Software giant Microsoft is buying Mojang, the Swedish game developer behind Minecraft (the most popular game on Microsoft’s Xbox gaming system), for $2.5 billion. The acquisition is to go down towards the end of the year. Mojang’s founder Markus “Notch” Persson is leaving the company. In the past, Persson has accused Microsoft of “trying to ruin the PC as an open platform.”
Minecraft fans are nervous that Microsoft’s acquisition will do more harm than good. These concerns are based on the history of Microsoft’s purchaseof Rare in 2002 (game developer of Donkey Kong Country, Banjo-Kazooie and GoldenEye 007). In 2009, Rare suffered poor sales of a few sequels and several employees quit or were fired. So far, Microsoft says it’s planning to keep Mojang’s Stockholm operations unchanged. It sounds like employees there are listening to Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds – the one with the refrain “Don’t worry about a thing. ‘Cause every little thing gonna’ be alright.” One of the employees wrote on the Mojang blog: “Change is scary, and this is a big change for all of us. It’s going to be good though. Everything is going to be OK.”
