Mojang purchased by Microsoft, future is uncertain.

We have suspected since Friday that something was going down between Mojang and Microsoft, and today our worst fears, or best hopes, have been confirmed.

Owen Hill, Chief Word Officer for Mojang, made the announcement today that the deal is real. He clarified that they were acquired for a cool 2.5 Billion dollars and that Notch, Carl, and Jakob were leaving the company.

He made no promises as to the future of Mojang itself, or of the various projects currently being worked on by Mojang, which is smart. It's best not to make promises when it comes to mergers or takeovers.

My biggest concern, as a former hardcore Minecraft player turned casual, was the PS Vita version. The dream of playing Minecraft on the go with decent controls lay with that version. Owen did say that the non-Microsoft version of Minecraft would continue development, and I honestly believe him, whether or not those versions would remain as good as they were before the take over (see: Skype.)

This is a type of purchase that Microsoft has never made before. No one can say with certainty what will happen to the massive modding community that has grown with the game, or the future of Scrolls, the long-awaited game Notch and Mojang have been working on for years.

What we do know is that the little quirky java based game that I built a massive stone dong in turned into a multi-billion dollar property, and Notch became a hero and idol to the indie gaming scene.

If you have read the book Minecraft: The Unlikely Tale of Markus "Notch" Persson and the Game that Changed Everything by Daniel Goldberg and Linus Larsson, then you know that Notch's mindset has never been with managing huge companies. He just wants to make games. It sounds like he is continuing to do just that, with a chunk of 2.5 billion dollars.

As a 31 year old person who has grown out of the "fuck selling out" mentality I say "Congrats"

Source: Yes, we’re being bought by Microsoft - Mojang