In September of 2014, when Microsoft acquired Mojang, the company that created the minecraft game, at a price of $ 2.5 billion, no one knew what it was.
This game is very odd when it comes to Microsoft, which makes money mainly from the Windows operating system and software that supports the work. Therefore, millions of Minecraft fans are concerned that the game will be ruined at the hands of the parent company, or that Microsoft will restrict this game to the Xbox and Windows platforms.But two years later, Minecraft has become more and more popular and more widely supported than ever. Mojang said that since the beginning of this year, about 53,000 copies of Minecraft have been sold every day. More than 100 million copies have been sold through PCs, the iPhone, Android, Xbox, Sony PlayStation and Nintendo Wii U during the lifetime of the 5-year-old game.
Not only that, the first outlines for Microsoft's greater ambition as the acquisition of the game began to emerge.
Last week, while more than 10,000 Minecraft loyalists were excited about gathering at the Minecon conference in Anaheim, Matt Booty, Microsoft senior officer overseeing Minecraft, shared the reason why Microsoft believes This game is an important card to maintain its position when the world is moving to the smartphone as well as any new platform that appears next.As Booty told Business Insider, it is often mistaken for Microsoft to acquire Mojang to enhance its Xbox, or Windows, or certain business units.
Instead, Mojang is like toy companies, Mattel (founded in 1945) and Lego (founded in 1949), which has helped children and adults express their creativity for nearly a century. What Microsoft is doing is laying the foundation for turning Minecraft into a brand in the post-iPhone world, even in 100 years.
"There's no reason Minecraft can not be one of those brands," Booty said. "The decisions that are being made will remain in effect for five to 10 years."
Housekeeper of the future
When Booty, the former CEO of Midway Games and also Xbox official, took the lead in Microsoft's Minecraft division - he mentioned it as the role of "a housekeeper" - when it Followed by the credentials of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Xbox head Phil Spencer: Go and learn as much from Mojang as possible.
"We could have more things to learn from Mojang, not vice versa," Booty said. Indeed, appearances on various platforms such as PCs, Macs, iPhones, Androids, virtual reality devices, etc. from Minecraft have inspired Microsoft. The software giant has taken steps to ensure that services like Microsoft Office 365 run well on the iPhone and Android.Looking farther into the future, it seems that Microsoft is betting on the notion that mice and keyboards will become obsolete and that computing will enter a new era where you control everything by combining sound. stick and gestures of hands.
Meanwhile, Minecraft, with its simple and easy-to-learn way of building three-dimensional designs, will be the only bridge to the future. A good example of this is the image of a player performing Minecraft operations through Microsoft's Hololens 3D glasses.In the near future, Minecraft can be the pioneer of the next generation of Microsoft Office and its similar tools, to help people accomplish everything in the virtual reality world, Hololens style and more. The interface may change, but the way things work is still a little changed.
That would be good not only for Minecraft but for Microsoft. And it is even more important in today's rapidly changing world of technology. The device comes and goes constantly, but Minecraft is a product capable of overcoming the changes in the platform.
A game that will last for 100 years
Microsoft and Minecraft also share another very important goal: to help people "do more."
"I think with my core values, Minecraft fits that vision," Booty said. He emphasized, as with Microsoft PowerPoint, a basic tool for creating presentations, Minecraft is a "platform for innovation" that encourages the creativity of every player.
From the first version of this game, players have used the simple materials of the famous Minecraft to build more sophisticated structures and structures than ever, or copy the famous buildings such as in the real world and even incredible items like a Nintendo Game Boy.And the company is committed to maintaining "mods": modifications that allow players to customize the game with everything from graphics improvements to racing cars to graphic simulations. The cow is being fed like in the real world.
Mojang provides innovative platform tools, basic gameplay mechanics, and online play so that they can all be connected. But just as Lego, what people do these tools is up to them. According to Mojang's CEO, Jonas Mårtensson, that openness will help Minecraft stand up to the times.
Microsoft is also using these creative incentives to bet on its long-term investment: a generation older with Minecraft will see it as a standard way to express ideas and concepts. In the world of three-dimensional, similar to the way Microsoft Word became the standard for writing papers and reports today.
"A lot of kids are growing up, and Minecraft is how these kids are describing the world to them," Booty said. We have also seen some things that can be used in other areas, not games. Minecraft, for example, is an ideal environment for testing artificial intelligence.
