''Minecraft'' is a
media franchise developed from and centered around the
video game of the same name. Primarily developed by
Mojang Studios, the franchise consists of five video games, along with various books, merchandise, events, and an upcoming theatrical film.
Microsoft acquired Mojang Studios in 2014, alongside the ''Minecraft'' franchise and its
editions
Edition may refer to:
* Edition (book), a bibliographical term for a substantially similar set of copies
* Edition (printmaking), a publishing term for a set print run
* Edition (textual criticism), a particular version of a text
* Edition Records ...
.
''Minecraft''
''Minecraft'' is a
3D survival sandbox game developed and published by
Mojang
Mojang Studios is a Swedish video game developer based in Stockholm. The studio is best known for developing the sandbox and survival game '' Minecraft'', the best-selling video game of all time.
Mojang Studios was founded by the independe ...
, spanning multiple platforms. It was originally created by the independent video game designer
Markus Persson in 2009, before giving the development to
Jens Bergensten
Jens Peder Bergensten (born 18 May 1979), also known as Jeb or Jeb_, is a Swedish video game programmer and designer. He is best known as the lead designer of '' Minecraft''. In 2013, he, along with ''Minecraft'' creator Markus Persson, was na ...
in 2011. The game has no specific goals to accomplish, allowing players a large amount of freedom in choosing how to play the game.
Gameplay is in the
first-person perspective, with the core gameplay modes being
survival, in which players must acquire resources to build the world and maintain health (optionally with a "hardcore" limit, which deletes the world after the player dies); and creative, in which players have unlimited resources, never hunger and are able to fly. The game world is composed of
voxels—cubes, commonly called "blocks"—representing various materials, such as dirt, stone, ores, tree trunks, water, and lava, which are arranged in a 3-dimensional grid. Gameplay revolves around picking up and placing these objects as the player pleases, while being able to move freely around the world.
Spin-off games
''Minecraft: Story Mode''
''Minecraft: Story Mode'', an episodic spin-off game developed by
Telltale Games in collaboration with Mojang, was announced in December 2014.
Consisting of five episodes plus three additional downloadable episodes, the standalone game is a narrative and player choice-driven, and it was released on
Windows,
OS X,
iOS,
PlayStation 3,
PlayStation 4,
Xbox 360, and
Xbox One via download on 13 October 2015. A physical disc that grants access to all episodes was released for the aforementioned four consoles on 27 October.
Wii U and
Nintendo Switch versions were available in 2017. Since 25 June 2019, it is only available on
Netflix, where only the first five episodes are available.
The first trailer for the game was shown at Minecon on 4 July 2015, revealing some of the game's features. In ''Minecraft: Story Mode'', players control Jesse (voiced by
Patton Oswalt
Patton Peter Oswalt (born January 27, 1969) is an American stand-up comedian, actor and writer. He is known as Spence Olchin in the sitcom '' The King of Queens'' (1998–2007) and for narrating the sitcom '' The Goldbergs'' (2013–present) as ...
and
Catherine Taber
Catherine Anne Taber (born December 30, 1979) is an American actress. She is known for voicing Padmé Amidala in '' Star Wars: The Clone Wars'' and Lori Loud on '' The Loud House''.
Biography
In 2000, Taber made her feature film debut starrin ...
),
who sets out on a journey with his or her friends to find The Order of the Stone—four adventurers who slayed an Ender Dragon—in order to save their world.
Brian Posehn
Brian Edmund Posehn (; born July 6, 1966) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, voice actor, musician, and writer. After numerous appearances as a television guest star, Posehn acquired his first major recurring role in HBO's ''Mr. Show with ...
,
Ashley Johnson,
Scott Porter
Scott may refer to:
Places Canada
* Scott, Quebec, municipality in the Nouvelle-Beauce regional municipality in Quebec
* Scott, Saskatchewan, a town in the Rural Municipality of Tramping Lake No. 380
* Rural Municipality of Scott No. 98, Sask ...
,
Martha Plimpton
Martha Plimpton (born November 16, 1970) is an American actress. Her feature-film debut was in ''Rollover'' (1981); she subsequently rose to prominence in the Richard Donner film '' The Goonies'' (1985). She has also appeared in '' The Mosquito ...
,
Dave Fennoy,
Corey Feldman
Corey Scott Feldman (born July 16, 1971) is an American actor and musician. As a youth, he became well known for roles in the 1980s in films such as '' Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter'' (1984), ''Gremlins'' (1984), ''The Goonies'' (1985), a ...
