By now, everyone knows that Microsoft has bought Mojang, the company that created Minecraft. I know that everyone else knows because Conan O'Brien made a funny video about it last night.
Microsoft Buys Mojang For 2.5 Billion, With A 'B', Dollars
The short, absurd skit follows a real world Minecraft character, blocks and all, as he builds himself a...well, what would you do if you just got a $2.5 billion windfall? It escalates from there. The speed at which Team CoCo assembled the video is alarming. The announcement was made yesterday and this was up yesterday evening. Yet they built a Minecraft costume and several blocks in less than twelve hours? Conan, it's okay to admit if you play Minecraft. Everyone already does.
Obviously Notch, the actual creator of Minecraft, who is very real and not a blocky cutout like he is in the video, is something of a cult figure. But now that cult is turning on him. By taking the payday, an amount that no reasonable person could turn down, he's soured his image as 'one of us'. He did the worst thing anyone could do in some people's eyes: he sold out.
Over 9000 Zombies! Updates With A Wealth Of New Undead Killing Content
Said Notch on his personal website, "I'm aware this goes against a lot of what I've said in public. I have no good response to that. I'm also aware a lot of you were using me as a symbol of some perceived struggle. I'm not. I'm a person, and I'm right there struggling with you." He states later that it's not about the money, it's about his sanity. Notch and the other creators of Minecraft are leaving Mojang, effectively removing the brain of the company. Microsoft will be hard pressed to find someone as charismatic and as popular as Notch to fill the shoes.
We on the outside only ever get to see the very public battle waged. The PR, the news. Notch will not be granting interviews for the foreseeable future, if ever, regarding Minecraft and what went down behind the scenes. The point to consider is that it is done, it is over. Microsoft has acquired Mojang and that is final.
Minecraft is huge, ubiquitous, like the force, it surrounds us and binds the universe together. As Notch states, "In one sense, it belongs to Microsoft now. In a much bigger sense, it's belonged to all of you for a long time, and that will never change."
What can change, however, is the quality of strip club Notch can now attend. Conan's on top of that. Watch the skit below!
