Minecraft Head Talks Early Concerns that Microsoft Would 'Ruin' Indie Spirit
Fans of Minecraft before Microsoft's acquisition of Mojang in 2014 may be familiar with worries about the future of Minecraft at the time. According to a recent interview with the Head of Minecraft, Helen Chiang, some developers had those concerns as well.
Chiang recently went on the record with GamesIndustry.biz to discuss the acquisition, stating that there were some concerns about the indie spirit of Mojang being lost. In order to keep this spirit intact, Microsoft and Mojang approached Minecraft as if they were stewards of a vast world with a wide variety of players on various platforms.
When Microsoft acquired the developer for $2.5 billion, many members of its team that worked to create Minecraft wondered whether Microsoft would "ruin" Minecraft. Since Minecraft continues to flourish today through updates, and it remains heavily viewed on platforms such as Twitch and YouTube, these worries may have been premature.
Part of the merger allowed for Minecraft to continue releasing on other platforms beyond the latest Xbox, and this broad availability allowed the title to retain some of its spirit. Beyond being ported to other platforms, Chiang says Microsoft helped Mojang enhance Minecraft with a "Better Together" mantra that has been beneficial for the community.
Microsoft and Mojang worked together to implement a codebase that ensured new updates could be delivered to the entire Minecraft community at the same time, regardless of which platform they're playing on. Minecraft was one of the early indie games to enable crossplay between all of the platforms in order to ensure the community could connect and play.
Through Microsoft and Mojang's dedication to keeping the indie spirit of Minecraft alive, Better Together became not only a slogan, but a promise to the community of fans from around the world. In 2017, Minecraft saw a huge update that included the Marketplace, which is where players could buy and play community-created content. Its variety of content continues to be expanded upon today by partners from around the world.
Considering several fans of Minecraft, ahead of Microsoft's acquisition of Mojang, had concerns about what would happen with the indie title afterwards, it makes sense that developers behind the title shared similar concerns. Now that Minecraft has been expanded upon drastically since 2014 and has received spin-off titles, it seems the merger was mutually beneficial for both Microsoft and Mojang.
Minecraft is available now Mobile, PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
Source: GamesIndustry.biz
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