What’s behind Microsoft’s .5 billion acquisition of Mojang, the video game developer that created Minecraft, an open-ended building environment? When the purchase was announced on September 15, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the deal would bolster the company’s mobile efforts, as well as fortify its standing in video games. “Gaming is a top activity spanning devices, from PCs and consoles to tablets and mobile, with billions of hours spent each year,”Nadella said in a statement . Pointing to the more than 100 million downloads of the game on the PC since its launch in 2009, and the two billion hours played on Microsoft’s Xbox 360 game system alone, Nadella argued that Minecraftis “rich with new opportunities,” noting that it is “more than a great game franchise —it is an open world platform.” In an interview on the Knowledge at Wharton show on Wharton Business Radio on SiriusXM channel 111 , Wharton legal studies and business ethics professor Kevin Werbach said that Minecraft’s origins set it apart from…