Will Microsoft’s $2.5 Minecraft Buy Boost Windows Phone, Surface Sales?

“Yes, the deal is real. Mojang is being bought by Microsoft,” wrote Owen Hill, Mojang chief word officer in a Sept. 15 blog post, confirming what many over the weekend knew would happen on Monday—Microsoft’s (MSFT) $2.5 billion purchase of the Stockholm, Sweden-based maker of the 100-million player Minecraft game.

The deal, which the parties expect will close late this year, won't deliver Mojang’s founders to Microsoft. Markus "Notch" Persson, Carl Manneh and Jakob Porser will leave the company once the deal is done but the “vast majority (if not all) Mojangtas” will remain on board “for the time being,” said Hill.

There are some obvious benefits for Microsoft. Minecraft is available on PCs, Apple’s (AAPL) iOS, Google (GOOG) Android, Sony’s PlayStation and Microsoft’s Xbox platforms and not only is one of the top PC games ever, it also is the top paid app for iOS and Android in the United States, which Microsoft quickly pointed out.

That’s all well and good, but does the transaction fit in with Microsoft chief Satya Nadella’s mobile first, cloud first directive? Will Minecraft pull players from Xbox and other platforms to Microsoft’s Windows Phone mobile operating system, whose growth has been stunted by not enough developers writing for it? Will Microsoft be able to sell Surface tablets to Minecraft users? Or, is it simply a bonanza for Xbox?

It’s hard to deny the multi-platform heft Minecraft and its 100 million players bring to the table, but predicting that a portion of those users either will drift from iOS or Android to Windows Phone or Surface is quite another matter.

Still, the deal should be seen in the larger context, according to one securities analyst quoted in a Reuters report.

"We don’t view this acquisition as a signal of Microsoft's intent to double down on Xbox but consider it an attempt to better address mobile on a cross-platform basis," wrote Rick Sherlund, a Nomura analyst in an investors’ note last week. "This also appears to be consistent with CEO Satya Nadella’s mobile and cloud strategy."

Much of the impetus to sell Mojang appears to have come from Persson, who detailed his personal feelings in a revealing Sept. 15 blog post.

“I don’t see myself as a real game developer,” he wrote. “I make games because it’s fun, and because I love games and I love to program, but I don’t make games with the intention of them becoming huge hits, and I don’t try to change the world. Minecraft certainly became a huge hit, and people are telling me it’s changed games. I never meant for it to do either,” he 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 CEO. I’m a nerdy computer programmer who likes to have opinions on Twitter,” he said. “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.”

Nadella himself hinted at Microsoft’s wider view of the deal’s implications.

“Gaming is a top activity spanning devices, from PCs and consoles to tablets and mobile, with billions of hours spent each year,” he said. “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.”

Microsoft said it will continue to make Minecraft available on its current platforms.