Microsoft Will Reportedly Announce the Acquisition of Minecraft on Monday for $2.5 Billion

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Posted September 13, 2014 at 6:49pm by iClarified

Microsoft will announce the acquisition of Minecraft and its creator Mojang on Monday, according to Reuters. The deal is said to be worth $2.5 billion and is motivated by the company's need to draw more users to Windows Phone.

There are currently about 100 million players of Minecraft and Microsoft apparently hopes to draw those players into its Windows Phone system which only has 2.5% of the world's smartphone market.

Enter Minecraft, which is the top paid app both on Apple Inc's iOS and Google Inc's Android systems. Microsoft will unveil a $2.5 billion deal to buy its owner on Monday, according to a source briefed on the matter.

“It seems like Microsoft is looking at Mojang and Minecraft as a way to tap into this enormous cultural phenomenon," said Dave Bisceglia, Chief Executive of independent game studio Tap Lab. "If you look at iOS, Minecraft has been a top-grossing game for quite some time, if Microsoft could on Windows phones give players a unique and compelling experience that you can't get on the other platforms, that could be a driver to sell devices to existing Minecraft fans.”

We'll let you know if the deal goes through on Monday. In the meanwhile, you can purchase Minecraft – Pocket Edition from the App Store for $6.99.

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Microsoft Will Reportedly Announce the Acquisition of Minecraft on Monday for $2.5 Billion

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areilly111 - September 15, 2014 at 12:52pm

They better rebuild it in something more stable then Java.

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areilly111 - September 14, 2014 at 6:21pm

The only thing they'll do is move away from java on the desktop because it's garbage. Other then that they'll keep it on all platforms or they'd loose money.

gamerscul9870 - September 14, 2014 at 6:36pm

If they bother fixing that but don't make a new problem then this money throwing acquisition will be worth it.

Curious Guy - September 14, 2014 at 4:19pm

Predictions: 1) deep Skype integration, 2) move away from Java as the desktop engine (Silverlight? Ugh!), 3) "win phone only" features, 4) Microsoft account required for any sort of multi-user experience, 5) some sort of in app purchase (buy diamonds, buy armor), 6) integration with Bing Maps (click to turn this map into a minecraft world), 7) Minecraft System Center 2014 R2. (Last one was a joke, rest are serious)

gd - September 14, 2014 at 3:11pm

Minecraft is doomed now.... like skype etc -

areilly111 - September 14, 2014 at 1:50am

Just think minecraft without Java.

gamerscul9870 - September 13, 2014 at 9:31pm

And I thought facebook acquiring oculus rift was the biggest mistake in acquisition history.

baldboy - September 13, 2014 at 9:27pm

$2 Billion and you call them shitty company? You are a Sheep!

AppleGuy299 - September 14, 2014 at 1:17am

Why would they buy minecraft? Microsoft has no business in dealing with minecraft

greatwhitehat - September 13, 2014 at 8:31pm

Must be à really shitty platform if you cannot get users on it through hardware and OS. A game will not make people switch. I really hope Mojang does not agree to be eaten by a big corp. Not very Indie.

mrjames4 - September 13, 2014 at 7:10pm

The fall of minecraft, its been a good run. Time to move on.

Joe - September 13, 2014 at 6:52pm

Well there goes ios and android updates. Damn.

areilly111 - September 13, 2014 at 7:10pm

Not early. The probably keep it on all the platforms it is on now. Let's just hope the remake the game on a different engine cuz java is shit.