--- title: Minecraft Microsoft 2.5 Billion Dollar Acquisition: Company History description: With Microsoft shelling out $2.5 billion for the game, revisit how it got started canonical: https://time.com/3378327/minecraft-microsoft-mccracken/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-15T14:39:36.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:03:10.464Z article:section: History og:title: How Minecraft - which Microsoft is buying for $2.5 billion - got its start og:description: Revisit the game's origins og:url: https://time.com/3378327/minecraft-microsoft-mccracken/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Minecraft - which Microsoft is buying for $2.5 billion - got its start twitter:description: Revisit the game's origins twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Minecraft: Meet the Men Behind Microsoft's New Game > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription.  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Sep 15, 2014 2:39 PM UTC  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Sep 15, 2014 2:39 PM UTC Minecraft has been called up to the big leagues: [Microsoft has purchased the franchise and the Mojang, the company that makes it, for $2.5 billion](http://time.com/3377886/microsoft-buys-mojang/). But, though Microsoft has said that they’ll maintain and grow the franchise that gamers love, it’s already clear that things are changing in the world of Minecraft. And it’s not just a matter of the size of the company: Markus Persson, who founded Mojang, has also announced that he’s leaving. Last June, Harry McCracken traveled to Stockholm for TIME to meet the men behind Minecraft, and he made it very clear just how personal the project was for Perssen: --- > “” --- The trip from deciding to charge people for the game to selling it for billions of dollars was, in the scheme of things, a relatively short one — but short doesn’t mean uneventful. The story of how and why Minecraft has attracted so many fans, and the role Persson played in that journey, is now available free of charge in TIME’s archives. **_Click here to read it in its entirety:_** [The Mystery of Minecraft](http://time.com/635/the-mystery-of-minecraft/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3378327/minecraft-microsoft-mccracken/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3378327/minecraft-microsoft-mccracken/"},"headline":"Minecraft: Meet the Men Behind Microsoft's New Game","datePublished":"2014-09-15T14:39:36.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:03:10.464Z","description":"With the software giant shelling out $2.5 billion for the game, see how it all began","url":"https://time.com/3378327/minecraft-microsoft-mccracken/","keywords":["Technology","Tech","Games","Minecraft","Microsoft"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/technology/","name":"Technology"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3378327/minecraft-microsoft-mccracken/","name":"Minecraft: Meet the Men Behind Microsoft's New Game"}}]}] ```