Microsoft buys Mojang for 2.5 Billion, Founder "Notch" Persson to Depart

Following reports that the two companies were in talks, yesterday on September 15, Mojang, the makers of the highly popular "Minecraft" game announced that they were indeed being bought up by the Microsoft corporation. The selling price was listed at 2.5 Billion dollars.

In a statement on their website, the spokesman tried to reassure Minecraft fans "Everything is going to be OK." As for why the company was being sold, "Minecraft has grown from a simple game to a project of monumental significance. Though we're massively proud of what Minecraft has become, it was never Notch's intention for it to get this big." They felt only a few companies were big enough to continue to allow the game to grow "on the scale it deserves." As they had worked with Microsoft since 2012, they were "impressed by the continued dedication to our game and it's development. We're confident that Minecraft would continue in an awesome way." Although the three people who founded the company were leaving, most of the team was planning to stay.

On his personal website, "Notch" Persson, the man who made Minecraft, gave his own statement. "I make games because it's fun," he wrote, "... but I don't make games with the intention of them becoming huge hits, and I don't try to change the world. Minecraft has certainly became a huge hit, and people are telling me it's changed games." Persson had actually stepped down from developing Minecraft "a relatively long time ago," but stuck around on smaller projects as people were telling him he was "important to the culture."

But he described an incident "a couple of weeks ago when the Internet exploded with hate against me" over a user license agreement issue that he had nothing to do with. Later on, he "started to realize I didn't have the connection to my fans that I thought I had. I've become a symbol. I don't want to be a symbol, responsible for something huge that I don't understand ... I'm not an enterpenuer. I'm not a CEO. I'm a nerdy computer programer who likes to have opinions on Twitter."

Persson stated he would be leaving Mojang as soon as the deal was completed, going back to doing small experiments, "I love you. All of you. Thank you for turning Minecraft into what it has become, but there are too many of you, and I can't be responsible for something this big. In one sense, it belongs to Microsoft now. In a larger sense, it's belonged to all of you for a long time, and that will never change. It's not about the money. It's about my sanity."

Mojang's statement can be read in full (here), and Persson's can be read (here).

Bixyl Shuftan

Microsoft in Negotiations to Buy Minecraft

Where do Second Life residents go when not in Second Life? For some, it's the game of Minecraft. Among the most popular games in computer history, it's developed a fanbase of millions spending not only time there building things, but also willing to spend money on real life items such as "Creeper" hats and toys based on the game. But fans aren't the only thing the game has been attracting. Recently the Microsoft corporation has been negotiating a possible buyout of Minecraft's owner Majong, news that has some fans wondering what this could mean for their beloved game.

Read more in Other Grids and MMOs.

DNSChanger Malware Could Knock Thousands of Computers Offline July 9

Thousands of computers are at risk of being unable to use the Internet because of malware from online criminals in a scam last year. Despite an effort to get the word out, as many as 277,000 computers worldwide still cary the hostile software known as DNSChanger.

DNSChanger was discovered in 2007, and may have infected millions of computers over time. The malware worked by detecting what websites its victims browsed, then redirected them to sites under the control of a cybercrime enterprise working from the small Eastern European country of Estonia, where ads were pushed onto the viewers. The criminals were netting millions before the FBI worked with Estonian police to break up the crime ring and confiscated the servers. Six were arrested with a seventh in Russia still at large.

To avoid disrupting those with infected computers, the servers were kept online as word was spread about the malware infections. In January, it was estimated a half million computers had the malware. But on Midnight July 8, the servers will be turned off, and those computers still infected will be unable to get online, at least without taking certain steps. In January, it was estimated a half million computers had the malware. As many as 277,000 computers across the world may still be infected, including as many as 4500 in the United States. Messages, such as the one Google has been showing to users of computers it detected the malware on (shown below), have helped to get the word out.

For those computers still infected, there are a number of places one can go. Among them is a website that a group of security groups and experts set up: www.dcwg.org. Others include:

Hitman Pro (32bit and 64bit versions)

Kaspersky Labs TDSSKiller

McAfee Stinger

Microsoft Windows Defender Offline

Microsoft Safety Scanner

Norton Power Eraser

Trend Micro Housecall

MacScan

Avira


For computers knocked offline, they can still get to Google by typing "173.194.34.72" into their address bar, or to Microsoft with "64.4.11.37".

Internet security company Internet Identity reported at least 60 companies on the Fortune 500 still have infected computers. At the beginning of the year, they believed the number was 250. or 50 percent. For US Government agency computers, the amount infected went down from an estimated 49 percent to 4.

Sources: http://www.dcwg.org/, Forbes, Reuters, Internet News , Google

Bixyl Shuftan