Strange isn't it? You'd think having invented a game like Minecraft would seriously boast happiness and confidence, yet it feels like he's really only happy to get rid of it. I think in game development you cannot have too much idealism and get happy. It's a huge business and exploits people in every imaginable way. And the cute projects we see take incredible amounts of dedication and perseverance to get completed.

It's just a lot of stress and strain to produce an original game and in the end what do you get? A lot of complaints and 2,5 Billions. Doesn't seem so bad to me, but honestly, unimaginable amounts of money seem to be more of a letdown to an idealist than a triumph.

http://i.imgur.com/pGtT7WT.png

This is the point that everybody seems to be missing. It always rubs me the wrong way when people say its not about the money as they walk off into the sunset with billions of dollars.

That being said, Notch seems like a great guy. He's created a project that has helped ignite imaginations across the world. Good on him.

if it was about his sanity he should have been working on minecraft. he should not have abandoned it.

Hopefully we can stop talking about Notch now. Like, I don't have anything against the guy, but he's connected to one notable game, which he hasn't even been actively working on in years (since he gave project lead status to another guy in the studio). I just want to see Mojang actually make god damn video-games instead of adding more ponies and bananas to Minecraft.

@voodoopc: I'm not excusing other behavior by pointing out the internet is pretty poor at times. My grander point was even someone like Notch feels somewhat harassed on the internet and wants to stay away from it all.

I think that may be a bit of an understatement.

Hopefully it comes to Steam. It sucks to see that happen to Notch (and the other two leaving the company) I just hope the game can continue to thrive and be properly supported on every platform. Even if I don't care about, Minecraft is one of the most important games of all times...I hope Notch's life and career can go where he wants it too.

No, it's an objective fact. Yes, Minecraft was a cultural phenomenon, but it's still a game like any other. Plenty of games are just as successful as Minecraft, the only reason it stands out is because those other games almost almost always AAA titles. And while I pat Notch on the back for striking gold and adapting Infiniminer into something so successful, i'm just sick of hearing so much discussion about the guy on gaming sites when he's had almost no direct involvement with the game industry for years.

Based on the way he's spoken in the press release, I think he'd agree with me that he doesn't need to constantly be pushed into this spotlight.

Money is going to do anything but provide sanity. Especially that kind of money.

I hope he finds his peace. I feel like he may have just made it harder for himself to do that.

He just gave up :(

Microsoft just bought virtual Legos. Get ready to start printing money.

The sanity part seems to have been about all the people sending him threats and shit when he didn't want to be their computer support.

Not the entire reason, but he clearly didn't feel like keeping on working on a massive project like this when most of the interaction with the gamer crowd can be so draining.

It's not the first time a developer has stepped down because of this, not even this year.

I would have been fine with them selling Minecraft... but to Microsoft? Jesus, one of the shittiest companies you could've handed it off to.

FFS Mojang.

I'd love to be optimistic and expect that this would help minecraft run smoother (as it runs like dog shit even on most good computers). I guess it runs as good as it looks though. However, I don't think that's what'll happen, I think microsoft is going to turn minecraft into a vehicle for advertising... think xbox live but worse. All those kids playing... an advertiser would be salivating at the chance to add new recipes for real products, etc. Adcraft I think will be an appropriate name.

CEO Nadella was running out of people to lay off...looks like he got a new crop.

If i made minecraft and someone offered me 2.5 billion dollars i'd sell it too. You could make a difference with that kind of money.

he should have accepted valves offer. this is gross

If I made minecraft and someone offered me 2.5 billion dollars I wouldn't sell it.

It'd be tempting but I wouldn't do it.

Good for him, hell, id run away too for 2.5 billion and 0 stress.

Good for microsoft.
But hearing : "It's not about the money, it's about my sanity" makes me think he might have underestimated what being worth 2.5 billion dollars actually means. For anybody, that much money for one person never leads to sanity, unfortunately. I would congratulate him but I think good luck is more appropriate. Good Luck!

You could do a phenomenal amount of actual good with 2.5 million and still have money left over to buy an island. It's the kind of bank to a be serious publisher and distributor if he was so inclined.

Shit, I totally forgot about all that stuff. I've already got hopes something might happen now.

We need to keep tweeting at him to give Tim some money.

