Microsoft buys Mojang for $2.5b
 

Confirmed by both parties today, Microsoft has acquired Mojang, creators of Minecraft, for 2 and a half billion US dollars. Neither party has expressed interest in getting Minecraft removed from other systems. Markus "Notch" Person has stated that it's not about the money, but rather his sanity. He states that owning a company with such a huge global impact is to much for him to handle and that he would like to go back to just making small games like he used to before Minecraft became such a huge hit.

Sources: Gamespot [Article 1] [Article 2]

I've been following this rumor for the past few days, and it certainly seemed like an interesting choice of company to sell it to, especially with Microsoft's vehemence to promote the Xbox One and some of their past debacles in gaming. On the other hand, it keeps the game away from Valve, and seeing the title glued to Steam would not make me happy. (But on the same vein, Microsoft better not add Games For Windows Live to it.)

The other interesting tidbit is the fact that Notch spoke out against Microsoft's own store in Windows 8 when requested to get the game certified two years ago. Considering Microsoft's changes with 8.1 and new CEO since then, he must've had a change of heart.

I've been kind of expecting this to happen for a little while now, Notch's Twitter feed definitely suggests he is more interested in the "games" aspect than the "owning massive company" aspect, but I was really hoping that Microsoft was not going to be the one to buy it. Although, for that matter, there aren't too many companies that I'd have confidence in handling Minecraf', at all. Valve? EA? Microsoft? Lol. Ubisoft? Maybe.

Also yeah, the lovely Microsoft GFWL DRM. I hope the people who already work for Mojang are willing to fight long and hard against that . . .

Oh, please. If Notch so much as suggests an objection to anything Microsoft does to Minecraft, the entire internet will be backing him to get it retconned quicker than wherever this analogy is going. Even as bad as MS's marketing guys are, I don't think they'd want to risk a backlash like that.

I don't think you guys have to worry about Microsoft doing anything to it. They're not discontinuing support of the PlayStation, iOS, and Android platforms, and this gives them quite a few new opportunities, too: a Windows Phone version is likely already in development, and switching Realms over to Microsoft's in-house Azure platform (without the overhead of external hosting on Amazon Web Services) could easily make Realms a worthwhile business venture and not a possible money sink. Personally, I'd still like to see a version come to Wii U, but I have no idea where they stand with Nintendo.

And folks' opinions of Notch have decreased in weight over the last few years, as he went from lead developer to co-developer to overseer to someone who is moving on to a new project. How many people see him as a sell-out (as if the myriad toys, household décor, and linens weren't selling out already :p)?

After reading part of his reason for why selling it make sense why he was willing to sell makes sense. Don't blame him for not wanting to be in the spot light, he also now has the money to go after projects that more interest him.
http://gamerant.com/notch-mojang-microsoft-sale/
So I at least feel he is less of a sell out and I'm hoping that Microsoft doesn't end up screwing up the project, I'm at least hopeful on that much. Didn't realize how much he was no longer involved in what he created.

Something to read and add to where things sit.
http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/15/61...goodbye-letter

Here's a video that does a good job of trying to make sense of this whole mess.

So do u think we'll more updates for the ps3 version? Im still waiting on the Horses, the Wither skeleton's and Wither it self.

They've already said that this won't effect rival platforms, you have no reason to worry and they should all keep getting updated :)

Hey, as long as name changing is still planned i don't care :D

I'd suspect Minecraft will be the exception to the usual policy. And, even then, they might make one for the Nintendo 3DS anyway (Microsoft doesn't really have a handheld to call their own)...assuming it has more than enough CPU power to run it in the first place. (The new 3DS might be a better fit, but who knows?)