Microsoft will reportedly close its deal to buy Mojang today, the game developer behind Minecraft.
The Swedish developers boast 100 million players, and source say that the Microsoft acquistion would bolster Redmond’s mobile platform, rather than its PC or Xbox divisions.
Currently, Microsoft has around 2.5% of the world’s mobile operating system market share, according to IDC analysts. But the Mojang purchase confirms Microsoft’s attempts for a ‘mobile first, cloud first’ strategy.
The deal is expected to finalise at $2.5bn. Microsoft has yet to make a statement regarding the deal.
Minecraft was first launched in 2009 on the PC platform, and has so far sold over 54 million copies. Around 40% of those sales are downloads onto smartphones or tablets. However, there has never been a Windows Phone version of the game, with Mojang co-founder Markus Persson having said last year that Windows Phones are not worth developing for because of their market share insignificance.
An announcement from Microsoft is expected today.
