Microsoft bought Minecraft and developer Mojang in 2014 for $2.5 billion, but the Xbox company was not the only group to make an offer for the sandbox series. It was reported years ago that Activision (as well as EA) was also in the mix to buy Minecraft, and now former executive Bobby Kotick has discussed the bid process and what ultimately kept the deal from coming together. Appearing on billionaire Ari Emanuel's podcast, Kotick said of Minecraft, "I almost bought it."He added: "I had to spend five days in Stockholm with [Markus 'Notch' Persson], the guy who founded the company. We offered him $1.5 billion. And he said, 'By the way, I'm quitting, and my top leadership guys are all quitting.' And they only had 30 employees at the company. Like, we can't run your company."Persson called Kotick back at some point and told him that Microsoft came to him with an offer of $2.5 billion, a price that was presumably too steep for Activision. "I said, 'I'll go airplane shopping with you, but you gotta take that offer,'" he said.Kotick went on to say that it was Xbox executive Phil Spencer who ultimately got the deal done for Minecraft. He also singled out another Xbox executive, Matt Booty, who "did a really great job" at managing the Minecraft business after Microsoft's acquisition of Mojang.In the end, Minecraft did end up in the Activision family by way of Microsoft's purchase of Activision Blizzard, but that came later.Wired reported in 2015 about the inner workings of the deal Microsoft made for Minecraft. There were apparently fears that Mojang's relatively small staff at the time would simply leave after the sale to Microsoft went through. After all, at the time, only Persson, Jakob Porser, and Carl Manneh were shareholders.Microsoft reportedly incentivized workers to stay, offering each one who remained for at least six months a payment of 2 million Swedish Krona, which is about $300,000 USD. Another part of the deal was that every employee was guaranteed their monthly salary for 24 months, even if Microsoft closed the Mojang office in Stockholm.Minecraft continued to succeed after Microsoft's purchase of the game and studio, and today, Minecraft remains one of the top five best-selling games ever with more than 300 million units sold. Instead of releasing Minecraft 2, Mojang has updated and improved the game over time. There have been spin-offs, too, including Minecraft Earth, Minecraft Dungeons, and Minecraft Legends--but these games did not reach anywhere near the success of the original Minecraft. Outside of games, a film--A Minecraft Movie--was released in 2025 and earned more than $950 million globally. A sequel is now coming in 2027.As for Kotick, he left Activision Blizzard after selling the company to Microsoft for $75.4 billion.