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Kind of unfortunate for Sony, they haven't long had Minecraft on the Playstation systems and now Microsoft is buying the franchise and company, there goes the Vita port and any updates for the Sony versions.
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Sep 10, 2014 11:45
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 22:56 |
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Lucy Heartfilia posted:http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-09/microsoft-said-near-2-billion-deal-for-minecraft-maker.html Hmm, interesting. So it's probably true after all, there goes all my hope. 
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Sep 10, 2014 11:49
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I wonder if (or when) there's going to be some point of no return, before which I should really download a copy, go into offline mode, and then never login again. Find an ideal modpack and a vanilla download to preserve and just keep it forever. I know it sounds pretty dramatic, but my main concern is just that there'd be no way to roll back changes if MS decides to turn this into an always-online thing, rather than being worried about tainting the game with their touch.Fuego Fish posted:If this inspires a lot of "Microsoft-free" Minecraft clones, I'm all for that Ihmemies posted:I just said it's a stupid idea to sell just for "money"
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Sep 10, 2014 11:52
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Minecraft is not best Minecraft. This development will bring us closer to the ideal of Minecraft. We will come to better know Minecraft-ness.
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Sep 10, 2014 11:59
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Schweinhund posted:Because dealing with the Minecraft community of 12 year olds sucks. Also Notch's goal in life wasn't to run a huge corporation or even Minecraft. He just enjoys making games, mostly by himself. If you read his twitter he's currently working on a Doom emulator. He probably just wants to do things like that. Which suggest he already does just do his own thing? He has enough money to just hand off the company to the other guys who work there if he wants to. Unless he really hates them I still don't get why he'd sell it to microsoft.
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Sep 10, 2014 12:00
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The other people also own parts of the company and probably also like money?
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Sep 10, 2014 12:01
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OwlFancier posted:Which suggest he already does just do his own thing? He has enough money to just hand off the company to the other guys who work there if he wants to. Unless he really hates them I still don't get why he'd sell it to microsoft. As for why Microsoft, if he's really been serious about selling for some time, and based on that Bloomberg article it appears that he has, then presumably Microsoft are the highest bidder.
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Sep 10, 2014 12:15
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Dude awkward:Someone on slashdot posted:Posting anonymous because I really shouldn't be saying this. Yes, it's for real: notch wants to sell out. It's been known inside the company for weeks. The news hit the developers in the Stockholm office very hard to the point that people were actually sobbing. No-one's happy besides the two people likely to end up with a large pile of cash after this goes down.
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Sep 10, 2014 12:17
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But doesn't that only apply if mojang was publically traded or something? I mean, he owns the company wholesale, doesn't he? Or at least it's a private company. So, other than the operating costs of the company, there shouldn't be anything tied up in it. Other than what he's electing to put into it. I find it hard to believe that Notch does't just have a big pile of money given the amount of pure profit minecraft generates in all its incarnations and all its royalties from merch or whatever. I get that money is good but, when a million dollars is easily enough to live comfortably for the rest of your life, I find it hard to believe that someone who allegedly wants to sit and fiddle with random programming for the rest of his life is really going to need two thousand million dollars over and above whatever he has now. Enough money is important, more money is quite literally immaterial. Like I said, unless he really hates everyone he's ever worked with, I don't get why selling it to microsoft is something he'd want to do, given their propensity for running everything they've ever bought into the ground. OwlFancier fucked around with this message at 12:22 on Sep 10, 2014 |
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Sep 10, 2014 12:19
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He should have asked for more!Notch posted:Anyway, my price is two billion dollars. Give me two billion dollars, and I'll endorse your crap. https://twitter.com/notch/status/281139739304800256 Vib Rib posted:I'm pretty sure money is what most people sell anything for. That's like, the standard. People have poor standards. Why they can't have all the same exemplary standards I personally have?! 
Ihmemies fucked around with this message at 12:33 on Sep 10, 2014 |
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Sep 10, 2014 12:30
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Well, Notch has a tendency to change his mind abruptly, usually without much thought put into something, and 2 billion dollars is a pretty nice sum if his current feelings towards his old creation aren't good these days between the lawsuit and all of the modders/fans/weirdos. I'm actually now kinda looking forward to microsoft destroying minecraft in some weird idiotic money toilet way, just so it isn't the only big block builder game around with more then 2 people playing it at the same time. If minecraft lost 10% of it's playerbase, that would be enough for some new better coded nicer graphic block builder game to get some players who are looking for a new *like minecraft, but* game.
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Sep 10, 2014 12:33
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Ihmemies posted:He should have asked for more! Well he is getting $2B+ so, looks like he was right. OwlFancier posted:Enough money is important, more money is quite literally immaterial. Notch started discussions with Microsoft, not the other way around. He wants to cash out and be able to build a lair. There's a big difference from owning 80%+ of a company and being able to cash out whenever you want versus having a huge pile of cash (or MS stock). Edit: Everyone who thinks Minecraft is going to lose audience is so horribly horribly wrong. You're going to wish no one played minecraft by the time Microsoft is done with it.
