''Minecraft'' is a
sandbox game
A sandbox game is a video game with a gameplay element that provides players a great degree of creativity to interact with, usually without any predetermined goal, or alternatively with a goal that the players set for themselves. Such games may ...
developed by
Mojang Studios
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 independen ...
. The game was created by
Markus "Notch" Persson in the
Java
Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mos ...
programming language
A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Most programming languages are text-based formal languages, but they may also be graphical. They are a kind of computer language.
The description of a programming ...
. Following several early private testing versions, it was first made public in May 2009 before being fully released in November 2011, with Notch stepping down and
Jens "Jeb" Bergensten taking over development. ''Minecraft'' is the
best-selling video game of all time
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 platf ...
, with over 238 million copies sold and nearly 140 million monthly
active players
Active users is a measurement metric that is commonly used to measure the level of engagement for a particular product or object, by quantifying the number of active interactions from visitors within a relevant range of time (daily, weekly and m ...
, and has been ported to several platforms.
In ''Minecraft'', players explore a blocky,
procedurally generated
In computing, procedural generation is a method of creating data algorithmically as opposed to manually, typically through a combination of human-generated assets and algorithms coupled with computer-generated randomness and processing power. In ...
3D world with virtually infinite terrain and may discover and extract raw materials,
craft
A craft or trade is a pastime or an occupation that requires particular skills and knowledge of skilled work. In a historical sense, particularly the Middle Ages and earlier, the term is usually applied to people occupied in small scale pro ...
tools and items, and build structures,
earthworks, and simple machines. Depending on their chosen
game mode
In tabletop games and video games, game mechanics are the rules or ludemes that govern and guide the player's actions, as well as the game's response to them. A rule is an instruction on how to play, a ludeme is an element of play like the L-sha ...
, players can fight hostile
mobs, as well as cooperate with or compete against other players in the same world. Game modes include a
survival mode
Survival mode, or horde mode, is a game mode in a video game in which the player must continue playing for as long as possible without dying in an uninterrupted session while the game presents them with increasingly difficult waves of challenges ...
(in which players must acquire resources to build in the world and maintain health) and a creative mode (where players have unlimited resources and access to flight). There is also a wide variety of
user-generated content
User-generated content (UGC), alternatively known as user-created content (UCC), is any form of content, such as images, videos, text, testimonials, and audio, that has been posted by users on online platforms such as social media, discussion f ...
, such as
modifications,
servers,
skins,
texture packs, and custom maps, which add new game mechanics and possibilities.
''Minecraft'' received critical acclaim, winning several awards and later being cited as one of the
greatest video games of all time
This is a list of video games that multiple reputable video game journalists or magazines have considered to be among the best of all time. The games listed here are included on at least six separate "best/greatest of all time" lists from differ ...
.
Social media
Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...
,
parodies
A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its sub ...
, adaptations,
merchandise, and the annual
Minecon conventions played prominent roles in popularizing the game. The game has also been used in educational environments to teach
chemistry,
computer-aided design, and
computer science
Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includi ...
. In 2014, Mojang and the ''Minecraft'' intellectual property were purchased by
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...
for billion. Several spin-offs have also been made, including ''
Minecraft: Story Mode'',' ''
Minecraft Dungeons
''Minecraft Dungeons'' is a dungeon crawler video game developed by Mojang Studios and Double Eleven and published by Xbox Game Studios. It is a spin-off of the sandbox video game ''Minecraft'' and was released for Microsoft Windows, Ninten ...
'', ''
Minecraft Earth
''Minecraft Earth'' was an augmented reality and geolocation-based 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 o ...
'', and the upcoming ''
Minecraft Legends
''Minecraft Legends'' is an upcoming action-strategy video game developed by Mojang Studios and Blackbird Interactive and published by Xbox Game Studios. It is set to be released for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox ...
''.
Gameplay
''Minecraft'' is a
3D sandbox game
A sandbox game is a video game with a gameplay element that provides players a great degree of creativity to interact with, usually without any predetermined goal, or alternatively with a goal that the players set for themselves. Such games may ...
that has no required goals to accomplish, allowing players a large amount of freedom in choosing how to play the game.
However, there is an
achievement system, known as "advancements" in the ''Java Edition'' of the game, and "
trophies
A trophy is a tangible, durable reminder of a specific achievement, and serves as a recognition or evidence of merit. Trophies are often awarded for sporting events, from youth sports to professional level athletics. In many sports medals (or, i ...
" on the PlayStation ports. Gameplay is in the
first-person perspective
A first-person narrative is a mode of storytelling in which a storyteller recounts events from their own point of view using the first person It may be narrated by a first-person protagonist (or other focal character), first-person re-teller ...
by default, but players have the option of a third-person perspective. The game world is composed of rough 3D objects—mainly cubes and fluids, and commonly called "blocks"—representing various materials, such as dirt, stone, ores, tree trunks, water, and lava. The core gameplay revolves around picking up and placing these objects. These blocks are arranged in a 3D grid, while players can move freely around the world. Players can "mine" blocks and then place them elsewhere, enabling them to build things. Many commentators have described the game's physics system as unrealistic.
