Microsoft rumored to be buying Mojang for $2 billion, or two Instagrams

Mojang is one of the largest - if not the largest - indie game development company in existence. It's one-hit wonder, our favorite game Minecraft, has become an international success. But it looks like Microsoft wants to bank in on that success by buying Mojang, for the low low price of $2 billion dollars (aka twice the price Instagram was bought by Facebook).

But why would Microsoft buy Mojang? If it's not obvious by the picture above, Microsoft owns Xbox, which happened to have Minecraft exclusively for over a year (as far as consoles go). So it's clear that Mojang has worked with them extensively in the past.

However Markus Persson, famously known as Notch, has had several offers to buy Mojang and refused them. Back in 2011, Electronic Arts offered to buy Mojang and Notch wasn't up for it. Granted Minecraft was significantly less popular back then, and a lot can change in three years. Hopefully if they are bought, Mojang will remain a mostly independent company and keep making games for all major platforms.

UPDATE: One thing I would like to point out is a quote from Notch's last blog post on his personal blog which applies to this:

Mojang does not exist to make as much money as possible for the owners. As the majority shareholder, I’d know. Every time a big money making deal comes up that would make a lot of money, it’s of course very tempting, but at the end of the day we choose to do what either makes the most sense for our products, or the things that seem like fun for us at Mojang.

Also important to note is that despite the major coverage, there is still no definite proof this is happening. It's just a rumor right now, and it should be treated as such.

Source: CNBC