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Sep 10, 2014 12:34
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The problem with the idea of it encouraging successor projects is that microsoft is probably going to sue the poo poo out of anyone they can if they end up owning the rights to minecraft. If anything I would expect it to make successor projects even more difficult.
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Sep 10, 2014 12:35
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Could they get a patent for "things built out of cubes" or some kind of trademark crap and sue the poo poo out of everyone making even remotely similiarly styled games?
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Sep 10, 2014 12:39
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Trabisnikof posted:Notch started discussions with Microsoft, not the other way around. He wants to cash out and be able to build a lair. There's a big difference from owning 80%+ of a company and being able to cash out whenever you want versus having a huge pile of cash (or MS stock). I may wait and see what happens rather than listen to what some guys uncle who works at microsoft said to a journalist. Ihmemies posted:Could they get a patent for "things built out of cubes" or some kind of trademark crap and sue the poo poo out of everyone making even remotely similiarly styled games? Given that it's microsoft I would be surprised if they didn't try.
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Sep 10, 2014 12:40
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Lucy Heartfilia posted:http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-09/microsoft-said-near-2-billion-deal-for-minecraft-maker.html So who's right? The NY Times link posted over in the modding thread said MS approached Notch first. http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/09/09/microsoft-said-to-be-in-advanced-talks-to-buy-minecraft-maker/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0
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Sep 10, 2014 12:40
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OwlFancier posted:Like I said, unless he really hates everyone he's ever worked with, I don't get why selling it to microsoft is something he'd want to do, given their propensity for running everything they've ever bought into the ground. or he just doesn't like them enough to hand over a 2 billion dollar business to them for nothing? This isn't about money, it's about him not wanting to run a company anymore. I'd bet he'll hook them up with a ton of the money too so it will probably work out best for all of them.
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Sep 10, 2014 12:49
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Schweinhund posted:or he just doesn't like them enough to hand over a 2 billion dollar business to them for nothing? This isn't about money, it's about him not wanting to run a company anymore. I'd bet he'll hook them up with a ton of the money too so it will probably work out best for all of them. Well, it kind of is about money if that's the reason not to hand over the business. It would be quite feasible to work out an arrangement to tithe a portion of the game's profit to him for X years in return for allowing the people who still want to work on the game to retain creative control. It's not a choice between going broke or being rich, it's a choice between being rich and having more money than anyone could realistically spend in a hundred years. I guess I just have real trouble seeing the utility in sums of money bigger than, like, 100 million dollars, because that's enough to do more or less anything I could realistically want to do in my lifetime.
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Sep 10, 2014 12:53
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OwlFancier posted:Well, it kind of is about money if that's the reason not to hand over the business. It would be quite feasible to work out an arrangement to tithe a portion of the game's profit to him for X years in return for allowing the people who still want to work on the game to retain creative control.
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Sep 10, 2014 13:03
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OwlFancier posted:But doesn't that only apply if mojang was publically traded or something? I don't think selling is a great idea either, but that's mainly because I'd actually find the business side of Mojang and Minecraft interesting as well. Notch apparently does not.
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Sep 10, 2014 13:09
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I sincerely hope that what's here stays, no matter what MS decides to do, if they buy it. I have a mac, and currently no issues running the game. I just wanna keep playing Minecraft with my friends, wife, and, in a few years, my son. 
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Sep 10, 2014 13:11
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Rupert Buttermilk posted:I sincerely hope that what's here stays, no matter what MS decides to do, if they buy it. I have a mac, and currently no issues running the game. You could just keep a copy of the current jar (and server jar) and pretty much run it forever I would have thought.
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Sep 10, 2014 13:23
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EvilRic posted:You could just keep a copy of the current jar (and server jar) and pretty much run it forever I would have thought. Exactly. The only thing you'd be cut off from are the authentication servers, which, given the number of bootleg clients would seem to be rather trivial to bypass.
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Sep 10, 2014 13:25
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Rupert Buttermilk posted:I sincerely hope that what's here stays, no matter what MS decides to do, if they buy it. I have a mac, and currently no issues running the game. Doesn't MS already have a lot of software on the Mac platform? I don't think they will ruin it, you bought a game that said it would work on Windows, Mac and Linux. If they remove support for any of these platforms they would probably be sued or something.
