After a week of rumours, Minecraft maker Mojang has today confirmed they're being bought by Microsoft. The studio has also announced that founders Markus "Notch" Persson, Carl Manneh and Jakob Porser are to leave. Blimey!
The announcement (opens in new tab) comes courtesy of Mojang's Owen Hill, (that's former PC Gamer web editor Owen Hill,) who has detailed why the sale took place:
"Minecraft has grown from a simple game to a project of monumental significance. Though we're massively proud of what Minecraft has become, it was never Notch's intention for it to get this big.
"As you might already know, Notch is the creator of Minecraft and the majority shareholder at Mojang. He's decided that he doesn't want the responsibility of owning a company of such global significance. Over the past few years he's made attempts to work on smaller projects, but the pressure of owning Minecraft became too much for him to handle. The only option was to sell Mojang. He'll continue to do cool stuff though. Don't worry about that.
"There are only a handful of potential buyers with the resources to grow Minecraft on a scale that it deserves. We've worked closely with Microsoft since 2012, and have been impressed by their continued dedication to our game and its development. We're confident that Minecraft will continue to grow in an awesome way.
"Minecraft means many different things to millions of people across the world, and to each and every Mojangsta. We feel that this is the best way for everyone – you guys included – to benefit."
According to Hill, there's "no reason for the development, sales, and support of the PC/Mac, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4, Vita, iOS, and Android versions of Minecraft to stop." Hill also explains that he expects "the vast majority" of Mojang's staff to continue working at the company. Currently, the future of Scrolls is uncertain.
Just what Microsoft have planned for the studio—and for Minecraft—is, for now, unclear. They've just bought a gaming phenomenon, though. Let's hope they treat it right (opens in new tab) .
