Microsoft could be in talks to buy Minecraft maker Mojang. Screenshot/Mojang
[dropcap]M[/dropcap]ojang, creators of the world-construction game Minecraft, is rumored to be in acquisition talks with Microsoft in a deal that would reach north of $2 billion.
Minecraft has amassed a huge following on the back of a 16 bit game engine and open world game mechanics that allow players to build just about anything they want within the confines of the game world.
Up to this point, the game, which started with a Java-based engine on PC, has been aggressively ported to every modern gaming platform under the sun including smartphones. It’s hard to say whether Microsoft would support this strategy going forward as it has with some of its other products like Office. The Redmond, Washington based software giant could choose to treat Minecraft like Halo and make it an exclusive for the company’s Xbox platform.
Mojang has a mixed history with Microsoft. Marcus Persson has been very public on Twitter in his opposition to Microsoft doing anything to change the open nature of the PC market.
Got an email from microsoft, wanting to help “certify” minecraft for win 8. I told them to stop trying to ruin the pc as an open platform.
— Markus Persson (@notch) September 27, 2012
On the other hand, the company has recently ported Minecraft to both the Xbox 360 and Xbox One.
Source: PCWorld
