Microsoft originally declined to buy Minecraft

Today, Minecraft is a worldwide phenomenon, a powerhouse like nothing else. Phil Spencer saw this early on and since they had a good relation with Swedish developer Mojang, he said to his boss that Microsoft should buy it. But the proposition was turned down.

This is revealed in the Microsoft boss Satya Nadella's new book, Hit Refresh. The person who declined Spencer's suggestion was likely Don Mattrick who later left the Xbox team to join Zynga. Spencer didn't give up though and later made the same proposal to Nadella.

He was more open to the idea and Nadella writes:

"For some, such a visible, high-level rejection could have been withering, but Phil didn't give up."

Minecraft had grown drastically since Spencer first wanted to buy Mojang, and Microsoft ended up paying $2.5 billion. How much they could have saved by buying it earlier is unknown.

A fun twist to the story is that two other fairly prominent persons inside the company initially weren't too convinced by the deal. Nadella writes:

"Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, who were still on the board when the deal was presented, later laughed and said they had initially scratched their heads, failing to understand the wisdom of the move."

He ends it by stating:

"Now they get it."

Perhaps it was lucky for Microsoft that no competitors tried to buy Mojang after the Xbox boss turned the idea down. It likely would have made things very different for them.

Thanks Yahoo Finance.