,
Billy West and
Paul Reubens portray the rest of the cast.
'' Minecraft: Story Mode: Season 2''
The second season was released from July to December 2017. It continued the story from the first season, with the player's choices affecting elements within ''Season Two''.
Patton Oswalt
Patton Peter Oswalt (born January 27, 1969) is an American stand-up comedian, actor and writer. He is known as Spence Olchin in the sitcom '' The King of Queens'' (1998–2007) and for narrating the sitcom '' The Goldbergs'' (2013–present) as ...
,
Catherine Taber
Catherine Anne Taber (born December 30, 1979) is an American actress. She is known for voicing Padmé Amidala in '' Star Wars: The Clone Wars'' and Lori Loud on '' The Loud House''.
Biography
In 2000, Taber made her feature film debut starrin ...
,
Ashley Johnson, and
Scott Porter
Scott may refer to:
Places Canada
* Scott, Quebec, municipality in the Nouvelle-Beauce regional municipality in Quebec
* Scott, Saskatchewan, a town in the Rural Municipality of Tramping Lake No. 380
* Rural Municipality of Scott No. 98, Sask ...
were confirmed to continue voicework for the new season. The game supports the new Crowd Play feature that Telltale introduced in ''
Batman: The Telltale Series'', allowing up to 2,000 audience members to vote on decisions for the player using
Twitch or other streaming services. It was shut down along with the original ''Minecraft: Story Mode'', on 25 June 2019.
''Minecraft Earth''
''Minecraft Earth'' was an
augmented reality sandbox game developed by
Mojang Studios and published by
Xbox Game Studios. A
spin-off of the video game ''
Minecraft'', it was first announced in May 2019, and was available on
Android,
iOS, and
iPadOS. The game allowed players to interact with the world and build Minecraft-style structures and objects that will persist and can be modified by other players. The game implemented the resource-gathering and many of the other features of the original game in an augmented-reality setting. The game had a beta release in July 2019. The game was
free-to-play, and was released in
early access in October 2019. The game was shut down on 30 June 2021 and players who made in-game purchases on the app received a free copy of the Bedrock Edition.
''Minecraft Dungeons''
''Minecraft Dungeons'' is a
dungeon crawler video game developed by
Mojang Studios and
Double Eleven. It was published by
Xbox Game Studios. It is a
spin-off of ''
Minecraft'' and was released for
Nintendo Switch,
PlayStation 4,
Windows, and
Xbox One on 26 May 2020. The game received mixed reviews; many deemed the game fun and charming, with praise for its visuals and music. However, its simple gameplay and use of
procedural generation received a more mixed reception, with its short story and lack of depth criticized.
It is a
hack and slash-styled
dungeon crawler, rendered from an
isometric perspective
Isometric video game graphics are graphics employed in video games and pixel art that use a parallel projection, but which angle the viewpoint to reveal facets of the environment that would otherwise not be visible from a top-down perspective ...
.
Players explore
procedurally generated and hand crafted dungeons filled with new variants of existing Minecraft monsters and also deal with traps, puzzles, bosses and finding treasure.
''Minecraft Dungeons Arcade''
In early 2021, Mojang announced an arcade adaptation version of ''Minecraft Dungeons'' associated with collectible cards.
''Minecraft Legends''
''Minecraft Legends'' is an upcoming
action-strategy game developed by
Mojang Studios and
Blackbird Interactive
Blackbird Interactive is a Canadian video game development studio based in Vancouver, British Columbia.
History
Blackbird was founded in 2007 by former members of Relic Entertainment and EA Canada. CEO Rob Cunningham and chief creative officer ...
, announced on 12 June 2022 and set for a 2023 release.
Films
''Minecraft: The Story of Mojang''
A documentary about the development of Mojang and ''Minecraft'' was released in December 2012. Titled ''Minecraft: The Story of Mojang'', the film was produced by
2 Player Productions
2 Player Productions, Limited is a video production company based in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 2005 by Paul Owens, Paul Levering, and Asif Siddiky. The company produces content relating to video game culture and the process ...
.
Untitled ''Minecraft'' film
In 2012, Mojang received offers from Hollywood producers who wanted to produce ''Minecraft''-related TV shows; however, Mojang stated they would only engage in such projects when "the right idea comes along."
