Microsoft is planning to stop relying on Amazon’s Web Services to run Minecraft; instead, Microsoft is planning to use its servers, Microsoft Azure.
In a report on CNBC, a Microsoft spokesperson stated, “Mojang Studios has used AWS in the past, but we’ve been migrating all cloud services to Azure over the last few years.”
Minecraft has relied on Amazon Web Services to run its data centers through public cloud infrastructure, and this means that Microsoft has had this practice since 2014. What is odd about this is the fact that Microsft is a direct competitor to Amazon Web Services with its Microsoft Azure.
Minecraft is a game that has seen a large amount of success as it has topped 200 million in sales and has over 125 monthly active users. Minecraft has been through several updates, including the Nether Update, which saw a complete rework of Minecraft’s fiery dimensions.
The Nether Update saw mobs, terrain generation, and a large number of feature changes to the standard fiery dimension.
Minecraft has such a large player base that Kellogg is working to produce a cereal based on the game of Minecraft, called Creeper Crunch. This cereal features creeper colored bits, and the creeper face is shown clearly on the box’s front cover.
The fact that companies like Kellogg are starting to finally take an interest in Minecraft just goes to show how popular the game has gotten.
Microsoft not only stated their intent to transfer to their own service but also the timeframe of this transfer, which is has been stated by a Microsoft spokesperson, “We’ll be fully transitioned to Azure by the end of the year,” which will be no easy task.
The trouble is most likely going to come from having transfer Minecraft from the lax and non-corporate Amazon Web services into the much more corporate Microsoft Azure. This will most likely be a tough task to complete in such a small time frame when looking at just how large Minecraft has gotten.
This is a big step forward for Microsoft, who wants to make Minecraft utterly reliant on Microsoft’s own servers and systems. This can be seen as a way Microsoft is planning to grow the company’s reputation in gaming as Minecraft becomes more popular and even more of a mainstream media icon.
