This is opinion piece over at Grab It discusses the move by Microsoft to announce Minecraft: Story Mode for multiple platforms, including Sony and Apple.
I think it is a great thing this game is being made and that it is appearing in all formats, but if I had shares in Microsoft or was in some other way invested, I would be wonder why this isn't an exclusive.
The fact is, it is Minecraft: Story mode... anyone play the story in Minecraft? Yeah... that's why they need to make it available everywhere they can.... gotta break even somehow
This is the first time i agree with you XBLSKull. To be honest, a story mode seems a bit far fetched. But telltale knows how to make them. But it also means that they will milk the franchise with every possible idea they can. Minecraft Runner, Minecraft 3d, Minecraft puzzle... etc etc etc.
The end of the day if they didnt carry on bringing Minecraft to playstation they wouldnt make that 2 billion back as Minecraft isn't a console seller. I mean it works on pretty much every device you can get your hands on. MS knows this so instead of using as one they are gonna try and sell you a copy for every device just like Mojang did.
Yeah it about the $$. But Minecraft doesn't need to be on Sony platforms to succeed, it was already doing great before it came to PS platform.
Edit: Oh yeah Xbox brand also has about 100 mil combined or more. Not to mention PC, Andriod and IOS. Keep thinking MS needed to put this on Playstation.
Microsoft is a software company first. Whilst they will try and grow their hardware divisions boss Satya Nadella recognises that their future survival depends on being platform agnostic, that's why he made sure that Office was released on iPad (the code was already complete but old boss Steve Ballmer refused to release it fearing it would damage Windows Surface sales).
Despite the massive user base and very high game sales the Xbox division doesn't actually make a profit. It's not unfeasible to think that Nadella is considering how much money they can make from their Xbox IP if it was available on all platforms. Sure it's not going to happen now, but Halo 6 available on all consoles and mobile platforms would probably make money than Star Wars VII.
Also, Phil Spencer when he announced the Mojang acquisition clearly said that Minecraft would continue to be supported on all platforms.
It was already explained by Phil Spencer himself that this game, the deal and the platforms were agree upon before the purchase of Minecraft. He also iterated that Minecraft was already on other platforms and Microsoft would continue to do so.
Minecraft also has fans on sony platforms good to see that this gaming Franchise won't be excluding sony gaming hardware. Now just hope they won't gimp the game on the sony platforms.
Sony vaio laptops come with windows. Samsung Smart TVs will have PSnow. Xb1 uses BluRay.
Sometimes competitors do business together. It's nothing out of the ordinary. The why question should really be more about Why is this game even being made?
As much as I enjoy Telltale and look forward to seeing what they do with the world and the legends born out of the community (herobrine for example) the game could happily just also not exist.
I love all these messages about MS and how it's all about $$$$. Do you honestly believe Sony doesn't care about money? EVERY company cares about their bottom line and making money. Do you know what happens when companies don't make money? They go bankrupt. Didn't you guys/girls learn anything in elementary school?
Of course all companies care about money, but that's such a blanket statement it's not even really a point of debate or an argument.
What's important is how the company goes about earning that money and how it represents itself and conducts itself with the consumer. You can make a profit and still do it without being disingenuous and nontransparent.
Like Tower Records, I no longer do business with them because (god this is gonna make me sound like a hipster asshole... fml) since Vinyl records have gotten extremely popular in he last ten years theyve started selling them at ridiculous prices. The most I used to pay was 20 euro tops for a new record, now that seems like the lowest you'd pay, new records are going for almnost 50 euro a pop most times.
Meanwhile theres plenty of local record stores selling them at the same old price and reaping the rewards for not being selfish greedy cants cashing in on a trend.
Just the same, Sony has put games on Microsoft consoles before, as they were huge shareholders in square Enix until last year.