This certainly could wind up being a trainwreck as a Minecraft fan, but looking at what Mojang has done over the last several years (read: barely anything), here's to hoping that Microsoft can help get shit like the modding API up and running. Everyone makes the Rare jokes, and yeah, Rare is a fucking husk of it's former self, but that was all under the previous administration and it seems like the new brass is at least trying to right some of the wrongs.

So I'm hopeful. It's not like they can realistically do LESS than Mojang has, and even if they fuck everything up with some shitty update, the modders and PC community will just stick with the last good version and go from there.

Also I like Phil Spencer. He always seemed like a slimy business guy before, but it seems like he's figured out the right mix of being sincere while also acting like a professional rather than trying to masquerade as "just one of the guys".

If they are smart they will continue having equal support across all versions of the game. No priority given to any platform. That is what made Minecraft so good. Every possible version of it that came out had the exact same feature set.

I'm not hopeful.

I wonder what the develop of Infiniminer is thinking right now?

Hey guys, look we added minecarts. Two and a half billion dollars.

You know what? If this gets Notch out of the spotlight so he will stop saying stupid shit on Twitter, then I'm all for this. Others pointed this out, but the hypocrisy of him selling out to Microsoft when he condemned others for doing the SAME thing is pretty damn funny. But hey, 2.5 BILLION dollars would make me turn around on a lot of my values too.

Well, at least he can completely fund Psychonauts 2 by himself now.

Sanity is overrated. I want him to use his billions to dress up like a bat and beat up criminals every night. Isn't that what billionaires are supposed to do?

A lot of programmers (like Notch, Carmack, and others) just want to write good, clean code and produce something cool with it. Markus never expected Minecraft would become this enormous thing it is, and I'm sure (judging from his Tweets, blogs, and comments) that he has never wanted to have to handle the burden of fame, flying across the world, needing to engage with strangers on social media, and everything that came with its success. Being a celebrity is really enjoyable for a while, but every well-adjusted celebrity wants to be a regular old human being most of the time. With $2.5 billion, he can be a very, very regular old human being. If I ever make anything extremely successful, I'd offload it as soon as I knew I could.

As someone who plays on Xbox, I'm glad to hear Minecraft may see some improvements on the console, more frequent updates, etc. I'm also VERY glad to hear that development will continue on the other platforms. While it wouldn't affect me, stopping development on other platforms would be really scummy.

I'm also sad to see Notch go. Too many people in this industry are leaving because of the way they're treated by the internet. Hopefully he doesn't regret the decision.

I know this is supposed to be a dig at Microsoft or whatever, but really, who fucking cares? They aren't taking it away from competing platforms. It's something they are buying because they feel it will make them money. Acting like MS is awful for buying into something they think will make a nice profit for them is horseshit.

Everybody has a price

more than he could ever spend in his life? say he ends up with 1 billion in the bank, invests very conservatively and nets a 1% growth yearly. that would mean the guy has to spend 27k a day just to prevent his fortune from growing.

"...and I’m right there struggling with you." Struggling with hundreds of millions in his bank account. I don't mind that he accepted the money. Every one of us would have. But don't try to act like some sort of victim here when you do.

But will it finally get mod API???

If he was really making stuff to be creative, he wouldn't care if it got popular. Saying you'll abandon something as soon as people care about it is the epitome of being a pretentious hipster. I really hate using those overused terms, but that's honestly what he sounds like.

Well, there goes another brilliant indie dev who plans to hide from his/her talent for the rest of their life.

Thanks, internet. You've been doing us all a real solid by making sure that people you think are dicks get torn to shreds. Your justice has won out. Way to fucking go.

As everyone has found out, including Notch himself, it is very difficult to say no on whatever grounds you want to say to say no to when the figure you're looking at is 2.5 billion dollars. As far as I'm concerned, he made the correct choice. With that sum of money, you could spend the rest of your life funding whatever the hell you want to and living the life you want. Some pretty great quotes in that pretentious blog post though.

"I watched the This is Phil Fish video on YouTube and started to realize I didn’t have the connection to my fans I thought I had" is an incredibly cringe-worthy statement to make (to me, at least). Makes Notch sound like the 16 year olds that claim they had their life changed after watching the Kony video.

"It’s not about the money. It’s about my sanity."- lol,k, whatever Notch. If it was about your sanity, it meant that you would have walked away years before this deal. I just hope that the next time a similar buyout occurs Notch might think about holding his tongue before he tweets something dumb and elitist.

