The video games studio behind Minecraft is in talks to be taken over by Microsoft, according to reports. It has been suggested that Mojang might sell for more than $2bn. In June, the Swedish studio said it had sold about 54 million copies of its hit world-building game.
Since then it has also been released for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, further boosting sales. Mojang’s founder, Markus "Notch" Persson has previously publicly criticised Microsoft. Ahead of the release of the Windows 8 operating system, he had claimed that the company was "trying to ruin the PC as an open platform" because it had wanted to certify third-party titles before their release.
He had also been a vocal supporter of independent studios, saying in 2012 that: "The more studios that can remove themselves from the publisher system, the more games that will be made out of love rather than for profit." But, according to Bloomberg news agency, it was Mr Persson who "reached out" to Microsoft a few months ago. It said that a source suggested that if the deal went through, Mr Persson would help with the transition, but was unlikely to stay on afterwards.