Mojang Studios

Mojang Studios is a Swedish video game developer based in Stockholm and a first-party developer for Xbox Game Studios. The studio is known for developing Minecraft, the best-selling video game of all time with over 300 million copies sold. Founded in 2009 by Markus "Notch" Persson as Mojang Specifications, the company was acquired by Microsoft in 2014 for $2.5 billion.

Microsoft rebranded the company as Mojang Studios in May 2020. Mojang Studios operates as a subsidiary of Microsoft's Xbox Game Studios division.

Microsoft's Corporate Complicity

As a wholly-owned subsidiary of Microsoft Corporation, Mojang Studios is directly implicated in its parent company's extensive military contracts and surveillance operations. The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement has designated Microsoft as a "priority BDS target" due to the company's central role in supporting Israeli military and facilitating apartheid and genocide.

Microsoft provides critical cloud computing and AI technologies to the Israeli military through its Azure platform. Leaked documents reveal that the Israeli military became one of Microsoft's top AI customers, with Azure cloud storage increasing 60% above pre-conflict levels and AI tools usage seeing a 20-fold increase during military operations in Gaza.

BDS Campaign Targeting Minecraft

The Palestinian BDS National Committee has specifically called for boycotting Microsoft's gaming division. Minecraft, as one of Microsoft's "flagship videogame franchises", is also a target to pressure the Microsoft financially. The BDS movement describes Microsoft as

perhaps the most complicit tech company in Israel's illegal apartheid regime and ongoing genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza.

BDS organizers state that:

Microsoft Gaming, which includes Xbox consoles, Xbox Game Pass, Candy Crush, Call of Duty, Minecraft, and gaming accessories, make up a considerable portion of Microsoft's profit. By boycotting the Xbox brand, we're pressuring Microsoft to end its complicity in Israel's genocide, occupation and apartheid against Palestinians.

The campaign encourages players to uninstall Minecraft and other Microsoft games, cancel Xbox Game Pass subscriptions, and avoid purchasing Microsoft gaming products.

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