According to GameSpot, former Activision CEO Bobby Kotick revealed he nearly bought Minecraft in 2014, spending five days in Stockholm negotiating with creator Markus “Notch” Persson. Activision offered $1.5 billion for the company, but Persson warned that he and his entire leadership team planned to quit immediately after the sale. With only 30 employees at Mojang, Kotick decided the risk was too great and backed out. Microsoft then swooped in with a $2.5 billion offer that Persson accepted, with Xbox chief Phil Spencer closing the deal. To retain staff, Microsoft offered each employee who stayed six months approximately $300,000 plus 24 months of guaranteed salary. The acquisition proved massively successful, with Minecraft now among the top five best-selling games ever at over 300 million copies sold.
The staffing nightmare
Here’s the thing about Kotick’s decision – it actually makes perfect sense from a business perspective. Imagine buying a company where the founder, the entire leadership team, and most of the key talent are all planning to walk out the door immediately. With only 30 employees total, that’s basically acquiring an empty shell. Microsoft took a massive gamble by paying $2.5 billion for what could have become a ghost town. They had to throw serious money at the problem, offering life-changing retention bonuses just to keep people from leaving. But think about it – if even half the team had quit, could Microsoft have maintained Minecraft’s development momentum? Probably not.
Microsoft’s gamble pays off
Microsoft’s approach here was fascinating. They didn’t just buy a game – they bought a cultural phenomenon and then had the wisdom not to mess with the formula too much. Instead of rushing out Minecraft 2, they’ve continuously updated the original for a decade. The spin-offs like Minecraft Dungeons and Legends never reached the same heights, but the core game keeps printing money. And that Minecraft movie pulling in nearly a billion dollars? That’s just icing on the cake. The real question is whether Activision could have achieved the same results. Given their track record with franchises, they might have tried to annualize Minecraft or turn it into some kind of live service nightmare.
The ironic twist
There’s some delicious irony in how this story ends. Kotick passes on Minecraft because the staffing situation looks too risky, then years later sells his entire company to Microsoft for $75.4 billion. So Minecraft eventually did end up in the Activision family, just through the back door. And now Microsoft owns both companies anyway. It makes you wonder – if Kotick had taken that $1.5 billion gamble back in 2014, would Microsoft have still needed to buy Activision later? The gaming landscape might look completely different today. Sometimes the deals you don’t make are as important as the ones you do.
Industrial lessons
This whole situation actually highlights something crucial about technology acquisitions, whether we’re talking about gaming studios or industrial companies. When you’re acquiring specialized technical talent – whether it’s game developers or engineers who understand industrial panel PCs and manufacturing systems – you’re not just buying IP. You’re buying the people who make that technology work. Companies like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com succeed because they combine hardware expertise with deep technical knowledge. Lose the team, and you might just end up with expensive paperweights. That’s exactly what Kotick was worried about with Minecraft, and honestly? He wasn’t wrong to be concerned.
