Following the mindbendingly-successful trajectory of Mojang’sMinecraft, now playable in various forms across a smorgasbord of platforms and devices, it’s little wonder that the big fish are now circling, and apparently the big fish in particular is Microsoft.
Most recently ported onto next-gen consoles, with its critical acclaim apparently undiminished with the passing of time and an adoring, and no doubt addicted, playerbase continuing to hand over their hard-earned coin, Minecraft has ever been the prize stallion in Mojang’s stable, and will be almost wholly responsible for the studio’s attraction to the monster corporations. Whilst other projects, such as in-development card-based strategy title,Scrolls,show promise, it’ll prove a somewhat insurmountable challenge for anything the developer comes out with to even consider holding a candle to Minecraft. That is unless the company is blessed witha wealth of divine providence; a propensity for striking gold twice.
Bloomberg reports that the discussions involve a figure of $2-billion and that whilst we will have to wait for the details to be fully publicised, a final agreement may be reached this week.
It’s been speculated that assuming all follows through with the deal, founder Markus ‘Notch’ Persson would likely remain for the transition period, but not beyond, so Mojang superfans will have to start considering the possibility that the company might soon have Microsoft’s big cheese, Satya Nadella, manning the helm.
Regarding Nadella, this deal would prove the biggest deal struck since his taking over the reins from Steve Ballmer in February.
For concerned Playstation users, insiders claim that Microsoft plans to maintain Minecraft as a cross-platform title.
