Microsoft has agreed to purchase the Stockholm-based developer of the wildly popular Minecraft video game for $2.5 billion, as it attempts to attract a new and mostly younger audience to its mobile world.
Minecraft, a construction game which allows players to build almost anything they can think of, block by block, in a digital word, has become popular all around the world since being released in 2011.
The game is the top paid-for app on Apple's iOS and Google's Android systems and has helped Mojang bring in 2.05 billion crowns ($287 million) in revenue in 2013, giving it an 896 million crown ($126 million) operating profit for the year, according to Reuters.
Director of website Gamesbrief Nicholas Lovell called Minecraft a hugely successful product which has "captured the imagination of pretty much everybody under the age of 15," saying the game could help Microsoft broaden its overall appeal.
Though the Mojang team will join Microsoft studios, which is known for its global franchises such as "Halo" and "Fable", its three co-founders will be leaving to start other projects.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella called it a "top activity" spanning devices from consoles and PCs to tablets and mobile devices, with billions of hours devoted to it each year.
"Minecraft is more than a great game franchise, it is an open world platform, driven by a vibrant community we care deeply about, and rich with new opportunities for that community and for Microsoft," Nadella said this week, according to Reuters.
A number of analysts were positive about the acquisition shortly after the new was announced officially.
"The news robustly dismisses the idea that games are no longer at the core of Microsoft's strategic direction and also underlines the growing importance of independent titles alongside big-budget games," Piers Harding-Rolls, head of games at IHS Technology, wrote in a note, according to Reuters.
FBR Capital Markets said the deal gives Nadella "the right product at the right time," as Microsoft invests in its Xbox strategy and looks to move into the competitive mobile phone sector.
Mojang was co-founded by Markus Persson, who developed the hit Minecraft game. News of the deal surprised a lot of Minecraft players who know Persson for his anti-big business stance. He explained his decision in a blog post after the deal was confirmed.
"As soon as this deal is finalized, I will leave Mojang and go back to doing Ludum Dares and small web experiments. If I ever accidentally make something that seems to gain traction, I'll probably abandon it immediately," Persson said in the blog posted on his Twitter feed.
"I love you. All of you. Thank you for turning Minecraft into what it has become, but there are too many of you, and I can't be responsible for something this big," he added. "It's not about the money. It's about my sanity."
Though Minecraft was launched as a PC game, about 40 percent of copies are downloaded onto devices like phones and tablets.
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