This is a response to Julia Tan’s blog post on Microsoft buying Mojang.

I agree with Julia that Microsoft made a very lucrative and smart move when they decided to buy Mojang. As Julia has stated, Mojang created Minecraft, a highly popular game in the gaming industry. Minecraft is known to be vastly flexible, it is not just a game where everything is set in stone. Rather, as a player, Minecraft allows you to create games within the game. Normally, games will have a story that the player will follow, however in Minecraft, there is no real story. The moment you enter the game, you are transported to a vast open world with no indication of what to do next. It is up to the player how they would like to play the game.

I think that Microsoft made a really good decision in buying Mojang. Not only do they get the rights to the game, they also get the rights and patents of all their merchandise, such as toys and collectibles. They now also have all the jurisdiction on Minecraft content and this is a huge asset. Minecraft is a very unique game when it comes to fans. Like I have said before, Minecraft allows the player to do many things in many creative ways. The fans of the game have evolved from mere users into content creators. There are many YouTube channels where players of Minecraft film themselves playing and creating new games, and many other users work behind the scenes to add new unofficial content to the game (known as “mods”). For example, there is the popular YouTube channel Roosterteeth and it’s subchannel LetsPlay that create highly popular content on YouTube, one of them being Minecraft videos. There are also channels such as BajanCanadian and TheSyndicateProject that create extremely successful Minecraft content.

Before Mojang was bought, content creators did not have to worry about using the game to gain money by posting videos on YouTube. Now, since Microsoft has bought Mojang, technically all these content that these fans have produced could be put under Microsoft’s jurisdiction, depending on how Microsoft approaches this issue. Of course there is backlash from the Minecraft community, who think that this will prohibit Minecraft content creators from creating any new content. It will be interesting to see how Microsoft will handle this problem.

It is also interesting to note that Microsoft had already partnered with Mojang several times before buying them. In Minecraft, you are able to change your appearance or “skin” and there are presets available for users who do not want to create their own skin. One of these packs of skins come from Halo, a immensely popular game created by Microsoft themselves. It would make sense for them to buy Mojang as there is a lot of Microsoft content associated with the game. It was even originally created only for the PC and Xbox consoles, only later being ported to the PlayStation.

Personally, I am interested in Microsoft’s expansion into the gaming industry. This could mean further development into the game or it could be just an offshoot one time deal to secure a highly popular game so that competitors do not acquire it. All in all, I agree with Julia’s opinion and I also believe that this will benifit Microsoft greatly.