The hit game Minecraft has been used to teach everything from history to microbiology to teach the principles of quantum computing, thanks in large part to MinecraftEdu, a version of the game designed specifically for educators.
Microsoft acquired Mojang, the makers of Minecraft, for $2.5 billion in 2014, but MinecraftEdu was developed by a separate company, TeacherGaming, which licensed Minecraft from Mojang. Now, both the entertainment and education versions of the game will finally be under one roof. Microsoft announced today that it has acquired MinecraftEdu from TeacherGaming for an undisclosed sum and will release a new version of the game called Minecraft: Education Edition.
According to the official Minecraft website, Microsoft hopes to sell Minecraft: Education Edition for $5 per student per year. The New York Times, which first reported the acquisition, notes that this is a departure from MinecraftEdu's pricing, which was previously sold for a one-time fee based on the number of students who would be using the game at one time.
The good news for schools that have already purchased MinecraftEdu is that they'll still be able to use the software indefinitely and will also receive a free year of Minecraft: Education Edition once it is released. According to the MinecraftEdu site, Microsoft will continue to develop and support MinecraftEdu "for now."
Microsoft is not acquiring TeacherGaming, which will continue to develop KerbalEdu, an educational version of the game Kerbal Space Program, and plans to announce new products in the future.
The Times notes that Microsoft's acquisition of Mojang has yet to boost sales of other Microsoft products, specifically Windows Phone, and suggests that to acquisition of MinecraftEdu could be a way for the company to remedy that by using it to cross-promote other Microsoft products such as Office and Skype to schools.
But maybe that's not the point. Microsoft has taken steps to expand its footprint on other platforms in recent years by, among other thigns, releasing an iOS version of Office and acquiring productivity apps such as Sunrise Calendar, task management tool Wunderlist and the email client Accompli (the latter became the basis for the mobile version of Outlook). Minecraft, which is available on many different operating systems and game consoles, fits nicely into that strategy—at home or in school.