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Sep 10, 2014 13:26
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OwlFancier posted:I guess I just have real trouble seeing the utility in sums of money bigger than, like, 100 million dollars, because that's enough to do more or less anything I could realistically want to do in my lifetime. If he has any ambition to create an AAA level of title or two in his lifetime, and fund them out of pocket, two billion is more than enough to pull that off. He could also want to become some kind of modern Maecenas of videogames, tossing a hundred grand here and investing a million there for indie projects he deems worthy of support. Hell, two billion is enough to start up his own publishing company for that kind of thing if he wants to. I mean, I agree, 100m would be more than anything I'd ever want to spend, but if you have bigger dreams like that, then 2B is actually a useful amount of money.
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Sep 10, 2014 13:51
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If I had this kind of money I would create a some kind of foundation which is dedicated to advancing video games as a medium. Then I would keep on making my pet projects and hire help as needed.
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Sep 10, 2014 13:59
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Two billion means he really can fund Psychonauts 2. 
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Sep 10, 2014 14:04
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Antti posted:I mean, I agree, 100m would be more than anything I'd ever want to spend, but if you have bigger dreams like that, then 2B is actually a useful amount of money. I don't think I've ever seen someone describe two billion dollars in the same way that you would describe, say, shoe polish. More money is indeed more "useful" than less money though, regardless of the scale.
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Sep 10, 2014 14:23
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I can't get enough of are Dan
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Fuego Fish posted:Welp, I wondered why there were 76 new posts this morning rather than the usual 2. Ihmemies posted:Could they get a patent for "things built out of cubes" or some kind of trademark crap and sue the poo poo out of everyone making even remotely similiarly styled games? The instant Microsoft gains control of Minecraft IP, it is going to sue the boxers right off the asses of every single Minecraft clone out there. Anyone who thinks otherwise must have recently arrived from a third-world country with no electricity and has never heard of Microsoft before. They may or may not effectively shut down the modding community (I'm betting on yes but I could at least fathom it being no) but the guys making Minecraft clones? Those guys are hosed.
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Sep 10, 2014 14:34
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Fun fact: You can't actually copyright gameplay; you can only concept the art, designs, music, and code contained within (and perhaps the story but that's getting into grey area). This is why there's a billion trillion bejeweled clones and a lot of bomberman clones and etc. As long as you're not using the same art or code or such (or too heavily referenced on either) you're in the clear. If you called it Digcraft then probably yeah sure but unless you did they can't really copyright Voxels.
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Sep 10, 2014 14:43
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On the other hand, good luck releasing a Tetris clone for a mobile platform and not eventually having it DMCA'd.
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Sep 10, 2014 14:49
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Remember when Microsoft acquired Bungie and sued every other FPS maker out of existence? 
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Sep 10, 2014 14:56
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Kilroy posted:On the other hand, good luck releasing a Tetris clone for a mobile platform and not eventually having it DMCA'd. The Tetris Company abusing the fact that the DMCA is overpowered and allows for such abuse without court rulings, basically. MikeJF fucked around with this message at 14:58 on Sep 10, 2014 |
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Sep 10, 2014 14:56
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Since when has a thing not being technically, y'know, legal stopped Microsoft from attempting it?
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Sep 10, 2014 15:14
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Where are the microtransactions for solitaire? Is that a Windows 8 thing?
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Sep 10, 2014 15:16
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Nebalebadingdong posted:Where are the microtransactions for solitaire? Is that a Windows 8 thing? Yes. I feel a deep shame whenever I want to play it and it asks me if I wouldn't feel better if I spent a few kroners to unlock some bullshit.
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Sep 10, 2014 15:56
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Seems today is the "write new Minecraft articles or in lack of better material, bump older ones". Some old bunch of poo poo of mine got featured in a Minecraft-related architecture post  Well I guess the game is mainstream enough for that. Why they had to pick unfinished builds though  Took out new screens so I could see how it looks with Conquest pack.
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Sep 10, 2014 16:06
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Heavy Lobster posted:I don't think they realize that the major brand name has the pulling power it does because the entire appeal is "not from one of the big guys." Citation needed, but I'm pretty sure at this stage Minecraft's audience is mostly kids who don't give a gently caress who the developer or publisher is.
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Sep 10, 2014 16:31
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Basing my decision entirely off the amount of stupid overpriced merch I've had to sell, minecraft's target demographic is 100% under the age of 10. I seriously can't get over paying £5.50 for a really lovely plastic keyring shaped like a square pig.
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Sep 10, 2014 16:36
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 22:56 |
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Bungie did pretty when they were owned by Microsoft. Granted you had to really like consoles if you wanted Bungie games, but the company was able to keep its identity and even managed to break free once they finished their Halo related obligations. Basically Mojang will do just drat fine. The only issue of concern is how Microsoft expects to get a return on a $2B investment. I don't think merchandising is gonna cut it.. there will be sequels down the road, guaranteed. As for Minecraft clones, they'll be fine. It was settled a long time ago that you can't copyright game mechanics. http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl108.html
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Sep 10, 2014 16:41
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