Microsoft purchased Minecraft and developer Mojang in 2014 for $2.5 billion, however the Xbox firm was not the one group to make a suggestion for the sandbox collection. It was reported years in the past that Activision (in addition to EA) was additionally within the combine to purchase Minecraft, and now former govt Bobby Kotick has mentioned the bid course of and what in the end saved the deal from coming collectively.
Showing on billionaire Ari Emanuel’s podcast, Kotick mentioned of Minecraft, “I virtually purchased it.”
He added: “I needed to spend 5 days in Stockholm with [Markus ‘Notch’ Persson], the man who based the corporate. We provided him $1.5 billion. And he mentioned, ‘By the way in which, I am quitting, and my high management guys are all quitting.’ And they solely had 30 workers on the firm. Like, we will not run your organization.”
Persson referred to as Kotick again in some unspecified time in the future and instructed him that Microsoft got here to him with a suggestion of $2.5 billion, a value that was presumably too steep for Activision. “I mentioned, ‘I will go airplane buying with you, however you gotta take that provide,'” he mentioned.
Kotick went on to say that it was Xbox govt Phil Spencer who in the end received the deal carried out for Minecraft. He additionally singled out one other Xbox govt, Matt Booty, who “did a extremely nice job” at managing the Minecraft enterprise after Microsoft’s acquisition of Mojang.
Ultimately, Minecraft did find yourself within the Activision household by the use of Microsoft’s buy of Activision Blizzard, however that got here later.
Wired reported in 2015 in regards to the internal workings of the deal Microsoft made for Minecraft. There have been apparently fears that Mojang’s comparatively small employees on the time would merely depart after the sale to Microsoft went via. In any case, on the time, solely Persson, Jakob Porser, and Carl Manneh had been shareholders.
Microsoft reportedly incentivized employees to remain, providing every one who remained for at the very least six months a fee of two million Swedish Krona, which is about $300,000 USD. One other a part of the deal was that each worker was assured their month-to-month wage for twenty-four months, even when Microsoft closed the Mojang workplace in Stockholm.
Minecraft continued to succeed after Microsoft’s buy of the sport and studio, and right this moment, Minecraft stays one of many high 5 best-selling video games ever with greater than 300 million models offered. As a substitute of releasing Minecraft 2, Mojang has up to date and improved the sport over time. There have been spin-offs, too, together with Minecraft Earth, Minecraft Dungeons, and Minecraft Legends–but these video games didn’t attain anyplace close to the success of the unique Minecraft. Outdoors of video games, a film–A Minecraft Film–was launched in 2025 and earned greater than $950 million globally. A sequel is now coming in 2027.
As for Kotick, he left Activision Blizzard after promoting the corporate to Microsoft for $75.4 billion.