I'm assuming that everyone who says "why would Microsoft spend that much money, only to ruin the game" grew up in the post-peak-Microsoft era. They have a long track record of messing up almost everything they touch. You're talking about a company that dismissed the internet as a fad,
You've misheard that. it was Bill Gates who said that, and the context was different: he felt that the internet in its then present form [in '95] was simply a stepping stone to what was to come with regard to "the information superhighway", he therefore used that to leaverage ideas of microsoft's own "internet" MSN - didn't work of course, but then neither did AOL/ Compuserve in the grand scheme of those things... as for IE, it's pretty good these days when you hold it up to the others, it's not designed for people who don't like it, though, it's designed for business corporations, who do.
you're right about them wanting to lock people in to a forced upgrade cycle though, that can't be denied. but i guess that's true of all businesses, else they wouldn't be businesses. it was after all dear old bill who wrote to his computer club in the 70s saying "hey you guys, stop being all groovy and giving away my software, we need to sell it, not let people enjoy it for free" [ i summarise ]
Halo was awesome, made be buy an XBOX... so they did that "right" in that sense. Maybe it would have been better if Bungie had been left to their own devices, maybe not, but i doubt i would have gone "ooh, shiny thing, must buy" if it wasn't for their hypefest. - and i'm not saying that's a good thing
- i must remember to take my pills tomorrow, i appear to be defending MS here, i feel a little ill
I'm assuming that everyone who says "why would Microsoft spend that much money, only to ruin the game" grew up in the post-peak-Microsoft era. They have a long track record of messing up almost everything they touch. You're talking about a company that dismissed the internet as a fad, not too long ago and they still haven't gotten Internet Explorer right. They're all about trying to lock people into a never ending upgrade cycle, which is why they're attempting to move to a subscription model for Windows. When they saw that people hated Windows 8, they tried to cut off support for 7 (to force an upgrade) until they got enough push back from their big corporate clients (who couldn't afford the upgrade so soon after upgrading to 7). Gamers have no such clout, so they'll just do it because that's how they operate.
I expect to see the Halo model all over again. Buy out a popular game, dumb it down and limit the platforms it will run out, in order to promote their console. It will be all about marketing at the expense of gameplay.
Oh yeah... and their brown thumb didn't start with Windows, either. Remember, Gates himself was the guy who said "640KB of memory should be enough for any conceivable purpose" -- and I've programmed assembly-language under the resulting mess.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I did some CraftTweaker scripts for Mystical Agriculture. They fill in a couple of small gaps in MA, and also let you make or duplicate not only vanilla plants, but the blocks, plants and wood from Quark and Biomes O'Plenty. Also spawn eggs for most vanilla mobs! The scripts are here on Github.
I really won't mind unless they drastically change Minecraft in the same way that Disney is sure to change Star Wars Ep. 7.....
no offence meant, but that doesn't make any logical sense on many levels. "unless they drastically change it in a way that is the same way another company may change a thing which we've not seen yet" is what you're saying there
- just how drastic are the changes - that you've not seen yet - in star wars ep 7, for you to feel this way?
It's fun to read all the comments from everyone completely overreacting about this whole thing. The people at Microsoft aren't retarded. They aren't going to kill modding, make a C++ version of the game, blah blah blah. Fact is, the game is working and generating TONS of profit. That is one of the main reasons a company like Microsoft would want to purchase a company like Mojang. Microsoft needs more money, and Mojang has too much money with not enough people to know what to do with it.
Killing modding would be killing profit. Killing the Java version of the game would be killing profit. Making huge changes would be killing profit. In business, it's all about the best way to get the dollar, and that problem is completely taken care of. I highly doubt Microsoft will make any large changes to Minecraft. (Plus, many Mojang employees stayed with Microsoft, and they will generally have a large say in what happens with Minecraft. They probably want modding support and other things just as much as you all do.)
