So, we all know what's up: Mojang got bought for $2.5 billion, Microsoft now owns Minecraft, and they have total control over what they want out of it. Is this the end for us all?
Probably not, and despite Microsoft's tragic mistakes in the past, I still think that they'll be able to pull this one through.
To explain Microsoft's reasoning behind this, I'll give you a
So Microsoft buys Mojang, and Minecraft for that matter, for the sole purpose of promoting their own products.
Think about it: most of Microsoft's profits are from the Xbox franchise. They specifically aim for the gamers, and more specifically, the young gamers. Since Minecraft is one of the, if not the most popular video game among young gamers. So Microsoft says "hey, we should totally have Minecraft on our console!" and that spawned the console editions for Minecraft.
But they didn't stop there. Even though they were gaining money from Minecraft: Xbox 360 edition, they wanted to appeal to the ones who are a bit older than the Minecraft kiddies. Teenagers, are obsessed with smartphone tech nowadays, they're on Instagram, they're on Twitter, they're on Facebook, every social media site out there(except the ones that are dead).
They had tried several times to appeal to the adolescent age, who are on their phones all the time, so back in May 2010, they released a phone, called the Microsoft Kin.
Do you know this phone? If you do, then you would know that this is the worst fail in all of phones, period. But it's actually sad to see that they had so much hype in on this, they had billions of dollars in research put into this, and went as far as to keep it secret from the public, calling this phone "Project Pink", repeatedly signing off all work discussions #TMDP for "Truly, Madly, Deeply, Pink". I guess this was to try to see if anyone would leak this to spice up interest for the phone?
Anyways, what they ended up selling was a complete disaster of a phone. First of all, these weren't designed to be smartphones. They were made for texting and social networking, and lacked many apps that most smartphones had like a calendar app. They didn't even had an app store, so what you got was what you got. To use your phone properly, you had to register it on the Kin Website, where you can also store pictures and stuff...? I don't know much, but this was a big fail it itself, because this site was mandatory to keep these phones running.
Verizon stopped selling the phones for poor sales, versions of the phone got their price slashed down to almost free, and production stopped. The entire thing was scrapped, the website shut down, and the phones not only rendered obsolete, but unusable now. Looking back, you can sum it up as MS spending billions of dollars, only to find themselves FORTY EIGHT DAYS LATER to say "yep. Nevermind."
Which brings us back to 2014, where they now sell Nokia phones, with Windows Phone OS. To be honest, all of their gimmicky stuff, with Windows 8's design seemingly slapped onto every device they sell, plus Cortana, a competitor to Apple's Siri, who also is the AI from Halo.
However, this still isn't going to cut it. Compared to iOS and Android, these are nothing compared to the simplicity of an iPhone and the seemingly endless possibility of an Android phone.
And this brings us here, when Microsoft is deciding whether to buy Mojang *click or nah.
The truth is, Microsoft needs more consumers in the market, and buying Mojang will allow them to update Windows Phone with the game that everybody wants. This doesn't just promote their phone however, this also promotes their income.
If Minecraft continues to grow at a steady rate, Microsoft can use this as a gold mine. This game has grown as much as to create a lifestyle, multiple fanbases, wikis, clothing, and much more. And Microsoft can profit from this. Provided they don't screw something up.
Not only that, but this can also mean the start of Minecraft 2.0, a sequel to pretty much the same game... I don't know much, but it really seems like a copy of the same game with a two slapped on the end of the title.
But again, provided they don't screw things up, Minecraft will still be as good, just owned under a different name. Yes, this change is definitely scary to some people, and jokes can be made about Minecraft 2.0 like "the exact same items that look slightly different" and such.
The only thing I do hope Microsoft will do is to continue to support Mojang. They are the ones who are pretty much the founders and sole supporters of this game, and without them working on Minecraft, it feels like a part of it would leave, and never come back. Not only that, but Minecraft may lose the Mojang style that they had so deeply etched into this game.
Overall, I'm excited to see what will come out of this, and I will definitely keep you guys posted on this one.
Anyways, thanks for reading this, I know I still haven't been able to update a lot, I feel like I'm a makeover failure when it comes to doing YouTube videos and blogging more, but I'm going to try and do this more often, for your pleasure.
Be sure to drop a like and share this to your friends, so that they can see why this whole thing started.
--TheGameKiller