Just saying, this isn't really news, both companies branch over to the other side when it pleases them, hell, they are partners in China now that their Chinese distributors have merged into one company
Some of the opinions in here are disgusting. Why can't you just be a little bit gratified that Microsoft is letting Minecraft be on other consoles? They could have very well made the game exclusive, and damn right it would have sold consoles. Although, they know, that the minecraft brand is already grounded. It is what it is. They don't want to tarnish the Minecraft brand by hogging it on to just Xbox One.
I think the thing is that exclusivity to Microsoft platforms would struggle to offset the $2.5billion spend. The advantages of publishing Mincraft as multiplatform vastly outweighs its alternative.
Plus, Telltale might not be too keen on platform exclusivity. It means they would have to pay telltale more to restrict the game to less platforms, or reduce the licensing fees of the intellectual property to make it worthwhile. That means increasing spend, rather than increasing profit.
Exclusivity just doesn't make sense from a business perspective. Especially if your console isn't leading the race.
Minecraft is more than an IP, it's a brand in its own. Microsoft bought the company based on the popularity of the franchise and merchandising which is very big for a game. The more exposure the game gets, the more merchandise will sell.
Lol yeah they could. But that would tarnish what minecraft is. It would definitely lead to bad pr also which microsoft needs NONE of right now. As an X1 owner even I can admit that. But yeah why cut a big chunk of revenue out when you just paid 2.5 bil. Yeah that had to factor in too I'm sure
There are too many fans of the franchise on other platforms to make it exclusive, the last thing Microsoft needs is more bad publicity and this isn't the first time Microsoft has released one of their games on a competitors device, they released Viva Piñata on Ds and they also allowed Rare to remake Diddy Kong Racing for the DS.
This has nothing to do with MS caving in to Sony and everything to do with the agreement made when mojang or whatever the name of the company was bought out. MS publicly announced that it would not restrict Minecraft from being on any consoles as a result of the purchase.
PS2 was a huge market with more than 110 million by itself, and they ignored it and did not put there spanking new Bungie put halo on it!
Wii had more than 110 million and they 'ignored' it and didnt put any forza or halo on it. (and it was starved for first person shooters too!
In fact EVERYONE ignores there competitors and only put there games on there on console. (excep Sega when they knew they was about to go out of the console business) and everyone said they could not because it was there bread and butter. And there history.
Phil Spencer already commented on this, saying that agreements had already been made by Mojang before Microsoft bought the company. So, this may not be long lasting.
Why would it be exclusive? This franchise isn't going to make people buy an Xbox One. Why? Because Microsoft would NEVER abandoned PC on this franchise. And because of that, basically anyone who owns a PC will be able to play it due to how low the system requirements are.
Hopefully this will be soon become a partnership. Sony will release some games for the xbox one and Nintendo and in turn, Nintendo and Microsoft will release some games on the PS4. This is what gaming should be and what gamers should want. Imagine, one day Halo is cross platform on all three consoles and then we can determine which console have the better gamers.
The bias of some people truly astounds me, even now. That's okay though, miss out on the good games that you instantly toss off to the side. Others, like me, won't.
@cluckey07 Im a Playstation Fan. But Regardless if Sony exclusives are system sellers, there's still money to be made. You can not ignore the potential 10+ million xbox one owners and 10 million Nintendo Wii U owners buy a Sony game. This also applies to Nintendo and Microsoft as well. I bet it never crosses Microsoft mind the potential to have Halo be on 18.5 million PS4 consoles and have the Multiplayer be cross platform.
If they are worried about losing out on potential system that could be sold. Make it timed exclusive to their own console and release it to other platform once they feel like they have milked as much money off of their own console. They should move on to another console and milk that as much as possible.
Same deal with what apple used to do. Milk AT&T with the sought after iphone. Once they got their share of the money. They released it to Verizon and Tmobile. Smart business strategy if you asked me.