I'm assuming that everyone who says "why would Microsoft spend that much money, only to ruin the game" grew up in the post-peak-Microsoft era. They have a long track record of messing up almost everything they touch. You're talking about a company that dismissed the internet as a fad, not too long ago and they still haven't gotten Internet Explorer right. They're all about trying to lock people into a never ending upgrade cycle, which is why they're attempting to move to a subscription model for Windows. When they saw that people hated Windows 8, they tried to cut off support for 7 (to force an upgrade) until they got enough push back from their big corporate clients (who couldn't afford the upgrade so soon after upgrading to 7). Gamers have no such clout, so they'll just do it because that's how they operate.
I expect to see the Halo model all over again. Buy out a popular game, dumb it down and limit the platforms it will run out, in order to promote their console. It will be all about marketing at the expense of gameplay.
I'm conflicted about this, for me it really all depends on whether Microsoft is smart enough to realize that mods are an important part of minecrafts appeal. As for the vanilla game, if jeb is still in charge of minecrafts development, combined with the assets Microsoft can provide, a lot of persistent bugs may be going bye bye. If not, well nothing lasts forever, but it was fun while it lasted.
It's fun to read all the comments from everyone completely overreacting about this whole thing. The people at Microsoft aren't retarded. They aren't going to kill modding, make a C++ version of the game, blah blah blah. Fact is, the game is working and generating TONS of profit. That is one of the main reasons a company like Microsoft would want to purchase a company like Mojang. Microsoft needs more money, and Mojang has too much money with not enough people to know what to do with it.
Killing modding would be killing profit. Killing the Java version of the game would be killing profit. Making huge changes would be killing profit. In business, it's all about the best way to get the dollar, and that problem is completely taken care of. I highly doubt Microsoft will make any large changes to Minecraft. (Plus, many Mojang employees stayed with Microsoft, and they will generally have a large say in what happens with Minecraft. They probably want modding support and other things just as much as you all do.)
Just my two cents.
a) they ALREADY have ported to C++ [ see MCPE for details ]
b] they are generating tons of profit - well, sales - from the C++ version, not from the Java version
c) killing modding won't touch the sides of the overall sales, but it will reduce the cost of controlling it
d) killing the java version will reduce cost overheads - as they won't have to support multiple platforms [java and C++] and will leverage the Win platform, just that alone will raise their share prices as it ties people into their platforms
e) why would a programming team have any say in marketing strategy? that's never happened at any software house i've worked at
a) they ALREADY have ported to C++ [ see MCPE for details ]
b] they are generating tons of profit - well, sales - from the C++ version, not from the Java version
c) killing modding won't touch the sides of the overall sales, but it will reduce the cost of controlling it
d) killing the java version will reduce cost overheads - as they won't have to support multiple platforms [java and C++] and will leverage the Win platform, just that alone will raise their share prices as it ties people into their platforms
e) why would a programming team have any say in marketing strategy? that's never happened at any software house i've worked at
I didn't know about the C++ version of Pocket Edition (never even played it), so I'll give you that. (Thanks for the info ) But I have to disagree with you on the modding bit. I know personally that many of my friends have bought Minecraft for the sole purpose of playing some of the fun online servers like Mineplex and Lichcraft. These servers are made up of many different Bukkit mods, and would never have been as fun if they had no mods. Vanilla Minecraft is very boring compared to some of the things you can do with mods. Had Bukkit not been around at the time that those friends bought the game, the chances that they would have still bought the game are pretty slim. I know that mods have contributed to sales, and obviously the Bukkit staff knew too, what with many of them quitting because they felt cheated by Mojang.
Also, I'm not speaking of only the programming team. Mojang has obviously been doing something right this entire time to make themselves worth $2.5B, and it would make no sense at all for Microsoft to jump right in, kick all the experienced know-how people out, and replace them with random employees who think they "know better." If Microsoft is smart, they would let the Mojang staff continue to do their thing, maybe lay down some new ground rules, and slowly begin to merge in new ideas. I highly doubt they would pop in some new features and marketing plans without at least getting an opinion from the people who made the game what it is today.
Here is one thing I was thinking could be done when we see if any negative changes from Microsoft.
1. The use of previous versions of the software, so remaining on 1.7.10 for instance. There would be no need to update for any of us if we choose not too. This would also allow mod developers to continue making mods for the game.
