Minecraft: Institutions and Audiences

When Minecraft was first created it was made by a small independent company called "Mojang" which meant the game had a very low budget and no marketing plans at all. This meant that the game was spread by word of mouth between small gaming communities which is very unusual for such a successful game. Minecraft is unlike many other games due to its endless possibilities and lack of any story which allows the gamer to do virtually anything they want. Another unique part of the game is that is a building/crafting game which is a genre that has never reached anywhere near the level of success that Minecraft has and when Jens Bergensten was asked why he thinks this is, he replied; “It’s the way that you build in the first-person perspective, and you only interact with one block at a time. It’s also very open-ended. It doesn’t tell you what to build.” However in September 2014 Microsoft bought Mojang for £2.5 billion which shocked the whole gaming community because the whole idea of Mojang is that it was an independent company that made games for fun not for profit. Many members of the Minecraft community felt almost betrayed by the owners for supposedly selling out to a massive corporation, the question on everyone's mind was whether the game would remain the same game they had grown to love.

A quick YouTube search reveals countless video of fans complaining about Microsoft's takeover

Markus Persson is one of the creators of the game and he decided to avoid all interaction with the internet to avoid the inevitable online abuse he would receive from angry gamers. This shows how strongly the community held onto the core values of an independent company such as Mojang. Some would argue that Microsoft's takeover will inhibit Mojang as a brand because it no longer stands for what the company used to base themselves upon. However I would argue that although this is true to an extent, Microsoft is such a large company with such high resources that all they can possibly do is improve the company for the better. As long as they listen to what the community wants and do not turn the game into a money grabbing tactic then i think the future for Minecraft looks bright. Another key thing to remember is that Microsoft bought Mojang as a whole not just Minecraft, which means all the companies other games are going to be affected too.