Notch, the creator of Indie megahit Minecraft, has sold his company to Microsoft to the tune of 2.5 billion dollars. But does it matter to you and why is everyone so upset about it?
Microsoft just posted the third quarter of its 2024 fiscal financial results. The software maker made $61.9 billion in revenue and a net income of $21.9 billion during Q3. Revenue is up 17 percent, and net income has increased by 20 percent.
Xbox content + services up 62% while hardware down 31%... seems about right with the way they tout you don't need the hardware to play. People can play on their phones or smart tv or other means. I don't hardly play on my consoles directly since getting devices like the logitech g-cloud and ps portal. Which is to also say I have been playing more digital than physical because of these devices.
Too expensive hardware when others offer the same or more for less? Good work, Green Team.
"Despite some early successes for Xbox games on rival platforms, Xbox hardware is down by a massive 31 percent this quarter."
"Without Activision Blizzard, Microsoft’s overall gaming revenue would have actually declined this quarter."
"Xbox content and services would have only been up a single percent without Activision Blizzard..."
"It looks like next quarter is going to be a similar story for gaming at Microsoft, too."
That is crazy... so A/B/K is carrying the whole Xbox gaming.
Oh and Microsoft will be fine. Windows, Office and Cloud are growing with each pc purchase.
As part of its plans to cut 1,900 jobs, Microsoft has reportedly shut down operations at Bethesda France, letting go roughly 15 people
Bethesda France was made up of roughly 15 people... they couldn't of being doing much
Bethesda France mainly did publishing and marketing within the region
Bethesda France focused on publishing and marketing in the region. And 15 people lost their jobs as part of the closure.
I wonder if this is part of Microsoft's strategy to abandoned physical media or possibly gamepass advertising makes their roles redundant you don't need to market a game as hard when the majority of players get the game as part of a sub which already promoted upcoming games
Tbh Microsoft I think Bethesda being 3rd party same with Activision would probably more competitive than thus scenario imo
The recently purchased Activision French offices might take over all the licensing and marketing for Microsoft in France from now on.
Hanzla from eXputer inquires: "If Xbox can care about preserving its games and legacy, what exactly is wrong with Nintendo, trying to kill game preservation single-handedly?"
Ahh yes the good old game preservation of saving all your games to a removable hhd on the Xbox 360, taking it round your mates house, setting up multiple tvs to
Be met with “save data corrupted, please re download”
Or how about removing 360 games
From the store
, download them now or else, and, better hope to god that save data doesn’t corrupt, or it’s lost for ever
Nice one ☝️
This is just a scammy PR move to distract from the fact they are going digital only and trying to push streaming and subscriptions only.
No gaming company has pushed harder to remove ownership than Microsoft.
Without discs there is no preservation, preservation can't be done by the rights holders it can only be done by the consumers, anything else is a lie.
Nobody wants this. Sales or the lack of it in the case of XBOX is very telling. I wonder how the adorably all digital series X will fare. Adorably dismal perhaps?
Only time will tell, but for from someone like me suspecting that Xbox is trying to gracefully exit the console market, that "forward compatibility" team is trying to get Xbox games playing on Windows PCs. I mean, it's nice that they're not planning on exiting with a "enjoy your games while the hardware still works" message, so that's nice. They still have a brand to protect via Microsoft so probably feel obligated to have a better exit strategy.
its not really how much he made, thats irrelevant, it happens every day. Look at Dre when he sold Beats to Apple.
I think the problem here is how MS will use the Minecraft IP and the Studio with its Developers. its kinda bothersome for the fact that they could of dropped that money on creating more studios or use that funding to create new IPs with their already established internal studios.
I don't really see a BIG problem with it, I'm more annoyed with the fact they spent so much money on it then I am with it being owned by Microsoft now.
I mean if they do Minecraft 2 and have a shit load of features in it, things which they never put into the first game then I'll be fine. By that I mean stuff which you see in loads of mods but Mojang never added into the official game. Wallpaper, more furniture, bizarre biomes (see The Twilight Forest mod), mechanical stuff like trains/trams, air balloons, introduction of oil, electric (stuff better then redstone), generators, power tools etc. It just felt that despite the updates, even the big ones Minecraft never went as full. Look at the 1.8 one which has taken months to come out, they've just added different doors now, something like that should of been in ages ago
What bugs me though is the fact Notch moaned on about Oculus being sellouts when they were bought by Facebook, then he does the exact same. Bit of a hypocrite don't you think
Gamers these days seem to need hormone replacement therapy always crying over some nonsense, nice work MS .
I love the deal. MS is always being accused of buying timed third party exclusives like Tomb Raider, and yes...even the current Minecraft for the longest and "I'll wait for this _____ (game) to be on my console in 6 months" quote was used constantly by haters. Now, they bought a Huge IP and probably will make the sequel xb1 exclusive on console, the new crying and moaning from haters is that they are wasting money. Go figure. 😕
Because people care about the game, that should be obvious.