Microsoft Officially Buys Minecraft Developer Mojang For $2.5 Billion

Games Industry reports that the press release explains the company "expects the acquisition to be break even in FY15 on a GAAP basis." The acquisition should close later this year.

"Gaming is a top activity spanning devices, from PCs and consoles to tablets and mobile, with billions of hours spent each year," said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. "Minecraft is more than a great game franchise - it is an open world platform, driven by a vibrant community we care deeply about, and rich with new opportunities for that community and for Microsoft."

For the story of the acquisition in full, check the original story below.

Original story (September 15, 6.20am PT / 9.20am ET / 2.20pm GMT): Mojang has confirmed it's being sold to Microsoft for $2.5 billion.

The news was confirmed on the developer's official site, in which it also went into some of the reasons for the decision. As has previously been discussed, a large part of it centers on founder Markus ‘Notch’ Persson growing tired of working for such a big organisation. He and the two other founders, Carl and Jakob are all leaving the company following the deal.

"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," a statement reads. "As you might already know, Notch is the creator of Minecraft and the majority shareholder at Mojang. He’s decided that he doesn’t want the responsibility of owning a company of such global significance. Over the past few years he’s made attempts to work on smaller projects, but the pressure of owning Minecraft became too much for him to handle. The only option was to sell Mojang. He’ll continue to do cool stuff though. Don’t worry about that.

"There are only a handful of potential buyers with the resources to grow Minecraft on a scale that it deserves. We’ve worked closely with Microsoft since 2012, and have been impressed by their continued dedication to our game and its development. We’re confident that Minecraft will continue to grow in an awesome way."

As had been reported, the PC, Mac, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4, Vita, iOS, and Android editions will continue to be supported and developed as they currently are, despite the deal. While the blogpost promises things will continue to develop, it's unlikely to stop players from making videos, mods or anything else that makes Minecraft so special today. The post concludes by explaining its unclear where this leaves other projects, like Scrolls, but it seems Minecraft is Microsoft's main focus.

Rumours of the imminent sale of Mojang began circulating last week, leading to speculation the company could be looking to see increased development on mobile rather than Xbox.

Minecraft launched in late 2011 on PC, and we loved it. It later migrated to iOS and Android before coming to Xbox 360 in 2012, where it sold like gangbusters. A PlayStation 3 iteration launched late in 2013, which we also loved, and the game just came to both Xbox One and PlayStation 4. You can read our review here. The only other known, upcoming version of the game -- for Vita -- is due out in the coming couple of months. At the last count, over 54 million copies have been sold

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK News Editor. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on Twitter.