If Microsoft dropped $2B on this property, the last thing they're going to do is continue to pay a development team to work on a game that has already been completed in their eyes.
A re-write, on the other hand? Guaranteed. And it will be the first of many sequels, Halo-style.
As a former minecraft player, I am salivating at this.
Believe it or not, Notch did a great job creating the game and doing a few updates, and then became totally incompetent (or maybe just disinterested) after that. Development has been at a standstill for years, despite many bugs and vast potential for improvement.
I would love to see somebody do something great with this game and Mojang does not seem to have "the right stuff."
Might be more accurate to say that it was at a standstill for years.
Yes, they release bug fixes and minor features often now... but the game is almost identical to what it was years ago.
The only really big thing I know they've done lately is make the game properly multi-threaded, and while that is a big and worthy accomplishment, that should have come years ago.
My 5 years old learned the meaning of the word "bugged" playing MineCraft. Everything that isn't perfect, from his night milk to the TV is "bugged". Ah! He doesn't speak English.
If Microsoft dropped $2B on this property, the last thing they're going to do is continue to pay a development team to work on a game that has already been completed in their eyes.
A re-write, on the other hand? Guaranteed. And it will be the first of many sequels, Halo-style.
For Xbox One and the newest version of Windows.