With regards to what Microsoft does to the game is up to them, I don't know where people are hearing that they plan to make the $2.5B dollars back by the end of 2015 but if they are they obviously have a good plan in doing so. I would guess it would be Minecraft 2.0, but that would be a best guess. If they did go down this road then it wouldn't effect us too much as it could be good for the community meaning that we can still play and mod the game that we love and they would have a new baby they could charge people for and do whatever they want with.
The best thing they could do for this community is leave the past as it is, not change it.
Wow, I don't like the news either but this is a huge overreaction.
I'm actually far more worried about things that are "Like minecraft but..." games. Blockscape and minetest jump to mind immediately. American copyright law is not a good thing and one can say that they are "too similar" to minecraft. I mean at one point does something quit being a clone and start becoming part of the genre anyways? Minecraft itself should be fine. At the very least in single player you can just snatch the .jar from all your favorite versions and run them from a front end. I hope they fix the lag problems in 1.8 before we have to do that but, someone will mod it if they don't. And I'm relatively sure Microsoft will atleast keep it going for a while. You really lose nothing in this acquisition.
Though the copyright thing does concern me. Blockscape is going pretty swimmingly it seems.
There's several other games out there as good or better than MC. MC needs a 're-do' to stay ahead of them.
(For instance, coming around the 19th of Sept on Steam is "Life Is Feudal", which will be right up a lot of people's here alley.)
Each of the 'clones' brings something unique to the genre- some people like the differences, some don't, some are good games in their own right, some aren't. But in order for MC to stay on top, it needs to be modernized. It is, after all, a 5 year old game (which is 'ancient' in game-years).
Nope C# is free as is C++. Java may be a bit easier to write but you do need to be pretty savvy to get exceptional performance from it. I'm learning all sorts of tricks as I work on my new game project. Version 1.8 has some really great features that make it even easier to code GUIs and logics. I prefer not to code in C# since it was developed by M$ to speed XBOx dev.
Don't forget - M$ Xbox Minecraft had been ported to C# so the base code is already there. We'll see who the new members that join Mojang - any C# experience will show the direction they will be going.
But switching to C# doesn't mean anything in the long run - they still could expose an API for modding,
because minecraft community don't like thinking about something or giving someone a chance, just whining and complaining without thinking is much easier.
personally i'm just sitting back and waiting to see what MS has to offer i don't believe in complaining unless there is something to complain about, which in this case there isn't. Sure notch sold out but that's long gone guys we cant change that but what we can do is look on the bright side maybe this Microsoft thing will be good just give it a try if you think microsoft will do bad that's practically wishing bad on minecraft itself now i don't know about you, but i don't want to wish my favorite game bad.
Microsoft expects to make the $2 billion they payed for Minecraft back, apparently in less than a year, off a game that made less than $350 million last year.
Either they are planning to make some drastic changes, or they are planning to sue all of the minecraft clones on the market for everything they're collectively worth.
..
I think the one thing that needs to be considered is Microsoft as a company, and that main platform which Minecraft was designed for originally. I am talking about the PC of course. Now let's look how they treat the PC gaming now compared to 15 years ago. It's not a very good track record. Especially with their Xbox gaming platform on the forefront. Now let's look at a game of theirs that has just come out to the PC gaming platform. . Oh yeah, I can just feel love Microsoft has for the PC platform.
I didn't know about the C++ version of Pocket Edition (never even played it), so I'll give you that. (Thanks for the info ) But I have to disagree with you on the modding bit. I know personally that many of my friends have bought Minecraft for the sole purpose of playing some of the fun online servers like Mineplex and Lichcraft. These servers are made up of many different Bukkit mods, and would never have been as fun if they had no mods. Vanilla Minecraft is very boring compared to some of the things you can do with mods. Had Bukkit not been around at the time that those friends bought the game, the chances that they would have still bought the game are pretty slim. I know that mods have contributed to sales, and obviously the Bukkit staff knew too, what with many of them quitting because they felt cheated by Mojang.
