Notch is rich already, and he doubtless made out like a bandit from this deal. From his standpoint, there was nothing better to do than to cash out on MS money and spend the rest of his career doing whatever he wants with no pressure, even if it's almost certain that nothing he makes in the future will be bigger than Minecraft.

Edit: And if he does manage to catch lightning in a bottle twice, Microsoft won't have legal authorship of any new successes he creates independently.

My thoughts exactly.

What's the point if the creator isn't even there, and they still have to release it on other platforms? Sure they get a new revenue stream but they won't get the 2.5B back anytime soon.

I wonder what Notch is going to do with all of that money. Holy shit, he must be one of the richest devs in the industry, surely.

Anything he wants to. He could bankroll another studio with incredible resources, or retire on his money and make craft beer a la Dr. Greg Zeschuk.

Yeah, this deal has single handedly made Notch the 18th richest pers(s)on in Sweden.

Imagine Knights of the Old Republic 3,  Jade Empire 2, Banjo Threeie, A real fable sequel, Jet Set Radio future 1... Microsoft could have easily of had my money if they threw their money at the right investments. They never should have sold Bioware IMO

Sold Bioware?

">Buys Rare
Only makes Kinect games and shitty Avatar items
>Buys company that made Kinect
Removes it from their console
>Buys Mojang
????"
-Blackbuster

I think what baffles me about the large 2.5B number is that it sure seems like notch wanted out based on his letter.  You'd figure MS would have been able to offer him a much smaller sum of money in order to put him over the edge.. was anyone else competing for the Minecraft franchise?

Either that or the letter is pure lip service after the fact... "it wasn't about the money" my ass, haha.

That lucky bastard...