Rumours have been swirling for a couple of weeks about the possible acquisition of Minecraft-creator Mojang by Microsoft, and this afternoon both companies have confirmed that the purchase has been made – for $2.5 billion.

“Today is an incredibly exciting day for our team as Mojang and the Minecraft franchise join Microsoft. Minecraft is one of the most popular video games of all time, with more than 100 million downloads, on PC alone, from players since its launch in 2009,” Phil Spencer, Head of Xbox, said in a press statement.

Those who are currently enjoying Minecraft on non-Microsoft platforms shouldn’t feel left out though, as it confirmed that it will still support all the initial release platforms in the future.

“Minecraft adds diversity to our game portfolio and helps us reach new gamers across multiple platforms. Gaming is the top activity across devices and we see great potential to continue to grow the Minecraft community and nurture the franchise. That is why we plan to continue to make Minecraft available across platforms – including iOS, Android and PlayStation, in addition to Xbox and PC.”

The sign-over also ring in the proverbial death-knell for Mojang’s Markus “Notch” Persson, as he announced that he will be leaving Mojang after the deal has been closed later this year.

“As soon as this deal is finalized, I will leave Mojang and go back to doing Ludum Dares and small web experiments. If I ever accidentally make something that seems to gain traction, I’ll probably abandon it immediately. It’s not about the money. It’s about my sanity,” he said in a statement.

In the later parts of his farewell message, he thanked evetybody who has played Minecraft.

“Thank you for turning Minecraft into what it has become, but there are too many of you, and I can’t be responsible for something this big. In one sense, it belongs to Microsoft now. In a much bigger sense, it’s belonged to all of you for a long time, and that will never change.”

[Source – Minecraft]