. I’m a nerdy computer programmer who likes to have opinions on Twitter.

As soon as this deal is finalized, I will leave Mojang and go back to doing Ludum Dares and small web experiments. If I ever accidentally make something that seems to gain traction, I’ll probably abandon it immediately.

Considering the public image of me already is a bit skewed, I don’t expect to get away from negative comments by doing this, but at least now I won’t feel a responsibility to read them.

I’m aware this goes against a lot of what I’ve said in public. I have no good response to that. I’m also aware a lot of you were using me as a symbol of some perceived struggle. I’m not. I’m a person, and I’m right there struggling with you.

I love you. All of you. 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."

Notch had already handed the game over to Jeb to dev, but it is sad to see this happen, and its hard to say what Microsoft will do, if they do listen, and actually put the right people on the job, Minecraft could expand immensely , if not then we shale be sticking to older versions lol after all Microsoft can only ruin the further more development of the game.

[Skullmeat]

Personally, I'm glad. I always found Minecraft to be the game of choice of 10 to 13 year olds with crap hardware.

Aside from that, I never could get into it, even giving it a serious try. I despise grinding in games, feeling like I'm working playing a game is not my thing.

That being said, MS will run it straight into the ground. Just look at their recent track record.

[Singularity]

I think microsoft will do good,
but with Notch saying that he will abandon any project that gains traction?
I dont have much respect for him anymore.

[Krypt]

Holy shit. I didn't actually think this was real. Wow, it'll never be the same game now that Microsoft has it. *tear*

[Silent Reaper]

Microsoft says they're listening to the community so they don't fuck up the game or the company; ex. Rare.

Lol, just like the let the Skype community enjoy it's API?

@TheMercenary I agree with the last part.