Mojang being bought by Microsoft

**RU Joe** · 09-15-2014, 02:29 PM

The article:

Microsoft to buy Minecraft maker Mojang for $2.5 billion | Reuters

Words of Notch:

Quote:

NOT ABOUT THE MONEY

News of the Microsoft deal surprised some Minecraft players who know Persson, or "Notch" as he is commonly known, more for his anti-big business stance. But he explained the reasons behind the deal in a blog shortly after the deal was announced.

"As soon as this deal is finalized, I will leave Mojang and go back to doing Ludum Dares and small web experiments. If I ever accidentally make something that seems to gain traction, I'll probably abandon it immediately," Persson said in the blog posted on his Twitter feed.

"I love you. All of you. Thank you for turning Minecraft into what it has become, but there are too many of you, and I can't be responsible for something this big," he said. "It's not about the money. It's about my sanity."

Notch, 35, owns 71 percent of Mojang through his company Notch Development AB and stands to become a billionaire if the deal goes through. JP Morgan was the sole advisor to Mojang on the sale.

Why do I have the feeling they're going to ruin it?

What do you guys think?

**Dudebro** · 09-15-2014, 02:41 PM

I think it will be bad news but I'm not gonna say it's 100% sure thing. We might see an awesome MC2 in a couple years.

**DrunkN** · 09-15-2014, 02:43 PM

I wanna see what kinda independent projects he ends up doing.

Cliff Horse was a big hit with me, so I'm hoping for more titles like it.

Cliffhorse

**Seahawk** · 09-15-2014, 02:54 PM

Everything will be fine.

**samejamesbond** · 09-15-2014, 03:00 PM

It all depends on the developers, could be good, could be bad.
I wonder what'll happen to the PS3 version now.

**Dudebro** · 09-15-2014, 04:30 PM

Existing cross platform will be unchanged. As for the future? Almost definitely exclusive to MS platforms.

**Kugyince** · 09-15-2014, 04:59 PM

I mean, look at all the amazing things Microsoft did with Rare, right guys?

**Dudebro** · 09-15-2014, 05:06 PM

There's always the chance that they learned from their previous mistakes.

**CrispyChicken** · 09-15-2014, 05:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kugyince

I mean, look at all the amazing things Microsoft did with Rare, right guys?

**DrunkN** · 09-15-2014, 05:19 PM

I don't understand the hate for Nuts and Bolts. It was just as crummy as the first two games.

**Dudebro** · 09-15-2014, 05:25 PM

Can someone explain why everyone always blames MS for Rare? Didn't the people at Rare agree to the sale even though they were rolling in cash? I'd say blame Rare for being greedy.

**CrispyChicken** · 09-15-2014, 05:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrunkN

I don't understand the hate for Nuts and Bolts. It was just as crummy as the first two games.

Boo. The third added vehicles and humongous, but extremely bland worlds. It turned into a racing game rather than a platformer. The first two at least were true to their genre and the worlds were enticing, challenging, and compact.

**Seahawk** · 09-15-2014, 05:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrunkN

I don't understand the hate for Nuts and Bolts. It was just as crummy as the first ~~two~~ games.

Also everyone was mad because of the f#@$ing first reveal tease trailer which never came to be. Damn, I was hyped. What a letdown.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dudebro

Can someone explain why everyone always blames MS for Rare? Didn't the people at Rare agree to the sale even though they were rolling in cash? I'd say blame Rare for being greedy.

Rare was going downhill long before the sale to Microsoft, and both Nintendo and the founders (Chris and Tim Stamper) knew it. They tried to sell their stake to Nintendo but they didn't buy. After the disaster that was Star Fox Adventures (which was mostly caused by Miyamoto and Nintendo meddling), Microsoft stepped up with an offer and both Nintendo and the Stamper bros agreed. The Stampers exited the industry entirely, a bunch of Rare staff had left before the buyout (Goldeneye/Perfect Dark teams -> Free Radical, bought out by Crytek), and generally the kinds of games Rare made aren't compatible with today's industry, so they've kind of languished ever since.

**Dudebro** · 09-15-2014, 05:45 PM

So it is accurate to blame Rare and not MS.

**Seahawk** · 09-15-2014, 05:50 PM

Blame can go around between Nintendo (deathblow to Dinosaur Planet), Microsoft (not utilizing them effectively at all), and the general games industry (mature games only, lighthearted stuff is 'kiddy') but most of it is really just natural degradation cycle. Good times can't and don't last forever.

**Dudebro** · 09-15-2014, 05:55 PM

I think MS did try when they first got them. From what I've read their initial games were received well but didn't sell well, then they shifted to Kinect crap. Can't blame them for shifting focus to follow sales, or try to.

