Microsoft agreed on Monday to buy the company behind Minecraft, the world-building computer game, for $2.5 billion in a cash deal meant to add the immensely popular title to its stock of content.
本周一，微软同意斥资25亿美元（约合人民币154亿元），收购《我的世界》(Minecraft)所属的公司，以便把这款炙手可热的游戏收入囊中。
Last week, Microsoft was reported to be in talks to buy the company to ensure that the games was available for its family of devices.
据报道，微软上周进行了收购该公司的会谈，以确保该游戏可以登陆微软的各种设备。

As part of the deal, employees of Mojang, the Swedish developer that created Minecraft, will join Microsoft Studios, which already publishes games like the blockbuster Halo.
该交易的内容之一是，《我的世界》的瑞典开发商Mojang旗下员工将加入微软工作室(Microsoft Studios)；后者已经发行过一些游戏，比如大热的《光晕》(Halo)。
Yet Minecraft looks little like Halo and its Hollywood-level graphics. Its worlds look blocky, like pixelated Legos. But the gameplay — focused on building elaborate virtual structures — has drawn a huge and dedicated following around the world.
然而，《我的世界》看上去和《光晕》及其好莱坞级别的图像效果相似度极小。它的世界看起来很斑驳，如同像素化的乐高积木。但是其玩法——侧重于构建复杂的虚拟结构——已经在全球吸引了大批忠实粉丝。
Games remain one of the biggest categories of apps, including those for mobile devices. Adding one of the most popular offerings could help bolster Microsoft’s Windows series of devices, including phones and tablets.
游戏仍然是各种应用中最大的类别之一，包括移动设备上的游戏应用。提供一款时下最为流行的游戏，有助于提振微软的Windows系列设备，包括手机和平板电脑。
In a news release, Microsoft said that its cloud and mobile offerings would help add more sophisticated worlds, development tools and ways for players to connect with one another.
在新闻发布会上，微软表示，它的云计算和移动服务将有助于添加更复杂的构造、开发工具和途径，让玩家可以彼此连接。
“Gaming is a top activity spanning devices, from PCs and consoles to tablets and mobile, with billions of hours spent each year,” Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s chief executive, said in a statement. “Minecraft is more than a great game franchise — it is an open world platform, driven by a vibrant community we care deeply about and rich with new opportunities for that community and for Microsoft.”
“游戏催生了大量活动，从PC和家用游戏主机，到平板电脑和手机，人们每年花数十亿小时在游戏上，”微软首席执行官萨蒂亚·纳德拉(Satya Nadella)在一份声明中说。“《我的世界》不仅是一款极为出色的游戏——它还是一个开放世界的平台，拥有一个充满活力的的社区，我们非常看重这个社区；对于微软及其社区来说，《我的世界》都蕴含着丰富的新机遇。”
One person who will not stick around to see what changes lie in store for the game, however, is Minecraft’s creator, Markus Persson. Mr. Persson — better known by his gamer tag Notch — wrote in an unusually candid blog post exactly why he would leave Mojang after the closing of the deal, which is expected late this year.
但是，《我的世界》的创造者马库斯·佩尔松(Markus Persson)不会留在公司，亲眼看着它发生变化。佩尔松——他在这个游戏中的代号Notch更加广为人知——写了一篇异常坦率的博文，解释自己为什么会在拟于今年年底完成的交易结束之后，就离开Mojang。
Rather than engage in fist-bumping or writing a missive to users about how selling his baby will only expand Minecraft’s horizons, Mr. Persson sounded as if he were having a large tumor excised from his body. He described the pressures of being the figurehead of such a big and influential game as too much for him to bear.
佩尔松的文中没有指责谁，也不是在告诉用户，卖掉自己的心血结晶只会有助于它的扩张，而是写得好像从他身上切除了一个巨大肿瘤似的。据他形容，在这样一个富有影响力的大作中担当名义领袖，其压力超过了他能承受的范围。
“I’ve become a symbol,” Mr. Persson wrote. “I don’t want to be a symbol, responsible for something huge that I don’t understand, that I don’t want to work on, that keeps coming back to me. I’m not an entrepreneur. I’m not a C.E.O. I’m a nerdy computer programmer who likes to have opinions on Twitter.”
“我已经成为了一个符号，”佩尔松写道。“可我不想当符号，去承担一些我弄不懂，也不想弄懂，但又如影随形的巨大责任。我不是当企业家的料，也当不了CEO，我就是一个喜欢在Twitter上发表意见的书呆子程序员。”
Mr. Persson and Mojang had repeatedly rebuffed takeover entreaties in the past, but by the time Microsoft made an initial approach about three months ago, the game developer was more willing to consider cashing out. He is expected to make nearly $1.8 billion from the deal.
佩尔松和Mojang以前曾多次回绝过其他公司的收购意向，但大约三个月前，微软开始和他们接触时，佩尔松显得比较愿意考虑套现选项。预计他将从这笔交易中获得近18亿美元。
“Anyone want to buy my share of Mojang so I can move on with my life?” he wrote in a Twitter post on June 16.
“有人想买我在Mojang的股份吗，好让我可以在生活中做别的事情？”6月16日，他在推特上写道。
Taking the lead in the negotiations was Carl Manneh, Mojang’s chief executive, who will leave along with his fellow co-founders, Mr. Persson and Jakob Porser. Some of the most important objectives for the company, according to people briefed on the talks, were ensuring that the Minecraft community would be preserved and that younger developers at Mojang would have jobs after a deal.
牵头谈判的是Mojang首席执行官卡尔·曼恩(Carl Manneh)，他将与联合创始人佩尔松和雅克布·珀瑟(Jakob Porser)一起离开该公司。根据了解会谈内情的人说，该公司最重要的谈判目标之一是，确保在交易达成后，《我的世界》的社区将得以存续，而且该公司较年轻的开发人员能保有自己的工作岗位。
Mojang was advised by JPMorgan Chase.
摩根大通(JPMorgan Chase)为Mojang提供了相关咨询服务。