Theres nothing they could do. Mojang already had contracts with Sony and apple. When they brought out Mojang they hold the contracts. and whatever the conditions states on those contracts must be uphold. If Xbox makes a Minecraft2 i can see that as an exclusive. Unless of course the contracts state that all minecraft games must make ports to Sony and Apple. Its lawyer crap, nothing they can do. Theyll probably throw in some xbox easter eggs or subliminal messages to get more people to buy xboxs
If that'sthe case ME would have never made it to the PS brand. MC is huge and needs to be on all platforms. The new computer at MS is doing his thing and it's only his first year. That God Bellmer is gone. I'm with the new blood.
Nobody is going to buy a device they don't already own just for this game. But if they make it available everywhere it will sell well, and they will also have the added benefit of looking like the good guys for a change.
They only just bought the IP and already they're milking it with unnecessary titles?
A simple title update would've been sufficient, allow us to download peoples story worlds that are already in abundance in the PC editions community, boom, done, no need for the telltale treatment.
Or how about focusing those funds on 4j so they can get their act together and make the console versions (or at least the ps4/xb1 console versions) on par with the pc version.
Theres no reason it shouldn't be easier to port now that the new consoles are on x64 architecture (for the 360/ps3 versions that had to basically redesign the game from the ground up because they couldnt use openGL)
in a way giving one or two games to a competitor is actually great advertising. just imagine if MS gave PS4 owners the Halo MCC HD collection but keep Halo 5 exclusive to the Xbox. PS4 owners will then want to play Halo 5 and will have to buy a Xbox One. its essentially teasing and giving a taster and once that person has a taste they will be addicted.
Halo would sell COD numbers if it wasn't Xbox exclusive. its time the game industry let everyone play exclusives as it means more money for them and more games for us. you don't see DVD's being exclusive to a certain DVD player so why should consoles be any different ?
If you were a shareholder wouldn't you want MS to make as much money as possible? You wouldn't want it to be an exclusive that would mean less money so I really don't understand what you meant.
Microsoft bought Mojang at some point last year, aquiring Minecraft in the process, but they stated that the arrangement didn't have them taking control until the beginning of 2015. I can't remember who exactly, be it Phil Spencer or someone else, recently stated that Minecraft: Story Mode was in the works long before they had control of Mojang and so it would continue on to be released on multiple platforms.
I would assume anything that will be developed afterwards will be Microsoft exclusive, on Xbox 360, Xbox One, Windows Phone, and possibly PC.
Because the more people you offer the product to purchase, the more money you can potentially make. Board members only care about a return on their investment, not who they sold it to get it. If they can make more money without Xbox they would be fine with it.
It wasn't the gaming division, ie phil spencer who bought minecraft, it was someone or some department higher up the food chain who dont give a damn about console wars, so they wanna sell it everywhere.
Theory 2, maybe someone at mojang is still partly an owner and the purchase contract states minecraft cant be platform exclusive.
"but if I had shares in Microsoft or was in some other way invested, I would be wonder why this isn't an exclusive"
LMFAO ? do you even know how shares work ? if more people buy it the share becomes more valuable. That made no sense LOL!, learn a lil about shares before writing about them buddy :)
It might be contractual. Telltale probably already licensed the Minecraft IP for the making of this game prior to the Minecraft acquisition by Microsoft. You guys are all really blowing this out of proportion.
....so I see you forget why MS actually bought this IP. lol.
Minecraft was successful based on selling well on MANY SYSTEMS!
Thats like thinking you can make COD money by buying The COD IP and then putting it on one system and expecting COD money...you know how stupid that idea is?
MS is not stupid. They bought Minecraft to MAKE MONEY!! They don't join in, in your little fanboy wars, they have no interest in making Sony cry or Nintendo cry LOL! They have a business in MAKING MONEY!
Seriously this is an article? Seriously? Let's say microsoft made this exclusive to microsofts platforms what would the reactions be? They did this to not alienate other platform holders because they bought the game not when it was already multiplat form and that would be a huge f u to the ps minecraft fan base if it was only on ms platforms, so now they put it on their because they are m$ lol u people crack me up tell u what all a yall on here saying ms did this for money tell the ps minecraft fan base not to support this content Ok..
