Jim Merithew/WIRED
Microsoft just acquired Minecraft in a deal valued at $2.5 billion, and at first blush, that seems like money well spent. The popular game, a way of building your own virtual worlds, can not only feed the company’s Xbox game console, but also turn Microsoft into a real player in the world of mobile games, across both smartphones and tablets.
And yet, judging from the reports about the strategy behind the deal, it also reveals a certain amount of desperation from the tech giant.
Last week, both the New York Times and Reuters reported that the real reason Microsoft wants Minecraft is to bring the hit game onto its Windows Phone operating systems and into its mobile app store, the Windows Store. That too may seem like a good move. But it shows just how far behind Microsoft has fallen in the race for the hearts and minds of mobile users, and it raises many questions about whether it can climb back into this race. Ultimately, the company is so far behind, this $2.5 billion deal may not bear as much fruit as Microsoft would like.
One of the main problems with Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system—an OS quite far behind in terms of market share—is that it’s plagued by a dearth of applications compared to Android and iOS. Many popular mobile apps, such as Instagram, arrived on Windows Phone much later than other platforms. Others, such as Dropbox, Flipboard and Snapchat, still aren’t officially available for Windows Phone. It’s something of a chicken-and-egg problem for the company. Customers don’t want to buy Windows handhelds unless the apps they want are available. But developers don’t want to spend time developing for the platform if the users aren’t there. That has left Microsoft to pick up much of the slack on its own. Earlier this year, for instance, it built its own YouTube client for the OS.
If Microsoft gets Minecraft on Windows Phone, it could help attract users to its phones and tablets, especially younger people for whom the lack of the game would be a deal breaker. The trouble is that it’s only a small step in closing the “app gap,” and the fact that it had to acquire Mojang to bring the game to its mobile operating system doesn’t bode well. While it’s true that Apple and Google sometimes acquire companies for the exclusive use of their technologies, they needn’t buy a company just to force its developers to build a version for their platforms.
Because Microsoft is now so far behind in mobile—where so much of the gaming industry is moving—it must walk a rather fine line if this acquisition is to ultimately pay off. In a way, it would behoove the company to turn Minecraft into something that is only available on Microsoft platforms, shamelessly trying to drive people to its own hardware. But then it risks alienating its existing fan base, who are already skeptical about the acquisition.
Buying a game studio and making its products exclusive to a single platform is par for the course for both Microsoft and the larger game industry. Microsoft acquired Bungie, the company behind the Xbox’s flagship title Halo, in 2000 and turned it into an exclusive property. Sony does much the same, snapping game studios to bring new titles to the PlayStation exclusively. Microsoft could simply draw from this old playbook. It could leave the existing game in tact, but then publish sequels and spin-offs exclusive to Microsoft platforms.
But this is about more than just game consoles. The trouble is that, whereas the Xbox One is a very much a viable alternative to competing devices, Windows Phone is not—at least not today. In the end, limiting mobile use of a new Minecraft to Microsoft phones may do more harm than good. If the company wants Minecraft to thrive on Xbox, it might have no choice but to offer it on iPhones and Android devices. With so much game play moving onto phones, the balance of power has shifted. And not in Microsoft’s favor.
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