‘Minecraft’ now officially belongs to Microsoft — here’s what you should know

Minecraft now belongs to the House that Bill Gates built, punching trees into wood blocks into tools into processors into Windows.

Today’s announcement is more or less a formality at this point; the acquisition was originally announced in mid-September for $2.5 billion (ironically, in 2012 Minecraft creator Notch joked he’d sell Mojang and “endorse your crap” for the then-ludicrous price of $2 billion).

But Minecraft is too important of a cultural phenomenon not to take a moment and acknowledge this momentous day. Here’s everything you need to know:

“If Microsoft plays it right, this could be a deal that works out well for everyone involved — maybe even including Minecraft fans.”

“My eight year-old son says: ‘If Apple wanted to get cooler they would buy Minecraft instead of Beats.’” It’s basically the Lego of the future — hell, it’s even the Lego of the present.

Markus Persson, better known by his pseudonym Notch, is the creator of Minecraft and founder of its studio Mojang — and he’s not going to Microsoft. “Considering the public image of me already is a bit skewed, I don’t expect to get away from negative comments by doing this, but at least now I won’t feel a responsibility to read them.... It’s not about the money. It’s about my sanity,” he states in his goodbye letter. Notch cites this YouTube video about Phil Fish as inspiration for the decision.

Here’s our interview with Notch from April 2013 (embedded above).