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Microsoft Near Deal to Buy Minecraft Maker Mojang

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Re: Microsoft Near Deal to Buy Minecraft Maker Mojang

#191

Post by javert »

neves wrote: post #164
javert wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a former minecraft player, I am salivating at this. Believe it or not, Notch did a great job creating the game and doing a few updates, and then became totally incompetent (or maybe just disinterested) after that. Development has been at a standstill for years, despite many bugs and vast potential for improvement. I would love to see somebody do something great with this game and Mojang does not seem to have "the…

My 5 years old learned the meaning of the word "bugged" playing MineCraft. Everything that isn't perfect, from his night milk to the TV is "bugged". Ah! He doesn't speak English.

That's pretty funny. Definitely a case of life imitating art [1].

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_imitating_art

Re: Microsoft Near Deal to Buy Minecraft Maker Mojang

#192

Post by cromulent »

readerrrr wrote: post #102
math0ne wrote: post #94

As an avid minecrafter since the early days I can't help but see this as a good thing. The mod community is what has made mc what it is, but it gets no support from the developers. Minecraft has been so wildly profitable but the company is set up in a way which Mojang the developers get a tiny portion of the profits to re-invest in development. Notch essentially diverts all the money into his own pocket while leaving…

If someone could get control of minecraft that was willing to invest in it's development amazing things could be accomplished. Imagine big budget lego minecraft expansions You don't understand. The whole point of Minecraft is user created stuff. In a Lego-like world, for profit expansions are not needed. The mod community is what has made mc what it is, but it gets no support from the developers. Minecraft is more op…

This article indicates that of $316M revenue, 130M was paid to Notch, $57M was spent on other costs and expenses, leaving $129M profit for Mojang. That doesn't seem tiny.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2014-03-19-mojang-made...

Re: Microsoft Near Deal to Buy Minecraft Maker Mojang

#193

Post by lotharbot »

deciplex wrote: post #188
TrevorJ wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh come on . Not even gonna bother to ask you to back that up.

He probably won't, so I will (somewhat, he's definitely exaggerating, but probably not as much as you think): http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/09in12ms.xls Effective tax rate plateaus at around a half mil in annual income, then starts going down again after around five million. I couldn't find any hard data about brackets above that. Didn't Mitt Romney pay around 15%? Then there's my all-time favorite quote, of Leona H…

It's worth noting that annual income above five million is almost definitely coming from investment of both labor and capital (ie, working to manage/direct a business you own, and seeing gains from the value of that business -- or working to manage your stocks and seeing gains from their value) rather than just from labor. This comes with very different risks, including the ability to lose your capital, which is why it's taxed in a very different way.

It's also worth noting that the tax rate for the very rich is still 15%. As far as I can tell, certain very rich people "not paying taxes" is a myth.

Finally, it's worth noting that Notch is not American.

Re: Microsoft Near Deal to Buy Minecraft Maker Mojang

#195

Post by Fuzzwah »

bhouston wrote: post #60

It makes sense to sell to me as we seem to be around peak Minecraft: http://www.google.ca/trends/explore?hl=en-US&q=angry+birds,+... #googletrendsexplore

I found it interesting when I clicked the "forecast" box on that link and saw that google disagrees.

Re: Microsoft Near Deal to Buy Minecraft Maker Mojang

#196

Post by fatratchet »

deciplex wrote: post #115
chris_mahan wrote: post #83

I smell franchise with movie rights, books, etc. I can imagine it being like Star Wars in a couple years.

People keep bring up movies and books, so... honestly curious - about what? A Minecraft movie makes about as much sense as a movie about Battleship, and we saw how well that did...

You could say the same about LEGO, and the LEGO movie did great. In many ways Minecraft is just video game LEGO. Battleship is a board game some people like or at least know but that's about it.

Minecraft on the other hand has a giant fan base that loves it and will buy anything related to it. Just look at all the merchandise that's started coming out over the last few years and now is everywhere. It's basically Angry Birds 2.0, just 10 times bigger, and Angry Birds it's still making tons of cash.

Minecraft is huge right now, there's a lot of money to be made by someone who knows how to properly milk it for all it's worth and has no problem with doing so.

Re: Microsoft Near Deal to Buy Minecraft Maker Mojang

#197

Post by [deleted] »

pdkl95 wrote: post #185
drzaiusapelord wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe Notch's perspective is that Minecraft as an IP is worth more than that. He can probably ride it out for the next couple decades with sequels or other monetization techniques. Why take the big payment today when you can have the bigger payment on-going? Especially if you want to continue to make it your life's work. Look at some gaming stars from the past. John Romero didn't "make us his bitch" with his post iD…

It's probably very smart of Notch to retain what he can regarding the Minecraft IP. What a lot of people seem to miss is that Minecraft isn't only about the "official" game. It's a platform for development. More importantly, it's a platform that lets many people create things in 3D without having to bother with OpenGL/etc. If you think I'm talking about pixel art or other static things, or if you think I'm talking ab…

[deleted]

Re: Microsoft Near Deal to Buy Minecraft Maker Mojang

#199

Post by jmspring »

freshyill wrote: post #112

My kid loves it, but I'm the one who has to deal with the mods and the shitty YouTube videos and ad-filled garbage forums made by a community that's somehow never heard of GitHub. Hopefully Microsoft can reign in all of that crap and make the game less of a nightmare to maintain.

Honest note here - no idea what will pan out, but if it does ping me about getting some github traction. I don't play minecraft, but happy to help organize some forum or such.

Re: Microsoft Near Deal to Buy Minecraft Maker Mojang

#200

Post by DanBC »

lotharbot wrote: post #193
deciplex wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He probably won't, so I will (somewhat, he's definitely exaggerating, but probably not as much as you think): http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/09in12ms.xls Effective tax rate plateaus at around a half mil in annual income, then starts going down again after around five million. I couldn't find any hard data about brackets above that. Didn't Mitt Romney pay around 15%? Then there's my all-time favorite quote, of Leona H…

It's worth noting that annual income above five million is almost definitely coming from investment of both labor and capital (ie, working to manage/direct a business you own, and seeing gains from the value of that business -- or working to manage your stocks and seeing gains from their value) rather than just from labor. This comes with very different risks, including the ability to lose your capital, which is why…

The UK has a variety of schemes of tax planning[1], tax avoidance[2], and tax evasion[3]. Using such schemes usually requires someone to be wealthy enough to afford accountants and access to the scheme.

Rich people do have ways of reducing their tax burden, sometimes to surprisingly low amounts.

[1] planning is normal reduction of tax burden and is unlikely to be challenged by tax authorities.

[2] avoidance is legal, but sometimes exploits loopholes in tax laws in weird ways and you might risk the Inland Revenue changing the regulations - sometimes retroactively.

[3] evasion is just illegally not paying tax.

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