Parents like Minecraft because it can be a creative outlet for their children, Nick Wingfield reports. Teachers like the game because it can bring lessons to life. And Microsoft likes the game so much that it wants to buy Minecraft’s parent company for more than $2 billion.
It is not flashy graphics or an intricate story line luring these groups to the game, however. Minecraft has become a global phenomenon by breaking with those usual conventions.
The point of the game is building things — and tens of millions of people spend hours constructing elaborate structures with digital pickaxes and other tool — and helping others make their own creations.
The popularity of the game has been clear for a couple of years. But the possible deal with Microsoft is the clearest sign yet how important tech giants view games like Minecraft and their growing fan bases. Facebook bought a virtual reality headset maker for $2 billion and the Japanese company SoftBank spent $1.5 billion for a stake in a mobile game developer. Last month, Amazon agreed to buy Twitch, a streaming video site, for more than $1 billion. Read more »