If you had shares, you wouldn't be asking why it isn't an exclusive because you'll have shares and it obviously sells more on multi-plats. You have no business sense whatsoever!!!!
That is what I thought at first, but then why not release Halo and Forza on Sony, too then? I thought for these companies getting the install base of a platform up was important than an individual game's sales?
I would say because Halo, Gears of War, and Forza were alway exclusive to Microsoft platforms or in certain situations PC's, but Minecraft didn't have that status, because it already on other platforms before Microsoft puchased the company.
halo and Forza sell xboxs and can only be found on xbox plus didnt cost MS 2 billion. Minecraft doesn't sell xboxes. If they limited Minecraft to xbox only they could kiss most of that 2 billion investment goodbye as there's no way they would make that back as just an xbox 360/one game even if they sold a copy plus a single piece of DLC on every console.
The IP is to make MS money it's not about selling Xboxes HOWEVER! That doesn't mean MS won't give the Xbox an early release to maybe get a couple of sales for those massive fans who just cannot wait or a ton of exclusive "only on xbox" DLC. like master chief DLC. You know its going to happen.
The reason why we dont see Halo and Forza on Sony system is because these are the games that makes the Xbox brand unique to its competitors. However, Like i said above. Make these timed exclusives to your own console first.
That is a companies decision not shareholders. If it made more money in the long run being a software division instead of hardware and software, shareholders would be all for it.
I'm looking forward to whatever Notch does after Minecraft, with the security he now has to make whatever he wants. Potential is there to make some really interesting and innovative stuff given that from his mind came Minecraft
baring in mind when he sold minecraft he did say he wants to work on other projects for himself and if any of them pick up any kind of momentum he will ditch it as he doesn't want to be in that spotlight anymore.
so i doubt we will see anything from notch in a long time.
he got stupid lucky with minecraft. he isnt a genius who knows how to design games. how many songs do you know by Don Mclean? yeah, just the one. Minecraft is notch's American Pie.
its a great move on Microsofts part, a move that will definitly spur more sales. also bear in mind that minecraft has always been multiplatform and has a huge following on ios, android and pc platforms. its a good gesture to extend it to ps consoles too but i believe down the road there will be exclusive content or even brand new ips from mojang which will never be released on rival platforms. mc started out this way(multiplat) and has remained successful this way and Phil spencer recently stated that most of this decesions were made before the buyout so there really isnt any reason for MS to change that now.The bottom line for now is that Mojang and MS are happy with it being on multiplatforms and all those who get to play it on none MS platforms should be happy about that too.
Sony do not strictly own blu ray, people need to actually do a bit of research into that and they might learn a thing or two. Phillips, Panasonic and several other companies own and pushed the format.
Er my daughter, she LOVES Minecraft, it would be a shame (on her part) if Minecraft: Story Mode didn't end up on the PS3 and 4, she wouldn't get to play it
But now she can, I guess I should be grateful that MS is allowing this
I think it is a great thing this game is being made and that it is appearing in all formats, but if I had shares in Microsoft or was in some other way invested, I would be wonder why this isn't an exclusive.
It's simple really! The more platforms, the more money. Especially looking at as a fanbase size perspective.
I'm looking forward to whatever Notch does after Minecraft, with the security he now has to make whatever he wants. Potential is there to make some really interesting and innovative stuff given that from his mind came Minecraft
its a great move on Microsofts part, a move that will definitly spur more sales. also bear in mind that minecraft has always been multiplatform and has a huge following on ios, android and pc platforms. its a good gesture to extend it to ps consoles too but i believe down the road there will be exclusive content or even brand new ips from mojang which will never be released on rival platforms. mc started out this way(multiplat) and has remained successful this way and Phil spencer recently stated that most of this decesions were made before the buyout so there really isnt any reason for MS to change that now.The bottom line for now is that Mojang and MS are happy with it being on multiplatforms and all those who get to play it on none MS platforms should be happy about that too.
Earn more money? Simple as that. :D