Former Xbox and Sega boss Peter Moore says that he believes Microsoft hasn't taken advantage of owning Minecraft as it should.
Speaking to GamesBeat, Moore says, "When they acquired Mojang and Minecraft, it was purposely built, almost, for – how do we use AI to continuously evolve this?" He says this is mostly down to Minecraft's potential for user-generated content in the vein of something like Fortnite.
He explains, "UGC has always been an important part of keeping people engaged. Roblox is obviously a great example. You put creativity in the hands of the gamer, rather than telling the gamer what they’re going to do."
Moore admits, "Microsoft has maybe not taken full advantage of Minecraft." As for why that is, the former Xbox boss reckons that "maybe a bit of that is on the heels of Activision Blizzard and Bethesda. All of a sudden there were shinier objects that came along, with much bigger price tags attached."
He continues, "These are the moments, when Microsoft jumps in like that – where does Xbox fit all of a sudden? Where does the old business model fit?" And when it comes to the various high-profile acquisitions made by the company over the years, Moore adds, "You’re no longer a first party. I don’t think, once you start making the acquisitions that they did, because you can’t spend that kind of money and keep everything as an exclusive on your console. The math doesn’t math."
Minecraft does have an in-game store that allows fans to eventually join a partner program and release content into the Minecraft Marketplace, but it's not quite a platform in the same way Roblox or Fortnite are. But then again, Minecraft is literally the best-selling game of all-time, so I'm not entirely sure Microsoft are regretting owning the game too much right now.
