"if this has been said" is not an excuse to just not read any of the past 30 pages.
Opinions on Microsoft buying Mojang
- Thread starter buggirlexpres
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Paid DLC and the possibility to pay for the next update are going to be thorny as hell. Alpha buyers were promised every update to Minecraft for free forever. That's less than a fiftieth of the player base, probably significantly less so active, but a lot of those people are also the vocal ones that got the wheel rolling.
Im one of those people. One of my accounts is an alpha account. I bought that on the premise that I would get all future content for Minecraft for free. Failing that would be grounds for demanding a refund, legally, in my country.
I think whats gonna happen though is they will merchandise even more, and monetise the hell out of existing users. Monthly subscription to be permitted to enter any servers? Possibly. Future DLC and expansion packs? most likely. Mods only with inhouse API and with purchase price? maybe.
I think our most likely monetization routes are server hosting and merchandising. I really don't feel Microsoft gaming would ever recover if they tried to monetize current content.
Realistically? I don't think they expect a DIRECT ROI almost at all. I'm pretty confident this has a lot more to do with selling high-price-point hardware than microtransactional revenue.
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Initially I thought that Microsoft would be happy to just own the popular Minecraft software, but I realised that they have actually been laying off employees recently due to financial reasons.
Something just doesn't add up and it can only lead to some form of additional monetization, it just depends on how much and how much Microsoft want to sell out the Minecraft brand.
Historically, Microsoft's core business has been to create platforms like Windows, encourage people to build for the platforms, and then make their money from the licenses for the platforms. I or anyone else can develop an application for Windows without needing Microsoft's permission or paying it a cent. MS not only allows this, but encourages it by providing free development tools, resources, conferences, etc. This has always been its business strategy.
The most important part of the announcement today was the following from MS's CEO: "Minecraft is more than a great game franchise – it is an open world platform". MS would not pay 2.5 billion dollars for a game, but it would for a platform, a platform that all of today's kids have already adopted, a platform that can be extended to education, modeling, and is already a virtual version of facebook for kids.
If MS is consistent with its past practices, it will not only allow modding but encourage it, because that adds value to the platform. I suspect MC will be ported to C# (supported by Mono on non-MS platforms), that we will quickly see a Minecraft SDK, and quite possibly a Visual Studio Express Minecraft Edition. Moreover, MS will probably seek out people who have already proven they can add content successfully, e.g. developers of popular mods, and offer to support them in various ways. What I would not expect to see is MS in any way trying to block modding. That would decrease the value of their platform.
The most important part of the announcement today was the following from MS's CEO: "Minecraft is more than a great game franchise – it is an open world platform". MS would not pay 2.5 billion dollars for a game, but it would for a platform, a platform that all of today's kids have already adopted, a platform that can be extended to education, modeling, and is already a virtual version of facebook for kids.
If MS is consistent with its past practices, it will not only allow modding but encourage it, because that adds value to the platform. I suspect MC will be ported to C# (supported by Mono on non-MS platforms), that we will quickly see a Minecraft SDK, and quite possibly a Visual Studio Express Minecraft Edition. Moreover, MS will probably seek out people who have already proven they can add content successfully, e.g. developers of popular mods, and offer to support them in various ways. What I would not expect to see is MS in any way trying to block modding. That would decrease the value of their platform.
oh god no no no if they pay for expansions pack like in wow im gone gone gone I can see small DLC but rewording updates as exspansion packs thats it im out. and they have to lock out the modding community ebcause what would stop poeple from getting all that stuff through modds
The issue is:
A) The SDK/Dev environment will be monetized.
B) Well, MC will be in a C language. @Strikingwolf, care to take it from here on why that'll end modding as we know it?
A) The SDK/Dev environment will be monetized.
B) Well, MC will be in a C language. @Strikingwolf, care to take it from here on why that'll end modding as we know it?
I think the key words there are "proper modding API". Even before all of this, it didn't sound like Mojang themselves were going to provide us with a "proper" modding API. It was going to be a "plugin" API which sounded more like some limited form of Bukkit, or worse, a scripting language oriented around command block functionality. Either way you look at it, an official API won't be what Forge is. But releasing an official API might be the justification they need to put a stop to Forge, unfortunately.
Charging for mods though is ridiculous and I don't personally want any part of Minecraft: App Store Edition. Especially when there's absolutely no chance that any of them could be worth anything based on the kind of API they would provide to do it with.
one of the strengths of Forge is that if you have a good reason (and they listen) then your feature request would come out before the next MC update
Except it's cross-platform and jars can be easily decompiled. In C++ or C#, we will need an actual API, which will most likely not be as effective as we need.
MS monetizes enterprise development tools, but makes tools available for free to single developers/small shops. Again, they see it as in their interest for people to develop content for their platforms. And there is nothing wrong with C as a modding language. The vast majority of games are written in C++. Microsoft's version, C#, is very similar to Java. The only issue is that you are dependent on the API.
The even greater strength is that you don't have to wait for anyone to do literally anything you want to the game. You're not constrained by the API, it's just there to help you. FML gives you the power to modify the code at the lowest of levels, and an official API would never allow that.
modifying code at the lowest levels is an invitation for incompatibilities which an API is designed to avoid
It has been said a few times, but the focus on Minecraft the game as the revenue stream?
You realize the purchase means all licensing is now microsoft's too? Legos, Books, Toys, etc, all revenue generated by minecraft outside of the game is theirs too now.
The $100 million annually was only for the game sales, I don't know if any definitive figure has been released for merchandising and licensing fees. And it all goes to microsoft. I think minecraft will end up just fine if not even better personally.
You realize the purchase means all licensing is now microsoft's too? Legos, Books, Toys, etc, all revenue generated by minecraft outside of the game is theirs too now.
The $100 million annually was only for the game sales, I don't know if any definitive figure has been released for merchandising and licensing fees. And it all goes to microsoft. I think minecraft will end up just fine if not even better personally.