Telltale Games, developer of indie greats like The Walking Dead and Tales From the Borderlands, is working their story-based magic on the mega-hit indie Minecraft.

The studio announced today that they’ve partnered with Mojang to create a “new episodic game series” set in the definitive bit-style voxel sandbox.

Officially called Minecraft: Story Mode, the new joint venture will explore untold stories in Telltale’s narrative-driven tone.

The game will feature Telltale’s signature emphasis on player choice and unique playthroughs, and is set to “mix new characters with familiar themes in an entirely original Minecraft experience”.

Telltale reveals that the new game is largely inspired by Minecraft‘s massive player community and how every player creates his or her own unique adventure.

Minecraft; Story Mode will be available sometime in 2015. all consoles, mobile devices and PC.

Minecraft is a smash-hit phenomenon, and shattered multiple sales records to become the second best-selling game of all time with more than 54 million copies sold across all platforms. It’s now a household name in gaming, a pop-culture icon, and remains one of the most popular gaming franchises in the history of the industry.

Minecraft: Story Mode marks the first new title in the franchise since Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) bought Mojang for the tune of $2.5 billion, and after the acquisition, the Redmond-based tech giant affirmed that it wouldn’t make Minecraft an Xbox platform exclusive.

Now that Minecraft; Story Mode is planned for a multi-platform launch, it’s good to see Microsoft has kept their word.

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UPDATE: Bloomberg reports that Mojang founder Markus Persson originally initiated the deal and has made plans to leave the studio after the sale.

The publication cites the favorable working relationship fostered by Minecraft’s move to Xbox as a primary motivator, and that “both companies have agreed on a framework and a price”. Apparently both Microsoft and Mojang have been negotiating ever since.

It’s also mentioned that new Xbox head Phil Spencer is a personal friend of the developer, and that they’ve spent time together outside the industry.

Markus “Notch” Persson has yet to comment in any official capacity, and no Twitter updates have been revealed thus far.

Original story as follows.

Microsoft is currently in discussions to buy Mojang, the Swedish developer of the blockbuster indie Minecraft, the Wall Street Journal reports.

WSJ cites the source of the report as a “person with knowledge of the matter”, and that Microsoft could spend as much as $2 billion on the deal.

To date Mojang’s indie sensation Minecraft has been one of the best-selling indie games in history, and has smash various records. As of June 2014 the game sold more than 54 million copies across all platforms, and has a home on consoles, PC, mobile devices and handhelds. It also just released on the PlayStation 4.

Interestingly enough, Markus “Notch” Persson, the creator and head of Mojang, doesn’t always agree with industry buyouts. Persson was markedly against Facebook buying Oculus VR–the firm behind the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset–and event went so far as to cancel a port of Minecraft for the headset in protest.

We can only speculate what Notch thinks about Microsoft, or the reports of a deal.

Microsoft picking up the developer could boost its current flagging presence in the industry, but it’d run the risk of alienating a huge segment of fans in the process. It could be beneficial but it’d have to be handled perfectly–and with recent events showing the Xbox One’s launch in Japan was a flop, this may be something Microsoft could mishandle.

Furthermore Minecraft isn’t just a game any more: it’s a giant franchise. There are Minecraft toys, accessories, foam pickaxes, shirts, and even Lego sets built around the ultra-popular brand. Microsoft acquiring this label would mean inheriting the rights to all said merchandise licenses, and that would mean big bucks.

In any case, we’ll be sure to keep you updated when new information comes to light. For now the reports must be chalked up to rumor and speculation, but it’ll be interesting to see what Notch has to say about all of this.

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