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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

#201

Post by DanBC »

javert wrote: post #93
MrZongle2 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More devs? Sure. More updates? Doubtful. If Microsoft dropped $2B on this property, the last thing they're going to do is continue to pay a development team to work on a game that has already been completed in their eyes. A re-write, on the other hand? Guaranteed. And it will be the first of many sequels, Halo-style. For Xbox One and the newest version of Windows.

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…

What do you mean development has been at a standstill for years? They release new versions with bug fixes and features pretty often.

Reading /r/minecraftsuggestions shows that most people ideas of vast improvement are sub-optimal.

Re: Microsoft Near Deal to Buy Minecraft Maker Mojang

#202

Post by mverwijs »

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.

This is why I have my nephew maintain his own minecraft-server. Costs me 10 euros p/month. Kids' ten years old, knows how to debug crappy java plugins better than most java programmers. Everytime he calls me to ask about a problem I think: "Okay mverwijs, don't hold back." He now edits yaml files, rsyncs plugins, makes backups.

He's smart, but not a genious. He's doesn't even speak or understand english. Most kids can learn to do their own minecraft-management.

Kids love minecraft. They love to have their own server. I shamelessly abuse that love to install some *nixcraft on them.

Re: Microsoft Near Deal to Buy Minecraft Maker Mojang

#203

Post by simonh »

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…

> This comes with very different risks, including the ability to lose your capital, which is why it's taxed in a very different way.

Exactly, there are good reasons for this. The problem is that it would be grossly unfair to tax a small business owner or small investor at say income tax levels because their risks are so much higher. On the other hand a big investor will millions or billions ends up paying the same tax rate as that small business owner or investor, but is able to spread their risk across many investments reducing the overall risk. Yes it would be unfair to tax them at a higher rate for doing fundamentally the same thing - how would we justify one tax rate for one investor in a company, but another rate for this other investor?

Taxation is a hard problem.

Re: Microsoft Near Deal to Buy Minecraft Maker Mojang

#204

Post by ntaso »

ThrustVectoring wrote: post #175
Guvante wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is important to remember that PV calculations are pretty easy to do, and help bring the FU money back to reality. For instance if Minecraft sells 10,000 copies a day (as someone else said) that is $100m a year. Assuming other platforms add up to the same that is $200m a year. At an 8% interest rate that is worth $2.5 billion assuming it continues forever. It is worth $1.3 billion if it only happens for 10 years.

8% interest on present cash is high. Anyhow, the easy rule of thumb for converting between income streams and present value is simply "multiply by 20". In rough numbers, it $1/year is worth $20.

How do you come up with the factor of 20? On a smaller scape, if you try to buy a website or an online-business (say, on Flippa), oftentimes the sales price is around 2-3x yearly income. For my own business, I'd love to see a factor of 20, but I can't see how anyone would offer that much money.

Re: Microsoft Near Deal to Buy Minecraft Maker Mojang

#205

Post by ilaksh »

Makes a ton of sense. This is peak Minecraft. Right time to cash out before it depreciates. I expect Microsoft to do some things. One: monopolize. Two: monetize. Within three to four months most Minecraft fans will be extremely pissed at Microsoft. They will be practically forced to either move on to some of the successors to Minecraft like Tug or Blockscape, or adopt an open source Minecraft clone that is designed from the outset for plugins.

Overall this is great for everyone. I wish Microsoft would burn in hell though.

Re: Microsoft Near Deal to Buy Minecraft Maker Mojang

#206

Post by ido »

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #111
Chinjut wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to me that the one-trick pony nature of the gaming business is more reason to take a big payout upfront. $2bn is fuck you money for the rest of your life. Who knows if the Minecraft IP will even be worth anything a few years from now?

41 year old you might regret 31 year old you taking you out of the game. A lot of the type-A people who dominate the coding and business worlds might not be happy with just one big paycheck while they watch their peers continue on. I can't imagine Bill Gates selling MS in '86. He wanted to build an empire.

My familiarity with notch is only superficial: we met in person 3 times, once before MC got big, once when it was starting to get big, and once after it was already big. Before that we used to hang out in the same game dev irc/forum circles and chatted on occasion there.

I won't pretend that makes me really know him as a person but I can say I've never got the impression he cares much about empire and/or massive ego building. I would venture a guess that by now he accepted the fact that MC was his one massive strike and that he likely won't have another one & would be content to live his life of luxury with that.

Re: Microsoft Near Deal to Buy Minecraft Maker Mojang

#207

Post by ultimape »

Guvante wrote: post #89
Mandatum wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it fair to say that once you achieve "FU money", numbers start to lose their value? I can't imagine being able to say "no" to something like that. Although likely for something like Minecraft, it'd be stock options/cash mix.

It is important to remember that PV calculations are pretty easy to do, and help bring the FU money back to reality. For instance if Minecraft sells 10,000 copies a day (as someone else said) that is $100m a year. Assuming other platforms add up to the same that is $200m a year. At an 8% interest rate that is worth $2.5 billion assuming it continues forever. It is worth $1.3 billion if it only happens for 10 years.

my mom bought me a stuffed animal from Walmart, and I know more people who play it on the xbox in real life... and I know at least 150 pc gamers personally through heading up VTC's gaming club. I'm pretty sure the business angle here is marketing leverage to sell more xboxes.

Re: Microsoft Near Deal to Buy Minecraft Maker Mojang

#208

Post by watwut »

guelo wrote: post #149
Chinjut wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to me that the one-trick pony nature of the gaming business is more reason to take a big payout upfront. $2bn is fuck you money for the rest of your life. Who knows if the Minecraft IP will even be worth anything a few years from now?

Not when you have a hit as big as Minecraft. Kids growing up with Minecraft today will still be playing it nostalgically 30-40 years from now.

Yes, but Minecraft is not a lego - you do not need to buy newer sets. You buy it once and you own infinity of it. The only reason to buy another Minecraft is when new incompatible hardware becomes the norm.

Re: Microsoft Near Deal to Buy Minecraft Maker Mojang

#209

Post by josso »

nandhp wrote: post #148
varkson wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It won't happen though. The minute that Apple closed off the Mac, with the Mac App Store being the only software source, the minute that idea might have a little credence.

The Mac App Store is not (yet) the only software source, though that restriction is available as an opt-in setting in System Preferences. Applications from outside the App Store run just fine, as long as they're signed with a developer certificate. The certificate presumably costs $99/year, but you don't need Apple to approve your application. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5290

The certificate is free, but does require you to register an account at Apple.
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