Microsoft Acquires Mojang For $2.5 Billion USD

September 16, 2014

In a somewhat surprising move, Microsoft today announced they were purchasing Swedish developer Mojang (Minecraft, Scrolls) for $2.5 Billion USD.

In a post on the Xbox Wire blog, the decision to acquire the company began when Microsoft first approached Mojang to bring Minecraft to the Xbox 360, which since then has gone on to become not only one of the most popular games played on Xbox Live (a staggering two billion hours played), but also one of the most popular games played on the Xbox 360. The acquisition won’t affect development of updates of non-Microsoft versions of Minecraft (i.e. Playstation & mobile versions of the game), and Microsoft did confirm that MINECON will continue next year.

As the purchase is being finalized, Mojang co-founders Markus “Notch” Persson, Carl Manneh & Jakob Poser will be leaving the company. While Manneh & Poser haven’t spoken publicly on the matter, Notch posted a blog piece explaining his reasoning in leaving the company – citing a belief that he didn’t have the connection to his fans that he thought he did, following an EULA situation that he wasn’t involved in.

Mojang joins such esteemed company within the Microsoft Games Studios group as Turn 10 (Forza Motorsport), 343 Industries (Halo) & Lionhead Studios (Fable).