[NhanH]

I think you (and some commenters) are missing the reason on HN’s fixation on the legal and corporate issue, so I should spell it out: the reason people in corporate follow those legal methods is to NOT screwing everyone. Emotion is good and all, but does not work at scale of more than half a dozen people. You can’t decide the best course of action that will benefit everyone based on your judgment of their emotions. And actually in this case it is even simpler: everyone at Mojang will be happy with the buyout, so the singular focus at the time would be to release the game (in first part), or to get bought by Microsoft.

Even if Carl and Notch considered you their best friend, at the point of the Microsoft buyout, they will still have to a) Keep their mouth shut and can’t tell you about that (yes, it was leaked, but they might still can’t talk about it) and b) force you to sign the paperwork. The alternative is risk letting the deal falling through, hurting everyone involved, owners or employees.

It’s not heartless or emotional-less, just purely ultilitarian. Anyone who has to deal with management of some capacity will have to think of the same sort. Carl might have thought a lot about emotion and friendship, but it’s not just yours. He has to make sure everyone’s are considered too. It just happened your priority is different