In fairness, beginning to spin some narrative into it’s new world-building franchise makes a lot of sense for Microsoft. Minecraft is huge, we all know that, but if Microsoft wants to start seeing a return on their massive investement, they need to expand and grow the brand.

Adding some context and characters to that universe will do a lot to endear it to the already sizeable playerbase, most of which are younger children.

Likewise, this makes sense for TellTale because they can tap that younger audience, something their typically dark and violent games haven’t been able to do thus far. Plus, rather than working within an established universe as they typically do, they have an opportunity here to create something completely from scratch. To be the first boots on the ground building a new world. That’s always fun from a creative standpoint.

So while the announcement seemed to come out of the blue, and still seems a little odd on the surface, I completely understand it from a business point of view, and I doubt this is the last Minecraft expansion we’ve seen.

Anyway, I hope you all have a Merry Christmas. You’ll need to amuse yourselves on Friday, though. I don’t work on Christmas so the comic will return on Monday.