**Slime Slayer** · 09-15-2014, 08:06 PM

Forget Rare, look how awesomely they handled Firepro:

**Dudebro** · 09-15-2014, 08:24 PM

That wasn't Rare that was a group of MS employees releasing it under that brand name.

Funny story about that crap game. When MS decided to wipe their old official forums and get a new one they screwed up bad(and it's still screwed up). For months and months they remained completely silent about it, they wouldn't even post a sticky topic to address concerns or acknowledge it. Then out of the blue one day they posted a sticky topic to advertise this game. The two aren't related but this was the first and apparently only time they advertised that way. They must've known how bad it was and scrambled to get some hype built up. It backfired pretty gloriously.

**Mareeps** · 09-15-2014, 10:15 PM

Notch looks to the sunset, tears in his eyes, thinking of how much longer his vacation can be thanks to this deal.

**Dudebro** · 09-15-2014, 10:30 PM

His great grand kids will be on permanent vacations probably.

**Slime Slayer** · 09-15-2014, 10:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dudebro

That wasn't Rare that was a group of MS employees releasing it under that brand name.

Funny story about that crap game. When MS decided to wipe their old official forums and get a new one they screwed up bad(and it's still screwed up). For months and months they remained completely silent about it, they wouldn't even post a sticky topic to address concerns or acknowledge it. Then out of the blue one day they posted a sticky topic to advertise this game. The two aren't related but this was the first and apparently only time they advertised that way. They must've known how bad it was and scrambled to get some hype built up. It backfired pretty gloriously.

Sorry, bit of confusion. I wasn't saying that Rare messed up Firepro, it was developed bu Human Entertainment, and later Spike. I wil never forgive MS for what they did to that ip... honestly, it's just confusing...

>buy the ip of arguably the greatest series of wrestling games
>make a terrible wrestling game, nothing at all like the previous Firepros
>call it Firepro, and market it to a bunch of people who have never even heared of Firepro

It almost seems that some MS employee in a position of power read me talking shit about MS, found out I liked Firepro, and did it just to piss me off. It's the only explanation that makes sense.

**Dudebro** · 09-15-2014, 10:53 PM

Quote:

It almost seems that some MS employee in a position of power read me talking shit about MS, found out I liked Firepro, and did it just to piss me off. It's the only explanation that makes sense.

The game was so bad this explanation doesn't seem that crazy. I can understand baiting people with an iconic brand but this was just so poorly done it seems like they didn't care if it failed, and probably expected it.

**Slime Slayer** · 09-15-2014, 11:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dudebro

The game was so bad this explanation doesn't seem that crazy. I can understand baiting people with an iconic brand but this was just so poorly done it seems like they didn't care if it failed, and probably expected it.

Maybe they just wanted to eliminate them...

**CatalystiCam** · 09-16-2014, 09:07 PM

Ok, Kind of just brushed over a lot of this, but here's what I recall happening.

Dinosaur planet on Gamecube forced to be converted to a Star Fox game. This I doubt went over well with Rare and obviously Fans, although apparently the game itself is good if you don't think of it as Star Fox?

Microsoft buys remaining 51% of shares in Rare. Making them exclusive. Obviously some sort of Rare wanting to move on, letting themselves be allowed to be sold like this.

No notable games made since other than remakes that fell short of expectations (Conker: Live & Reloaded) & Diddy Kong Racing DS (They were still allowed to make handheld games for nintendo for whatever reason).

Conker: Live & Reloaded wasn't bad, but it just failed to make an impact again, as did Conker's Bad Fur Day. Cult classic, yes, but the idea of a potty mouth cute mascot never caught on. That and they completely rehauled the multiplayer in Live & Reloaded, which I personally like both, but you know how fans are with change.

Notable games that did well was the Viva Pinata games if anyone remembers those. I never played them, but heard good things.

Somewhere among here, the last traces of the people that made rare good, namely the brothers that owned the company for over a decade left (See the resembelance I'm worried about to Minecraft now?)

Then we all know the rest of the recent stuff. Basically a company of bad indie developers leftover boasting a name of a company that was previously great. Such is why most choose to not consider them the same. Myself included. I believe there was also a name change twice. Rare -> Rareware -> Rare. 'Rareware' being the name they had when they were such a powerhouse. Went back to 'Rare' after the buyout I think.

But yeah, I'll reiterate what I had in brackets earlier. Rare didn't really fail, it was the buyout, alongside the guys that made it great leaving. Basically a whole different company after the buyout. See any similarities? I do.

**Dudebro** · 09-16-2014, 09:37 PM

Quote:

Notable games that did well was the Viva Pinata games if anyone remembers those.

Yeah I'm sure everyone remembers the name it was pretty popular. Rare really didn't fall apart until the Kinect thing. Some of their other games aren't bad.

Btw I didn't know Rare made Slalom for NES. We used to play that and Punch Out all the time. It's not great in retrospect but we loved it.