Notch took his millions (billions?) and ran. It's pretty hard to feel any sympathy for the guy

It has become a pet peeve of mine when people who make a TON of money with something in a relatively short period of time are quick to say "It's not about the money." ...Really? I bet Microsoft wishes they knew that when price was being discussed. That figure probably would have been significantly lower.

Also, not too long ago Notch was all, "fuck Microsoft, they're trying to destroy indie games!" Then they showed up with trucks full of money for a console Minecraft and now this.

I like Notch for how candid tends to be even despite his notoriety but man is he completely full of it sometimes.

I cautiously look forward to what this means for the future of Minecraft. Hopefully Microsoft knows not to mess with it too much. Ongoing development and [significantly more consistent and meaningful] updates are really all the game needs. Given how much that development may cost and how much money changed hands, though, I kind of expect to see something added to generate revenue. Paid mods/expansion packs? Time will tell.

“To me what Minecraft represents is more than a hit game franchise,” he said. “It’s this open-world platform. If you think about it, it’s the one game parents want their kids to play.”

Nadella said he woke up this morning and his 10-year-old daughter asked him if he knew about Microsoft buying Mojang — a comment that drew laughs from the audience.

“If you talk about STEM education, the best way to introduce anyone to STEM or get their curiosity going on, it’s Minecraft,” he said. “So I think what this open-world phenomenon will mean to the community at large, for people who builders, is pretty big, and we are very excited about the acquisition, obviously.”

He added, “We are really excited about being stewards to the community that is Minecraft.”

Geekwire: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on Minecraft: ‘It’s the one game parents want their kids to play’

I really hope they make a Minecraft 2 that looks as nice as this at some point.

@korolev: Very reasonable post. I dare any of you to go to the minecraft forums and immerse yourself fully in that culture. Now imagine being the person who accidentallycreated it, I would also want to run.

I'd take the money without thinking twice and use at least 1 billion to make the game of my dreams. Then, when I got bored of it, maybe I'd make another 1 billion dollar game.

Oh, please. Notch is the one that made this decision (and it breaks my heart). It would be INSANELY unreasonable to offload something as pivotal and revolutionary as Minecraft because the internet is a tool that assholes are allowed to use. Also, it isn't the internet that is the problem. It's fame in general.

It's fucking aggravating that he wants to disappear, he shouldn't have sold his brilliant invention to anyone and taken pride of the wonderful miracle he created, but I accept that it's completely his prerogative to do so.

He sold out and took the easy money. If he wants to disappear for the rest of his life, whatever, it's a mistake, but it's up to him. 2.5 billion dollars is a lot to manage in itself. I wish him luck. This isn't the internets fault. That's crazy.

Not a bad deal for Notch. I wonder how much of it he gets. Getting rich and being able to disappear sounds like the best thing ever. He made is mark on the industry and gets a nice fat paycheck to walk away. Good for him. I'm not going to say MS will ruin Minecraft or anything. Minecraft is it's own beast at this point.

According to this article on Polygon, citing Gamesbeat, 'break even' in this context means... not what most would assume. They are only only promising to break even with an alternate scenario where they left the money in the bank to gain interest. They are not planning or expecting to make 2.5 billion dollars.

edit: and here's the article

@kanerobot: Anyone who is invested in Microsoft video game platforms should care. MS has displayed time and time again that they are creatively bankrupt and would rather throw vast sums of money at everything but creating original content. But don't let that get in your way. Roll on little Microsoft warrior.

First, he doesn't get that $2.5 Billion. He owns 71% of the company.

I don't get how people say he sold out? He is already worth $150 million, he'll be worth about $1.5 Billion after this deal goes through. Being able to move on from something that you don't want to do is a good thing. Most people don't get that opportunity. There's nothing wrong with taking the money for your creation and moving on to do other things. Nowadays people seem to think that making money is "selling out". How long was he supposed to stick with Minecraft? He's supposed to be miserable just because he's rich? None of you that dislike your job would take $1B to be able to leave and do what you love? To be able to set up your family and your children's children with opportunities to do what they love? That opportunity is bigger than some people on the internet thinking you're a sell out for being successful.

@spraynardtatum said:

I probably wouldn't go into business with you.

because 2,5 billion dollars