Two years later, in February 2014, an attempt to
crowdfund a
fan film through
Kickstarter was shut down after
Markus 'Notch' Persson declined to let the filmmakers use the license, the given reason being that the Kickstarter was set up before any agreement with Mojang had been made. That same month Persson revealed that Mojang was in talks with
Warner Bros. Pictures
Warner Bros. Pictures is an American film production and distribution company of the Warner Bros. Pictures Group division of Warner Bros. Entertainment (both ultimately owned by Warner Bros. Discovery). The studio is the flagship producer of li ...
regarding an official ''Minecraft'' film, which would be produced by
Roy Lee and
Jill Messick and was "in its early days of development" by October of that year. The film was initially going to be directed by
Shawn Levy
Shawn Adam Levy (born July 23, 1968) is a Canadian film director, film producer, actor, and founder of 21 Laps Entertainment. He has worked across genres and is perhaps best known as the director of the '' Night at the Museum'' film franchise an ...
and written by
Kieran Mulroney
Kieran Mulroney (born September 24, 1965) is an American actor known for his numerous television appearances. He is also a musician and screenwriter.
Early life
He was born on September 24, 1965 in Alexandria, Virginia, where he graduated fro ...
and Michele Mulroney, but they all dropped out in December.
In July 2015, Warner Bros. hired
Rob McElhenney
Robert McElhenney III (; born April 14, 1977) is an American actor, producer, writer, podcaster and co-owner of Wrexham A.F.C. He is best known for his role as Ronald "Mac" McDonald on the FX/FXX comedy series ''It's Always Sunny in Philadelp ...
to direct the film. According to McElhenney, he had been drawn to the film based on the open-world nature of the game, an idea Warner Bros. had initially agreed with and provided him with a preliminary US$150 million budget for. In 2016, early production started on the film, including having had given a release date of 24 May 2019 in June,
Jason Fuchs set to write the script in October, and
Steve Carell
Steven John Carell (; born August 16, 1962) is an American actor and comedian. He played Michael Scott in ''The Office'' (2005–2011; 2013), NBC’s adaptation of the British series created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, where Ca ...
contracted to star in November.
McElhenney's ''Minecraft'' film "slowly died on the vine," and due to scheduling conflicts, he left the film in August 2018, and Fuchs was replaced with
Aaron and Adam Nee
Aaron and Adam Nee, sometimes referred to as the Nee brothers, are an American filmmaking duo best known for their feature films ''The Last Romantic'' (2006), '' Band of Robbers'' (2015), and '' The Lost City'' (2022).
Collaborative history
Alt ...
, resulting in a delayed release date.
In January 2019,
Peter Sollett was announced to write and direct the film, featuring an entirely different story from McElhenney's version. In June 2019,
Allison Schroeder
Allison Schroeder is an American screenwriter. She co-wrote the film ''Hidden Figures'' with Theodore Melfi, earning a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Early and personal life
Schroeder graduated from Melbourne High S ...
was hired to write the script and co-write the film with Sollett. The film was scheduled to be released in theaters on 4 March 2022. However, due to the ongoing
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
, Warner Bros. removed the film from their release schedule in October 2020. Sollett instead directed ''
Metal Lords
''Metal Lords'' is a 2022 American teen comedy-drama film written by D. B. Weiss and directed by Peter Sollett. Its story follows two high school best friends and metal music lovers, Hunter and Kevin, who set out to start a metal band, against s ...
'', which was released exclusively on
Netflix in April 2022. That same month, production on the ''Minecraft'' film was announced to be moving forward without Sollett and Schroeder, now with
Jared Hess
Jared Lawrence Hess (born July 18, 1979) and Jerusha Elizabeth Hess ( Demke; born May 12, 1980) are husband-and-wife American filmmakers best known for their work on '' Napoleon Dynamite'' (2004), '' Nacho Libre'' (2006) and '' Gentlemen Bronc ...
set to direct and
Jason Momoa
Joseph Jason Namakaeha Momoa (; born August 1, 1979) is an American actor. He made his acting debut as Jason Ioane on the syndicated action drama series '' Baywatch: Hawaii'' (1999–2001), which was followed by portrayals of Ronon Dex on the S ...
in early talks to star. The film was also confirmed to be
live action
Live action (or live-action) is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live-action with animation to create a live-action animated film. Live-action is used to define film, video ...
.
Books
Official novels
The game has inspired several officially licensed novels set in the ''Minecraft'' universe:
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Other books
*
''Minecraft: The Unlikely Tale of Markus "Notch" Persson and the Game That Changed Everything'' is a book written by Daniel Goldberg and Linus Larsson (and translated by Jennifer Hawkins) about the story of
Minecraft and its creator,
Markus "Notch" Persson. The book was released on 17 October 2013.
