Over the last year we have seen some pretty big gaming-related acquisitions with the sale of Twitch to Amazon for $970M and Facebook buying Oculus for $2B. But those two high profile purchases pale in comparison to the latest reported acquisition, which, if true, could alter one company's trajectory tremendously.
Even though nothing is official just yet, The Wall Street Journal reports that Microsoft is in talks to purchase Minecraft developer Mojang for a reported $2 billion. If the deal goes through it would be one of the biggest gaming-related acquisitions in recent memory, and would put Microsoft in control of one of the most lucrative game franchises around right now.
Although Mojang does have two new games in development, Scrolls and Cobalt, the real prize for Microsoft is, of course, Minecraft. From shirts to sneakers, mobile to console, Minecraft rules the roost and is a huge moneymaker. In fact, we might say that $2 billion is a little bit on the low side considering how huge the Minecraft brand is.
Beyond the branding possibilities, though, Microsoft owning sole control of Minecraft could be huge. For starters, it puts the Xbox One manufacturer in charge of a game series that has sold more than 50 million copies around the world, and has broken several records in the process.
On top of that, it gives Microsoft the exclusive rights to any potential Minecraft sequels or spin-offs. At a glance that might not seem significant, but given the series' popularity, having Minecraft 2 as an Xbox One exclusive good give Microsoft a significant advantage over Sony in the console war. In fact, some are wondering whether the upcoming Vita port of Minecraft might disappear if this deal happens in the next few days.
But, as we mention, the deal has yet to go through. Sources close to the matter, however, suggest that it's only a matter of working out the numbers at this point. In a few days Microsoft could control the Minecraft empire, and as a result they will have a firm grasp over millions upon millions of young gamers.
Do you think Microsoft acquiring Mojang is a good thing or a bad thing? Will this give them an advantage in the console war?
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Source: WSJ