Maybe Notch could learn a few things from Peter's Experience

Too early to judge, too many unknowns and not enough confirmations.


As for speculation.
Sequels seem unlikely as any change in scenery would mean an increase in price and decrease in playerbase (higher spec machine needed).
Not to mention the likely "exclusive launch" for Xbone.

Minecraft gets lots of its success from the community. A formula that should Microsoft decide to mess with it because they want a slice of the pie, would likely fall apart at a rapid pace.
I just imagine Microsoft trying to but off the successfull mods and trying to sell them as DLC - you think anyone would pay for that?
Restricting streaming/recording access would meet a similar fate if these people decide its not worth their time and effort (which most of them will do).
Really only the 'big ones' can't afford it, as its their livelyhood at risk, but even they'd know that this would only run for so long.

Which leaves the question - what does Microsoft intend to do with this?
How do they intend to make money off of it.
Frankly the most hilarious reason I can think of is that this is Microsoft trying to stab Sony under the belt.
With Minecraft going to PS4 and potentially Vita, this'd be a great opportunity for them to get a slice out of THAT pie.

And its one that would have the least effect on the community.


Something else to imagine is that Mojang/Notch might have been seeing a decrease in sales on their side and they figure its the best time to cash out.
It wouldn't be too hard for them to "start a new studio" should they so desire, especially with an additional cash-injection like this.
And like Microsoft, Mojang stands to lose a LOT if they were to mess with the formula that Minecraft's success is build upon.
So what better way than to cut your losses, make a bunch of extra cash and then go on your own way.

From a business perspective, Mojang can only make so much money off of the indirect success of Minecraft. All the servers, youtubers, streamers and modders combined don't bring in a lot of direct revenue. And there's only so many sales you can make, with the PC and Xbox/Xbone platform likely already being saturated for the most part.

PS4 sales of Minecraft

*EDIT*
A fun little tidbit I found when reading through the Feed-The-Beast forums (One of the big communities that handles modpacks) is this:


While ofcourse this doesn't mean anything necessarily, its a thought that crossed my mind aswell. With so many obviously skilled hands working on mods.
And such a vested interest in the community and the success of their mods. Its only a matter of time before some of these modmakers band together to share resources.

The modpacks were the first step, but its not that strange of an idea to take it one step further. They clearly have the skills to do it, and if they can get it off the ground they'd be able to get the revenue aswell. That would be quite a hilarious turn of events, if the "community" (or atleast part of it) would simply move away from Minecraft entirely to create their own thing.

Don't forget all the merchandising. Little Minecraft dolls, t-shirts, mugs, whatever. Maybe someone wants to make a tv series off it for kids.

Turns out Notch is just too humble to carry such a large weight on his shoulders; he just wants to be free to create without pressure or scrutiny. Both Minecraft and Mojang, and his infamy, became larger than he was comfortable with. I think what he did, tho it arguably might ultimately corrupt what Minecraft stands for to gamers, is really quite understandable.

I don't think Sony has to worry about playing nice with Microsoft.  It's the other way around.  The court of public opinion is already looking at the acquisition as MS ruining things.  If MS kills multi-platform support, there will be backlash, regardless of any other considerations.  MS needs a presence on Sony platforms but Sony doesn't need a Microsoft bought title on its platform.  

I'm still confused how MS thinks it's going to be able to generate enough to make this purchase profitable.  Even if they take Minecraft and rebuild it from the ground up and release it as MC2, it's not going to make that amount of bank.  The only thing I can see is some sort of tie-in or third party market they've plans for.  Maybe, they're planning to integrate it into their Avatar market as a starting point and try to flagship it as some sort of marketing/merchandising platform for some new line of content...

As was mentioned, they can always take it in a direction like Lego did. Movies, Pop-Culture Themed DLC, more toys, games loosely based on the namesake, etc... it's a Goldmine.