In case you may have missed it, the once rumored Microsoft acquisition of Mojang has been confirmed. Don’t worry if you play Minecraft on non-Microsoft platforms as representatives have promised the game will still be published on other platforms. Nothing was said about possible exclusives though.
What you won’t see is some of the Mojang top brass working for Microsoft. Notch and a few others have announced that they are leaving the studio. Must be nice to walk with all that money in your hand.
In a smaller, less detailed deal Internet star PewDiePie will be air his “BroKen” podcast on MLG.tv. This gives MLG.tv first access to PewDiePie’s podcat before it airs anywhere else. No financials for this deal were mentioned but just add another pile of money beside the $4 million he allegedly makes from YouTube.
What does this all mean? Is there an evil turn happening in gaming? Are large corporations taking over the little guys in gaming? Well…you can argue if PewDiePie and Majong count as “little guys” anymore. They are far more successful, both financially and in popularity, than many others in the industry that truly are small operations.
These moves, along with others, show that after some down years there is money going back into the gaming industry. Consumers have been as supportive as they can but our resources are limited. Microsoft is doing its best to get back into the current generation console race whereas PewDiePie….if you were offered more money to do something you already were doing, wouldn’t you take it? Greed or not I don’t blame him and it sounds like his podcast will still be available elsewhere.
But the real truth is something different. They are both Swedish. This means the Swedes are getting paid. Go Sweden!
Paul Novak is a self described Polish ninja toiling away as an IT professional but more into gaming and writing. Physically existing in the west side of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania yet existentially flowing with the ether of the Internet. Found here at What’s Your Tag? and on the Twitter @dudewantshisrug. Game on with Team XBRO!
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Reblogged this on Reviewer Discretion.
I have very mixed feelings about the whole culture of Let’s Play people and related phenomena. On one level it seems like cashing in on somebody else’s work.
On the other hand, all those of us with blogs who fancy ourselves critics are doing the same thing. We’re just not making bank.
It definitely is a far cry from how gaming was when I was a kid. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it is a THING, and it’s sometimes off-putting to an old-school console gamer like myself. C’est la vie.
I am a denizen of the internet, I know the ins and outs and backtrails. Yet, I’ve never heard of this PewDiePie. No idea what it is he does. With that, sure, why not get paid for doing what you love? More power to him.