>>8084230>yetIf Microsoft thought they could even vaguely get away with it, they'd likely remove the Java Edition in a heartbeat, and then they'd force Mojang and its partners to focus solely on the Bedrock version for each platform, simply because the Bedrock version offers Microsoft so many more opportunities for control and to endlessly in-game monetise the crap out of the game, whereas the only real monetisation Microsoft can get from the Java Edition is from tie-in licences to Minecraft-related books, films, games, and physical merchandise.
MS/Mojang can't even monetise updates to the main game (at least the Java Edition), because Notch kinda baked in the promise of free updates for life, particularly for the OG pre-alpha and alpha-version buyers of the game. And MS/Mojang full well know if they ever tried to go down that route there'd be such a public outcry over it, and backlash to the suggestion of such a move, from the community, that they simply wouldn't be able to contain all the negative media coverage that would result.
This is part of why Microsoft/Mojang have had to resort to making various Minecraft-related games over the years, because that gives them another revenue stream from the franchise that they can't directly make from the main game itself.
Oh, and if MS thought they could somehow implement a monetised version of modded Java Edition, they'd be all about doing that in a heartbeat; however the MC modding community partly/mostly relied upon certain licensing standards when publishing their mods and modpacks that mean third-party monetisation is kinda not allowed, which means if MS wanted to use just about any of those classic mods we all know (knew) and love(d), they'd either have to agree new and different license terms with each mod developer, otherwise any and all money MS made from such an implementation would likely have to go direct to the various mod developer(s) rather than into MS's bank account.