Also, I'm not speaking of only the programming team. Mojang has obviously been doing something right this entire time to make themselves worth $2.5B, and it would make no sense at all for Microsoft to jump right in, kick all the experienced know-how people out, and replace them with random employees who think they "know better." If Microsoft is smart, they would let the Mojang staff continue to do their thing, maybe lay down some new ground rules, and slowly begin to merge in new ideas. I highly doubt they would pop in some new features and marketing plans without at least getting an opinion from the people who made the game what it is today.
don't get me wrong, i too only play for the modded side, and bought it after my kids showed me tekkit - so i'm the same, but the vast majority of players are on vanilla... and moreso, they're on PE - over 6 million more users own MCPE than own the PC version... and add another 10 million on the Xbox
see: http://venturebeat.com/2014/05/02/a-comparison-of-minecraft-for-pc-and-pocket-edition/
modded is the small minority in that pool... sadly.
I do agree, i'm sure the mojangsters will wish to keep it moddable, but it's not that microsoft will replace them, but they'll not be in charge, the MS bosses will be, and they answer to the shareholders who own the IP now. So, the MS bosses will say "why are we spending money on allowing a small minority to look at our source code and use it?" and that's the biggie, i think ... There'll be a tipping point: keep Java [a competitor's platform] and allow modding on future versions and leave the code in the wild... or use the already established closed-source which they already own. I've sat in a lot of business meetings, and all the ones with that sort of decision on the table have ended up with "close it down".
...not because they want to p- people off, but because it simply makes more financial sense in the long game... MS are obliged to ensure they're making money under their shareholder obligations, so if they see a hole in that plan, they'll have to cut it off whether they think people will like it or not.
in MS's vision, Tomorrow's user doesn't want to hack a game to get the best of it, tomorrows user wants to poke the screen and have the game run, instantly... modded gaming is a minority side-show for us freaks that don't care about getting our hands, feet and computers dirty
and that vision is right: of course no one wants to have to spend hours [as i do] updating mods, poking at configs etc... no one wants to be playing online against a cracked copy with cheats.
MS can't -as Mojang did- outsource the control of that to their subsidiaries and co-horts [ i.e. Bukkit-EvilSeph / Searge-MCP / CPW/LexManos-FML/Forge et al ] - Mojang were -thankfully for us- appreciative of those external groups - but MS can't afford to be for, again, shareholder protection reasons... else they'll get another Wolfe+DMCA problem.
Modded minecraft = an attack vector to theirgame = loss in share price = put a stop to it.
cf. how they stamp on live users who have modded their xbox - it allows code to run which isn't theirs, and potentially bypassing their access/ payment gateways - sure, most mod players aren't doing it for that reason, but for the share price to make sense - you cannot allow it. That's the way MS have always been, and i doubt a bunch of amiable swedes are going to make them go "oh, go on then" [ tho i hope to stand corrected ]
Let me re-itterate tho, this still isn't pessimism for "minecraft the game" it's just a sea-change, and one i won't swim with if it goes all soupy... if i can stretch that analogy
Buyouts are almost always negative especially when EA or Microsoft are concerned but you are not able to comprehend that.
You've misheard that. it was Bill Gates who said that, and the context was different: he felt that the internet in its then present form [in '95] was simply a stepping stone to what was to come with regard to "the information superhighway", he therefore used that to leaverage ideas of microsoft's own "internet" MSN - didn't work of course, but then neither did AOL/ Compuserve in the grand scheme of those things... as for IE, it's pretty good these days when you hold it up to the others, it's not designed for people who don't like it, though, it's designed for business corporations, who do.
you're right about them wanting to lock people in to a forced upgrade cycle though, that can't be denied. but i guess that's true of all businesses, else they wouldn't be businesses. it was after all dear old bill who wrote to his computer club in the 70s saying "hey you guys, stop being all groovy and giving away my software, we need to sell it, not let people enjoy it for free" [ i summarise ]
Halo was awesome, made be buy an XBOX... so they did that "right" in that sense. Maybe it would have been better if Bungie had been left to their own devices, maybe not, but i doubt i would have gone "ooh, shiny thing, must buy" if it wasn't for their hypefest. - and i'm not saying that's a good thing
- i must remember to take my pills tomorrow, i appear to be defending MS here, i feel a little ill
Bigger does not mean better. Take EA for example, their huge and their greedy as hell. And tend to ruin their games in the name of greed.