The game also contains a material called redstone, which can be used to make primitive mechanical devices, electrical circuits, and
logic gates, allowing for the construction of many complex systems.
The game world is virtually infinite and
procedurally generated
In computing, procedural generation is a method of creating data algorithmically as opposed to manually, typically through a combination of human-generated assets and algorithms coupled with computer-generated randomness and processing power. In ...
as players explore it, using a
map seed
In video games using procedural generation, procedural world generation, the map seed is a (relatively) short number or text string which is used to procedurally create the game world ("map"). This means that while the seed-unique generated map may ...
that is obtained from the
system clock at the time of world creation (or manually specified by the player).
There are limits on vertical movement, but ''Minecraft'' allows an infinitely large game world to be generated on the horizontal plane. Due to technical problems when extremely distant locations are reached, however, there is a barrier preventing players from traversing to locations beyond 30,000,000 blocks from the center. The game achieves this by splitting the world data into smaller sections called "chunks" that are only created or loaded when players are nearby.
The world is divided into
biome
A biome () is a biogeographical unit consisting of a biological community that has formed in response to the physical environment in which they are found and a shared regional climate. Biomes may span more than one continent. Biome is a broader ...
s ranging from deserts to jungles to snowfields; the
terrain
Terrain or relief (also topographical relief) involves the vertical and horizontal dimensions of land surface. The term bathymetry is used to describe underwater relief, while hypsometry studies terrain relative to sea level. The Latin wo ...
includes plains, mountains, forests, caves, and bodies of water/lava.
The in-game
time system
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to c ...
follows a day and night cycle, with one full cycle lasting for 20 real-time minutes.
When starting a new world, players must choose one of five game modes, as well as one of four difficulties, ranging from "Peaceful" to "Hard". Increasing the difficulty of the game causes the player to take more
damage
Damage is any change in a thing, often a physical object, that degrades it away from its initial state. It can broadly be defined as "changes introduced into a system that adversely affect its current or future performance".Farrar, C.R., Sohn, H., ...
from
mobs, as well as having other difficulty-specific effects. For example, the Peaceful difficulty prevents hostile mobs from
spawning
Spawn is the eggs and sperm released or deposited into water by aquatic animals. As a verb, ''to spawn'' refers to the process of releasing the eggs and sperm, and the act of both sexes is called spawning. Most aquatic animals, except for aquat ...
, and the Hard difficulty allows players to starve to death if their hunger bar is depleted.
Once selected, the difficulty can be changed, but the game mode is locked and can only be changed with
cheats
Cheating generally describes various actions designed to subvert rules in order to obtain unfair advantages. This includes acts of bribery, cronyism and nepotism in any situation where individuals are given preference using inappropriate crit ...
.
New players have a randomly selected default character
skin
Skin is the layer of usually soft, flexible outer tissue covering the body of a vertebrate animal, with three main functions: protection, regulation, and sensation.
Other animal coverings, such as the arthropod exoskeleton, have different de ...
of either
Steve or Alex, but the option to create custom skins was made available in 2010. Players encounter various
non-player characters known as
mobs, such as animals, villagers, and hostile creatures.
Passive mobs, such as cows, pigs, and chickens, can be hunted for food and crafting materials. They
spawn
Spawn or spawning may refer to:
* Spawn (biology), the eggs and sperm of aquatic animals
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Spawn (character), a fictional character in the comic series of the same name and in the associated franchise
** '' Spawn: ...
in the daytime, while hostile mobs—including large spiders,
skeletons
A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of an animal. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside ...
, and
zombies
A zombie (Haitian French: , ht, zonbi) is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. Zombies are most commonly found in horror and fantasy genre works. The term comes from Haitian folklore, in wh ...
—spawn during nighttime or in dark places such as caves.
Some hostile mobs, such as zombies, skeletons and drowned (underwater versions of zombies), burn under the sun if they have no headgear. Other creatures unique to ''Minecraft'' include the
creeper (an exploding creature that sneaks up on the player) and the enderman (a creature with the ability to
teleport as well as pick up and place blocks).
There are also variants of mobs that spawn in different conditions; for example, zombies have husk and drowned variants that spawn in deserts and oceans, respectively.
''Minecraft'' has two
alternative dimensions besides the Overworld (the main world): the Nether and the End.
The Nether is a
hell-like underworld dimension accessed via player-built obsidian portals; it contains many unique resources and can be used to travel great distances in the Overworld, due to every block traveled in the Nether being equivalent to 8 blocks traveled in the Overworld. Water cannot exist in the Nether, as it will vaporize instantly. The Nether is mainly populated by pigman-like mobs called piglins and their zombified counterparts, plus floating balloon-like mobs called ghasts. The player can also build an optional
boss
Boss may refer to:
Occupations
* Supervisor, often referred to as boss
* Air boss, more formally, air officer, the person in charge of aircraft operations on an aircraft carrier
* