Did MS do the right thing by keeping Minecraft multiplat?
From a purely $$ point of view it worked out.
But what if MS made it only available on Xbox, PC and maybe Switch? Would Minecraft helped MS sell more Xbox’s?
In the kid space there is only two games. Fortnight and Minecraft.
MS should really be pushing to get the new generation of kids in, as once in the ecosystem, and with their little mates getting an Xbox as well, chances are they will stay in it.
How Would it of worked if MS did stop PS versions?
Minecraft is one of the reasons Microsoft’s gaming business is still here today. In no reality Spencer would get the OK to make it an exclusive piece of software. It has also shown MS that there is a lot of money to be made when you go multiplatform, or build and release for more accessible platforms. (Like mobile, xCloud, PC)
Microsoft wouldn’t have bought Minecraft if their plan was for it to be made exclusive. Would the Xbox brand done better? Yeah, sure. Would the Minecraft IP done better? No, don’t think so.
Though we shouldn’t overestimate the PlayStation market too, the combined markets of Xbox, Switch, PC, iOS and Android could obviously keep Minecraft afloat very easily.
Totally. And I think sometimes we forget that acquisitions is a two-party deal. Mojang would still be independent (or sold out to other publisher) if Microsoft were planning to let their IP diminish in value.
It’s not confirmed for PS5 yet. And it won’t come to PS5 unless Sony allows the bedrock version with Xbox login. You can still play, the PS4 version on PS5.
You don’t pull a game from an existing platform. But you can not release it on a different platform.
Could you imagine someone saying “Hey what if Microsoft bought out FIFA (the organization) so they would control Soccer and have the power to make FIFA video games exclusive to Xbox? Oh and maybe they could make the real life game broadcasts exclusive to Xbox too! They’d totally sell a ton of Xboxes!”
I think PS4 has the Bedrock Edition since a few months ago.
Maybe it went like you said.
“Either you agree or we won’t bother doing a PS5 version or continue to update PS4 version”
Wich would make sense as PS4 version was a version of its own until not long ago wich meant having to work on Bedrock, Java and PS4 versions of the game
Keeping Minecraft multiplatform was the right call, just look at how Dreams is dying only on PlayStation (and I love Dreams).
I was more surprised that Minecraft Dungeons was multiplatform. Don’t think this game should have been. Maybe we’ll have more spinoffs from the series, larger and smaller, that should be designed exclusively for the Xbox Series X.
With 100+ million PS4 units out there, it makes sense to make that money.
That said, Minecraft 2 on the Xbox ecosystem exclusively makes a ton of sense at this point. Kids will be asking their parents for an Xbox if that’s the case. Or a capable enough PC, or a Series S if that’s more palatable for parents. Hey, that’s too much for parents, their kid can play it on their existing Android tablet via xCloud.
“Minecraft 2” is the sort of game where its announcement would make the nightly news. It’s such a household brand that few other IPs from Microsoft (or even Sony for that matter) would compare. It has to be leveraged to push Xbox, Gamepass, and xCloud. Otherwise what was really the point of the purchase, especially for that amount?
I think MS learned something from acquiring Minecraft. Which is there is another way to make money other than the traditional console model of getting people into the box to sell them profitable accessories and services. MS learned that the more places a game is available, the more it increases the sales in all of those places across the board. They learned there isn’t a limited pool of users you need to fight over, but that there is an unlimited number of people you just have to reach.
Look at a game like Grand Theft Auto. How does it constantly sell so much every day/month/year? You’d think everyone that wanted to play it already owned it, but it just keeps on selling. GTA is not an exclusive, but it probably sells more Playstations and Xboxes than any of their respective exclusives. Yet if you were to lock GTA to a single console it would lose that power. GTA probably sells just as many Xboxes by being on Playstation than it would if it were exclusive to Xbox. This is because the more people know about a game the more it sells everywhere.
