Minecraft, developed by Mojang Studios, rapidly became a hugely popular game. It’s therefore unsurprising that several large gaming companies wanted to acquire it. Ultimately, Microsoft purchased both the game and Mojang, though Activision was also a potential buyer.
Activision wanted to buy Minecraft
Bobby Kotick, the former CEO of Activision, was a guest on the Rushmore podcast. During the conversation, host Ari Emanuel asked if he’d ever played Minecraft. Kotick revealed that he had actually considered purchasing the game at one point.
I very nearly purchased the company. I spent five days in Stockholm with its founder, Markus ‘Notch’ Persson, and we ultimately made a US $1.5 billion offer.
Surprisingly, Notch actually advised against the purchase. He wasn’t unwilling to sell Minecraft—he intended to leave Mojang along with the management team. However, Bobby Kotick didn’t want to become the company’s leader.
He casually mentioned he was resigning, and that his key leaders were also leaving. This was particularly notable because the company only had around 30 employees.
In the end, Kotick’s proposal wasn’t significant because Microsoft quickly made a higher offer to Notch.
He called and told me Microsoft had offered him $2.5 billion for the company. I responded that he should definitely accept, and even joked that we could go buy a plane with the money.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=-59988
Most people know what happened next: Microsoft purchased Mojang, the company behind Minecraft, for $2.5 billion, and the original founders, including Notch, moved on. Despite their departure, Minecraft continued to thrive and remains incredibly popular. In 2023, it was revealed that the game generates over $100 million annually, and that doesn’t even include revenue from merchandise, toys, and the successful movie adaptation.
Even if Bobby Kotick had bought Minecraft, Microsoft would have eventually owned it anyway. In 2023, Microsoft purchased Activision Blizzard—the company that owns Minecraft—for $69 billion.
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2025-11-19 17:04