Can Minecraft Help Microsoft Win the Console War

A $2.5 billion acquisition was made for the Swedish company Mojang. Makers of the wildly popular video game Minecraft. This is a slight departure from a refocused Microsoft, but the big question remains. Will the purchase ultimately help Microsoft win its supremacy battle with Sony in the current Xbox One vs. PlayStation 4 war?

[ritsuka666]

Lol Nope. Anyways, Microsoft is so idiot, of course they gonna buy others companies, due to the lack of games for Xbone.

[Kiwi66]

You do know that MS were approached by Notch himself to buy the company , right ?

[Foehammer]

What lack would that be?

Just the next few months...

Fifa 15
Forza Horizon 2
Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordar
Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments
Skylanders Trap Team
Alien Isolation
Dance Central Spotlight
NBA 2K15
Project Spark
Dead Rising 3: Apocalypse Edition
Sleeping Dogs Definitive Edition
Forza Motorsport 5 GOTY
Ryse Legendary Edition
The Evil Within
Walking Dead Tell Tale Season 2
Lords of the Fallen
NBA Live 15
Sunset Overdrive
WWE 2K15
Costume Quest 2
Call of Duty Advanced Warfare
Never Alone
Rabbids Invasion
The Wolf Among us
Assassin’s Creed Unity
Halo Master Chief Collection
Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham
Shape Up
Terraria
The Crew
Dragon Age Inquisition
Far Cry 4
Grand Theft Auto V
Monopoly: Fun Pack
Project Cars

[SuperBlur]

thats a lot of games i need to get for pc and ps4 :D

[jrshankill]

If Sony bought Mojang you would be jerking off and jizzing all over your PS4, fingering the USB ports.

[one2thr]

As a PS4 owner, I have to admit your comment was kind of funny but Im going to have to disagree with you.

If Sony bought Mojang, I'd react as if its another creative developer to add among many other developers that they have.

In short, Kudos to both MS and Notch not many indie dev/teams get the opportunity to make a billion dollars doing the thing(s) they love doing.

[Spotie]

You seem to have an unhealthy obsession with Sony fans' masturbation habits...

As a Sony guy, myself, I'd be wondering what the point was. Sony has studios capable of producing Minecraft type and quality games. I would much rather they spend that money making more games we haven't seen before.

[k3rn3ll]

@spotie yea Sony has studied that make good games. But what studio do they have that's responsible for the 3rd highest selling game of all time? Don't worry I'll wait

[Sm00thNinja]

Microsoft is so idiot.... Stopped reading right there

[FullmetalAlchemist]

Everyone already has minecraft on every device they own and all the money from that is in mojang's pocket. Honestly not really sure what Microsoft plans on doing with it other than releasing sequels for it. And if they change it up too much it won't really be minecraft anymore.

[swishersweets20031]

maybe make money on the merchandise? i see alot of foam toy swords branded with minecraft, shirts, hats, beltbuckles, candy, box masks ect. the merch alone is probably a gold mine.

[Willio]

One hit wonders wont save anyone.
Good job for bringing down Crytek.
Good job making Rare into a rarity.
Good job MS buying something already made like Kinect and forcing on consumers of whom you cant understand.
Good job laying off 18k people for a failing business model.
Good job on creating jobs...

[mixolydian_id]

But what if 'Minesweeper' was replaced with 'Minecraft'... in Win9?

DX12 re-coded Minecraft... ported to all devices, Desktop, Laptop, Tablet, Phone, Cloud Streaming etc.

It could be that they're planning a free offering and purchasable DLC?

Cloud servers... allowing mods and the like.

[bazinga_91]

@Jrshankill

Good job acting as MS apologist.

Idiotic sheep indeed!

[Willio]

Its pretty obvious i dislike MS, but it does not make me a fanboy. The reason i disliked them was due to the RROD fiasco and OS update the day after the warranty expired which killed my console again when i had the refurbished one. All the things i listed are actually facts.

I honestly just do not understand how die hard fans can support a company who wont even release the failure% of consoles and instead boosted sales numbers up.

Some of "Jrshankill's" statements are suggestive. My main point is stating they do not even have a main objective in their plan.

Jrshankill's statement of 5x electricty use is stretching his point thus making him look like a troll. Lets be honest, at least Sony's power cord did not burn down homes.

[DigitalRaptor]

- The game has made most of its sales already.
- The game is available on a multitude of devices other than the Xbox.

3 years ago, this investment would have been fantastic. They have put $2.5 billion into the hope of a single IP remaining stable. Mojang made $129m profit last year. It would take 2 decades for Microsoft to make back on their investment unless they have a gargantuan plan to make Minecraft blow up, when its already blown up and peaked as a franchise.

So, they would have to bring out an exclusive sequel that had the same mass appeal Minecraft had and it would have to be a fundamental improvement to what is already a massively customisable and open game, OR they would have to have Mojang make another hit as big and culturally significant as Minecraft (NOT happening), to make even a dent on the lead PS4 has.

In summary….. the answer is "no".

[callahan09]

Yeah, I really don't understand what Microsoft is going for with this purchase. No clue how they expect to make back this money.

[k3rn3ll]

It's still making more each year than the last. So stop acting like the ship has sailed. There's a lot you can do to that game and make a 2.0. Hell just take some ideas from the molding community and throw em a stack a cash. The textures could be upresed a bit as well. Ad new tools weapons. New enchanments, animals, enemies. Even make a new nether/the end on top of the ones already there. There's a whole lot there. Your welcome ms. Free of charge

[boing1]

This acquisition is well beyond console wars. That's not why they did it.

[Why o why]

Trust me, this isn't any ace up any sleeve in regards to x1 vs ps4. They probably have a grander plan outside of the console war. Ms would ultimately need more than the acquisition of studios like this to help stem the ps4s momentum let alone win anything.

[Fil101]

Lmfao at this article, off course it can! ........ NOT

[g-nome]

Well they obviously have a Minecraft 2 in their plans , which could be an exclusive for certain platforms then.

[qwerty676]

of course it could. not sure what you guys are smoking?

to this day the console versions are still topping the charts. would a past its prime game continue to do that?

if they come out with Minecraft 2 "first on xbox one" and make like a limited edition bundle. those would absolutely fly off the shelves, giving them not only sales but much needed mindshare. Minecraft being associated with the xbox brand will be a huge win for them.

I understand a lot of you dont like Microsoft but i think its silly to count out the impact of this game on xbox one sales.

[mt]

I don't think Microsoft bought Minecraft for Xb1 only. it was bought because it is money maker, and a business by itself. think about it, if microsoft bought Minecraft to be released only for Xb1 then why they spent 2.5 billions.

[CorndogBurglar]

Why would it? You can get Minecraft on PS4 too.

[bazinga_91]

No!

[thecowsaysmoo]

Yes, it will help Microsoft. Will it push it above ps4? Probably not, but I think it will help move xbox units in the long run.

[Paprika]

No not all. But, it gives them huge control over a market that's very popular. Many kids growing up love minecraft, that's massive as what's the brand they will remember? Microsoft.

But the console war this gen, not much of a difference IMO. If minecraft 1 was exclusive to Xbox then maybe, but the major heights have been reached now, its peaked to a degree.

[ShowanW]

This purchase is BIGGER than Xbone vs PS4...

This is about bundling MineCraft in as many Microsoft products as possible. Minecraft bundled with Desktop, Surface, Phone, Tablets.
As well as consoles

THis is about when OEM's make a device that runs Microsoft's OS, they can brag about Minecraft pre-installed, and picking up where you left off