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c0lo [soylentnews.org] writes:

Engadget [engadget.com], Wall Street Journal [wsj.com] and others [kotaku.com] are reporting Microsoft is in serious discussions to buy Mojang AB, the Swedish company behind the popular "Minecraft" video game. (Reuters attributes [kotaku.com] the news piece to WSJ, the excerpts below being made from the same source).

A sale would be a surprising turn for closely held Mojang, whose 35-year-old founder, Markus Persson, has shunned outside investment and is revered in the videogame community for railing publicly against big firms, including Microsoft.
Mojang has also grown beyond videogames, striking licensing deals with Scholastic Corp. SCHL for handbooks, Lego A/S for toys and Warner Bros. Pictures for a feature film. There is even a popular edition for schools to teach children such subjects as languages and architecture.

"Minecraft" could reinvigorate Microsoft's 13-year-old Xbox videogame business by giving it a cult hit with a legion of young fans. Mojang has sold over 50 million copies of "Minecraft" since it was initially released in 2009 and earned more than $100 million in profit last year from the game and merchandise. The game is already available on Xbox, as well as on Sony Corp.'s PlayStation, PCs and smartphones
Mojang would be the first multibillion-dollar acquisition by Microsoft's chief executive, Satya Nadella who, in a letter to employees in July, called gaming the "single biggest digital life category, measured in both time and money spent, in a mobile-first world."

Mojang's relationship with Microsoft hasn't been without friction. In 2012, Mr. Persson (Minecraft creator) made harsh statements on Twitter about the U.S. software giant and its new Windows 8 operating system, telling Microsoft to "stop trying to ruin the PC."
"Minecraft" can be played on personal computers running Windows 8, but that requires that users download it from Mojang's site rather than Microsoft's own Windows Store. What's more, the game has never been made available for Windows Phone, Microsoft's operating system for phones, because Mojang deemed the platform too small to be worth the while.

Place your bets: will be this the kiss of death for Minecraft?
Would you buy a Windows phone if Minecraft would be exclusively distributed on it?

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