* A
graphic novel
A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...
set in the ''Minecraft'' franchise, ''
Trayaurus and the Enchanted Crystal'', was published by
YouTuber
A YouTuber is an online personality and/or influencer who produces videos on the video-sharing platform YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006.
Influence
Influe ...
DanTDM in October 2016, reaching the first spot on
''The New York Times'' Best Seller list for hardcover graphic books and remaining there for eleven consecutive weeks.
* ''
Gameknight999'' is a series of six trilogies about a protagonist who is transported into the digital ''Minecraft'' world and experiences harrowing adventures involving the antagonist
Herobrine
Steve is a fictional character from the ''Minecraft'' video game. Created by Swedish video game developer Markus "Notch" Persson and introduced in the initial Java-based version of ''Minecraft'' which was publicly released on May 17, 2009, ...
. The first trilogy was listed in the ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' top 10 bestsellers in February 2015.
Tabletop games
Three tabletop games have been produced as official tie-in games for ''Minecraft''. The first two are both card games, namely ''Minecraft Card Game?'', produced by Mattel in 2015, and ''Uno Minecraft'', produced by Mattel in 2016.
Towards the end of 2019, ''Minecraft: Builders & Biomes'', a board game version of ''Minecraft'', was announced. The game was geared towards the family market, catered for 2–4 players, and was published by
Ravensburger
Ravensburger AG is a German game and toy company, publishing house and market leader in the European jigsaw puzzle market.
History
The company was founded by Otto Robert Maier in Ravensburg, a town in Upper Swabia in southern Germany. He beg ...
. Players explore the Overworld, build structures, and mine resources in a quest to score the most points. At the end of 2020, an expansion for the tabletop game was released, titled ''Minecraft: Farmer's Market Expansion'', which introduced a new farm biome that enabled players to produce vegetables.
Merchandise
Lego ''Minecraft''
The first Lego set based on ''Minecraft'' was released on 6 June 2012. The set, called "Micro World", centres around a microscale representation of a forest from the game and includes Lego versions of the game's default
player character
A player character (also known as a playable character or PC) is a fictional character in a video game or tabletop role-playing game whose actions are controlled by a player rather than the rules of the game. The characters that are not control ...
and a
creeper.
Mojang submitted the concept of ''Minecraft'' merchandise to Lego in December 2011 for the
Lego Cuusoo program, from which it quickly received 10,000 votes by users, prompting Lego to review the concept.
Lego Cuusoo approved the concept in January 2012 and began developing sets based on ''Minecraft''.
Two more sets based on the Nether and village areas of the game were released on 1 September 2013. A fourth Micro World set, the End, was released in June 2014. Six more, larger
Lego minifigure
A Lego minifigure, commonly referred to as a minifig, is a small plastic articulated figurine produced by Danish toy manufacturer The Lego Group. They were first produced in 1978 and have been a success, with over 4 billion produced worldwide ...
scale, sets became available November 2014, with more released every year since.
Other merchandise
Mojang often collaborates with
Jinx
A jinx (also jynx), in popular superstition and folklore, is a curse or the attribute of attracting bad or negative luck.
The word ''"jynx"'' meaning the bird wryneck and sometimes a charm or spell has been in use in English since the seventeen ...
, an online game merchandise store, to sell ''Minecraft'' merchandise, such as clothing, foam pickaxes, and toys of creatures in the game.
By May 2012, over 1 million dollars were made from ''Minecraft'' merchandise sales. T-shirts and socks were the most popular products.
In March 2013 Mojang signed a deal with the
Egmont Group
The Egmont Group (formerly The Gutenberghus Group) is a Danish media corporation founded and rooted in Copenhagen, Denmark. The business area of Egmont has traditionally been magazine publishing but has over the years evolved to comprise mass m ...
, a children's book publisher, to create ''Minecraft'' handbooks,
annuals, poster books, and magazines. As part for the
Steve
''yes'Steve is a masculine given name, usually a short form (hypocorism) of Steven or Stephen
Notable people with the name include:
steve jops
* Steve Abbott (disambiguation), several people
* Steve Adams (disambiguation), several people
* Steve ...
DLC for ''
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
''Super Smash Bros. Ultimate'' is a 2018 crossover fighting video game developed by Bandai Namco Studios and Sora Ltd. and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It is the fifth installment in the '' Super Smash Bros.'' series, succeed ...