Oh yeah... and their brown thumb didn't start with Windows, either. Remember, Gates himself was the guy who said "640KB of memory should be enough for any conceivable purpose" -- and I've programmed assembly-language under the resulting mess.
no offence meant, but that doesn't make any logical sense on many levels. "unless they drastically change it in a way that is the same way another company may change a thing which we've not seen yet" is what you're saying there
- just how drastic are the changes - that you've not seen yet - in star wars ep 7, for you to feel this way?
Killing modding would be killing profit. Killing the Java version of the game would be killing profit. Making huge changes would be killing profit. In business, it's all about the best way to get the dollar, and that problem is completely taken care of. I highly doubt Microsoft will make any large changes to Minecraft. (Plus, many Mojang employees stayed with Microsoft, and they will generally have a large say in what happens with Minecraft. They probably want modding support and other things just as much as you all do.)
Just my two cents.
Actually, Windows 7 has support until 2020.
I'm back
Hey Cool thing
a) they ALREADY have ported to C++ [ see MCPE for details ]
b] they are generating tons of profit - well, sales - from the C++ version, not from the Java version
c) killing modding won't touch the sides of the overall sales, but it will reduce the cost of controlling it
d) killing the java version will reduce cost overheads - as they won't have to support multiple platforms [java and C++] and will leverage the Win platform, just that alone will raise their share prices as it ties people into their platforms
e) why would a programming team have any say in marketing strategy? that's never happened at any software house i've worked at
I didn't know about the C++ version of Pocket Edition (never even played it), so I'll give you that. (Thanks for the info ) But I have to disagree with you on the modding bit. I know personally that many of my friends have bought Minecraft for the sole purpose of playing some of the fun online servers like Mineplex and Lichcraft. These servers are made up of many different Bukkit mods, and would never have been as fun if they had no mods. Vanilla Minecraft is very boring compared to some of the things you can do with mods. Had Bukkit not been around at the time that those friends bought the game, the chances that they would have still bought the game are pretty slim. I know that mods have contributed to sales, and obviously the Bukkit staff knew too, what with many of them quitting because they felt cheated by Mojang.
Also, I'm not speaking of only the programming team. Mojang has obviously been doing something right this entire time to make themselves worth $2.5B, and it would make no sense at all for Microsoft to jump right in, kick all the experienced know-how people out, and replace them with random employees who think they "know better." If Microsoft is smart, they would let the Mojang staff continue to do their thing, maybe lay down some new ground rules, and slowly begin to merge in new ideas. I highly doubt they would pop in some new features and marketing plans without at least getting an opinion from the people who made the game what it is today.
-Everyone in Mojang stays
-Microsoft let Mineraft devs develop Minecraft as usual without stopping them
-Microsoft gives Minecraft devs more funds to create more epic update and Mod API
-Microsoft sent highly experienced coder to help Mojang develop everything
Bad Outcome
-Microsoft limits Mojang's development by stopping them from implement anything they want or force them implement something.
-Microsoft slowly fire anyone in Mojang then replace it with their employees
-Microsoft implement a lot of un-Minecrafty features
Nothing to see here~
1. The use of previous versions of the software, so remaining on 1.7.10 for instance. There would be no need to update for any of us if we choose not too. This would also allow mod developers to continue making mods for the game.
With regards to what Microsoft does to the game is up to them, I don't know where people are hearing that they plan to make the $2.5B dollars back by the end of 2015 but if they are they obviously have a good plan in doing so. I would guess it would be Minecraft 2.0, but that would be a best guess. If they did go down this road then it wouldn't effect us too much as it could be good for the community meaning that we can still play and mod the game that we love and they would have a new baby they could charge people for and do whatever they want with.
The best thing they could do for this community is leave the past as it is, not change it.
