To those who are so worried about Microsoft's acquisition of Minecraft - yeah, it's going to be worse than you think. Let's go over the top 10 ways MS can FUBAR MC:
10.) Single player game files hosted on OneDrive.
9.) You need a Live account and have to log in to play - even for the single player game.
8.) Minecraft API can only be used in Visual Studio.
7.) One license per computer, and don't change the hardware configuration too much or you get the "Your copy may not be 'Genuine'" messages.
6.) Updates only available through Microsoft Update - all other platforms have to download K213451 and 40 other update files individually.
5.) Minecraft servers require IIS to run.
4.) In-game text formatting only possible with Word 2013+
3.) Minecraft SP1
2.) MinecraftForum.net, Minecraft.org, and PlanetMinecraft all best viewed with IE.
And the number one way MS can really screw up the game we all love:
1.) Minecraft development moved from Java to C#
It took me three minutes to put that list together, and I guarantee that what Microsoft actually does to the game within two years will probably be worse than that. Anyone who rings the "it's not that bad" bell has no idea what they are talking about. I've been dealing with Microsoft my entire career - starting with when they encrypted a few lines out of the entire Windows 3.1 codebase - the few lines that made sure Windows only ran on MSDOS and broke on PCDos. I watched them destroy Novel NDS by touting how much better Active Directory was - a year before AD actually existed. They gave IE 2 and 3 away for free and required you to install them to run any update or install disk, all in order to destroy Netscape. When Netscape died, IE's development team was reduced to one guy for over two years because they had "won", and were safe from anyone running programs on a browser instead of Windows.
Then MS co-opted Java, and there was the Sun-Microsoft lawsuit for three years to stop MS from creating a Windows-only version of Java. At the same time, MS paid PC manufacturers to NOT install BeOS on machines, eventually killing an operating system that could run 10 simultaneous video streams with no lag or skipping - something even Win8.1 still has trouble doing. More recently, MS bought skype, which was built on providing highly encrypted and secure communication. Guess how secure Skype calls are now?
I could go on and on - 25 years of proof that MS (understandably) only cares about running a business and making money. This means that if developing another version of MC for IOS doesn't provide a large enough profit margin, it will kill that team. If MS can "monetize" any part of MC, they will. If they can exploit "synergies" between MC and any other MS property or system, they will. Facts like MC is a game or people love it and are making money off of it are secondary to what they can do with it to drive people to pay them more money in any way possible. The fact that MC succeeded because the people who created and worked on it and had personal stakes in it all these years did it to make a cool game that people could have fun with also means nothing.
Does this mean that MC is doomed? Who knows? Personally, I wouldn't bet against it. The odds are in favor of MC being changed in ways that will "benefit" MS, even as they only **** off or cut off long time players. It may be years, but eventually MC will be changed to benefit MS. When it happens, just remember - It's not personal, it's just business.
Sanity for Notch. For Microsoft, it most certainly is about the money.
10.) Single player game files hosted on OneDrive.
9.) You need a Live account and have to log in to play - even for the single player game.
8.) Minecraft API can only be used in Visual Studio.
7.) One license per computer, and don't change the hardware configuration too much or you get the "Your copy may not be 'Genuine'" messages.
6.) Updates only available through Microsoft Update - all other platforms have to download K213451 and 40 other update files individually.
5.) Minecraft servers require IIS to run.
4.) In-game text formatting only possible with Word 2013+
3.) Minecraft SP1
2.) MinecraftForum.net, Minecraft.org, and PlanetMinecraft all best viewed with IE.
And the number one way MS can really screw up the game we all love:
1.) Minecraft development moved from Java to C#
It took me three minutes to put that list together, and I guarantee that what Microsoft actually does to the game within two years will probably be worse than that. Anyone who rings the "it's not that bad" bell has no idea what they are talking about. I've been dealing with Microsoft my entire career - starting with when they encrypted a few lines out of the entire Windows 3.1 codebase - the few lines that made sure Windows only ran on MSDOS and broke on PCDos. I watched them destroy Novel NDS by touting how much better Active Directory was - a year before AD actually existed. They gave IE 2 and 3 away for free and required you to install them to run any update or install disk, all in order to destroy Netscape. When Netscape died, IE's development team was reduced to one guy for over two years because they had "won", and were safe from anyone running programs on a browser instead of Windows.
Then MS co-opted Java, and there was the Sun-Microsoft lawsuit for three years to stop MS from creating a Windows-only version of Java. At the same time, MS paid PC manufacturers to NOT install BeOS on machines, eventually killing an operating system that could run 10 simultaneous video streams with no lag or skipping - something even Win8.1 still has trouble doing. More recently, MS bought skype, which was built on providing highly encrypted and secure communication. Guess how secure Skype calls are now?
I could go on and on - 25 years of proof that MS (understandably) only cares about running a business and making money. This means that if developing another version of MC for IOS doesn't provide a large enough profit margin, it will kill that team. If MS can "monetize" any part of MC, they will. If they can exploit "synergies" between MC and any other MS property or system, they will. Facts like MC is a game or people love it and are making money off of it are secondary to what they can do with it to drive people to pay them more money in any way possible. The fact that MC succeeded because the people who created and worked on it and had personal stakes in it all these years did it to make a cool game that people could have fun with also means nothing.
Does this mean that MC is doomed? Who knows? Personally, I wouldn't bet against it. The odds are in favor of MC being changed in ways that will "benefit" MS, even as they only **** off or cut off long time players. It may be years, but eventually MC will be changed to benefit MS. When it happens, just remember - It's not personal, it's just business.