'',
Masahiro Sakurai
is a Japanese video game director and game designer best known as the creator of the ''Kirby'' and ''Super Smash Bros.'' series. Apart from his work on those series, he also led the design of ''Meteos'' in 2005 and directed '' Kid Icarus: Upri ...
said that an
Amiibo
(, ; officially stylized as amiibo; plural: ''Amiibo'') is a toys-to-life platform by Nintendo, which was launched in November 2014. It consists of a wireless communications and storage protocol for connecting figurines to the Wii U, Ninte ...
for Steve might be made by Nintendo in the future. The Amiibo has a tentative release date of 2022 and a page on the Nintendo UK Website.
Events
Minecon
Minecon (stylized as "MineCon" or "MINECON") is an official
convention dedicated to ''Minecraft''. The first one was held in November 2011 at the
Mandalay Bay
Mandalay Bay is a 43-story luxury resort and casino at the south end of the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. It is owned by Vici Properties and The Blackstone Group and operated by MGM Resorts International. It was developed by Circus Circu ...
Hotel and Casino in
Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Veg ...
. All 4,500 tickets for MineCon 2011 were sold out by 31 October. The event included the official launch of ''Minecraft''; keynote speeches, including one by Persson; building and costume contests; ''Minecraft''-themed breakout classes; exhibits by leading gaming and ''Minecraft''-related companies; commemorative merchandise; and autograph and picture times with Mojang employees and well-known contributors from the ''Minecraft'' community. After MineCon, there was an ''Into The Nether'' after-party with
deadmau5
Joel Thomas Zimmerman (born January 5, 1981), known professionally as Deadmau5 (stylized as deadmau5; pronounced "dead-mouse"), is a Canadian electronic music producer and DJ. He mainly produces progressive house music, though he also produce ...
. Free codes were given to every attendee of MineCon that unlocked alpha versions of Mojang's ''
Scrolls
A scroll (from the Old French ''escroe'' or ''escroue''), also known as a roll, is a roll of papyrus, parchment, or paper containing writing.
Structure
A scroll is usually partitioned into pages, which are sometimes separate sheets of papy ...
'', as well as an additional non-Mojang game, ''
Cobalt
Cobalt is a chemical element with the symbol Co and atomic number 27. As with nickel, cobalt is found in the Earth's crust only in a chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron. The free element, p ...
'', developed by Oxeye Game Studios. Similar events occurred in MineCon 2012, which took place in
Disneyland Paris
Disneyland Paris is an entertainment resort in Chessy, Seine-et-Marne, Chessy, France, east of Paris. It encompasses two theme parks, resort hotels, Disney Nature Resorts, a shopping, dining and entertainment complex, and a golf course. Disney ...
in November. The tickets for the 2012 event sold out in less than two hours. MineCon 2013 was held in
Orlando
Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures re ...
in November. MineCon 2015 was held in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
in July. MineCon 2016 was held in
Anaheim
Anaheim ( ) is a city in northern Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a population of 346,824, making it the most populous city in Orange County, the 10th-most ...
in September. MineCon 2017 was held as a
livestream instead of being held at a show floor. Titled "MINECON Earth", it was streamed live in November.
MineCon Earth 2018 followed the same format as the 2017 event, but was renamed in 2019 to "MINECON Live" to avoid confusion with Mojang's augmented-reality game, ''Minecraft Earth''.
Minecraft Festival
In MineCon Live 2019, Mojang announced a new convention, called Minecraft Festival. It was announced would be an in-person event to be held 25–27 September 2020, in Orlando, Florida. The event has been postponed to 2022 due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
.
Minecraft Live
On 3 September 2020, it was announced by Mojang that a new livestreamed event would be taking place to replace the postponed
Minecraft Festival.
It took place on 3 October 2020, showing the features of Minecraft's "Caves and Cliffs" update. The second Minecraft Live took place on 16 October 2021 and showcased more of the Caves and Cliffs part 2 update, along with announcing and showing of features for the Wild Update. The third Minecraft Live took place on 15 October 2022 and announced more of the features in the Wild Update.
Notable achievements
The Minecraft franchise covers a wide range of content. In late 2021, videos of ''Minecraft'' hit 1 trillion views on
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
. The ''Minecraft'' video game is known as the best-selling video game of all time surpassing ''Tetris'' and ''Grand Theft Auto V'' with over 238,000,000 copies sold as seen on
List of best-selling video games
This is a list of video games that have sold the highest number of software units worldwide. The best-selling video game to date is ''Minecraft'', a sandbox game released by Mojang in May 2009 for a wide range of PC, mobile and console plat ...
.
References
{{Xbox Game Studios
Microsoft franchises
Video game franchises introduced in 2011
Markus Persson