October 23, 2020
18:32
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The users of the ‘blocky’ virtual world Minecraft must now have a Microsoft account. There is astonished to shocked response, but Microsoft has its reasons for that measure.
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“All our games will require a Microsoft account, including Minecraft Java Edition,” said an official blog post. The measure makes it possible to better protect the players, the technology company says. Among other things, double authentication is now possible. Annoying fellow players can also be blocked in the chat. Players who do not open a Microsoft account will no longer be able to log in in a few months.
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Minecraft is one of the best-selling video games ever, with 200 million copies sold across all platforms and 126 million active users this year. It’s a sandbox video game. That is a game in which the users have a lot of freedom to determine their own goal and activity. Swede Markus “Notch” Persson created the game in 2009. Five years later, Microsoft acquired the company behind Minecraft, Mojang Studios, and the intellectual property rights for $ 2.5 billion.
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The players have long asked for more options to protect their often impressive creations. Microsoft emphasizes exactly that aspect in its communications. Still, a protest is heard because not all usernames can be preserved. The ‘in-game’ player names are preserved.
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Efficient and commercially useful
Microsoft’s measure appears to be efficient because everything is brought under a centralized login system. But there are no doubt other reasons. To begin with, gaming is an important business for the company.
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Gaming revenues are also rising sharply at Microsoft, a result of the pandemic. Moreover, it is an activity that is increasingly taking place in the cloud, an extremely important sector for the technology company. As recently as September, Microsoft acquired game company ZeniMax, the owner of Bethesda Softworks, for $ 7.5 billion. Das was an important move in the fierce battle between Microsoft’s Xbox game console and Sony’s Playstation console.
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By having the Minecraft players log in with a Microsoft account, the step to other purchases in the Microsoft universe is smaller.
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By having the Minecraft players log in with a Microsoft account, the step to other purchases in the Microsoft universe is smaller. Another factor is that Minecraft players are on average quite young. At school, they are increasingly using Chromebooks instead of Microsoft equipment. By approaching them from the gaming side, a contact with the growing potential customers is maintained.
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