Hit Refresh: The Quest to Rediscover Microsoft's Soul and Imagine a Better Future for Everyone

by Satya Nadella

Phil maintained a great relationship with Mojang, continuing to build trust, and one day, Phil’s team got a text that the company was for sale again. They could have gone to any of our competitors to strike a deal, but they came back to us. Phil had recently become the head of Xbox, and I was new in my role as CEO. He brought the deal to me for reconsideration. I felt we could bring the inherent strengths of Microsoft to the product while preserving the integrity and creativity of the small indie group that invented it. We pulled the trigger on a $2.5 billion acquisition. Today Minecraft is one of the bestselling games of all time on the PC, Xbox, and mobile. It has tremendous and lasting gamer engagement. Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, who were still on the board when the deal was presented, later laughed and said they had initially scratched their heads, failing to understand the wisdom of the move. Now we all get it. That’s a growth mindset, and it highlights individual empowerment—what one person or one team can do against the odds.