I'm actually far more worried about things that are "Like minecraft but..." games. Blockscape and minetest jump to mind immediately. American copyright law is not a good thing and one can say that they are "too similar" to minecraft. I mean at one point does something quit being a clone and start becoming part of the genre anyways? Minecraft itself should be fine. At the very least in single player you can just snatch the .jar from all your favorite versions and run them from a front end. I hope they fix the lag problems in 1.8 before we have to do that but, someone will mod it if they don't. And I'm relatively sure Microsoft will atleast keep it going for a while. You really lose nothing in this acquisition.
Though the copyright thing does concern me. Blockscape is going pretty swimmingly it seems.
Exactly how I feel.
I guess if all goes well, it'll be the same Mojang we're used to.
Just without the founders...
(For instance, coming around the 19th of Sept on Steam is "Life Is Feudal", which will be right up a lot of people's here alley.)
Each of the 'clones' brings something unique to the genre- some people like the differences, some don't, some are good games in their own right, some aren't. But in order for MC to stay on top, it needs to be modernized. It is, after all, a 5 year old game (which is 'ancient' in game-years).
Don't forget - M$ Xbox Minecraft had been ported to C# so the base code is already there. We'll see who the new members that join Mojang - any C# experience will show the direction they will be going.
But switching to C# doesn't mean anything in the long run - they still could expose an API for modding,
personally i'm just sitting back and waiting to see what MS has to offer i don't believe in complaining unless there is something to complain about, which in this case there isn't. Sure notch sold out but that's long gone guys we cant change that but what we can do is look on the bright side maybe this Microsoft thing will be good just give it a try if you think microsoft will do bad that's practically wishing bad on minecraft itself now i don't know about you, but i don't want to wish my favorite game bad.
Either they are planning to make some drastic changes, or they are planning to sue all of the minecraft clones on the market for everything they're collectively worth.
..
don't get me wrong, i too only play for the modded side, and bought it after my kids showed me tekkit - so i'm the same, but the vast majority of players are on vanilla... and moreso, they're on PE - over 6 million more users own MCPE than own the PC version... and add another 10 million on the Xbox
see: http://venturebeat.com/2014/05/02/a-comparison-of-minecraft-for-pc-and-pocket-edition/
modded is the small minority in that pool... sadly.
I do agree, i'm sure the mojangsters will wish to keep it moddable, but it's not that microsoft will replace them, but they'll not be in charge, the MS bosses will be, and they answer to the shareholders who own the IP now. So, the MS bosses will say "why are we spending money on allowing a small minority to look at our source code and use it?" and that's the biggie, i think ... There'll be a tipping point: keep Java [a competitor's platform] and allow modding on future versions and leave the code in the wild... or use the already established closed-source which they already own. I've sat in a lot of business meetings, and all the ones with that sort of decision on the table have ended up with "close it down".
...not because they want to p- people off, but because it simply makes more financial sense in the long game... MS are obliged to ensure they're making money under their shareholder obligations, so if they see a hole in that plan, they'll have to cut it off whether they think people will like it or not.
in MS's vision, Tomorrow's user doesn't want to hack a game to get the best of it, tomorrows user wants to poke the screen and have the game run, instantly... modded gaming is a minority side-show for us freaks that don't care about getting our hands, feet and computers dirty
and that vision is right: of course no one wants to have to spend hours [as i do] updating mods, poking at configs etc... no one wants to be playing online against a cracked copy with cheats.
MS can't -as Mojang did- outsource the control of that to their subsidiaries and co-horts [ i.e. Bukkit-EvilSeph / Searge-MCP / CPW/LexManos-FML/Forge et al ] - Mojang were -thankfully for us- appreciative of those external groups - but MS can't afford to be for, again, shareholder protection reasons... else they'll get another Wolfe+DMCA problem.
Modded minecraft = an attack vector to their game = loss in share price = put a stop to it.
cf. how they stamp on live users who have modded their xbox - it allows code to run which isn't theirs, and potentially bypassing their access/ payment gateways - sure, most mod players aren't doing it for that reason, but for the share price to make sense - you cannot allow it. That's the way MS have always been, and i doubt a bunch of amiable swedes are going to make them go "oh, go on then" [ tho i hope to stand corrected ]
Let me re-itterate tho, this still isn't pessimism for "minecraft the game" it's just a sea-change, and one i won't swim with if it goes all soupy... if i can stretch that analogy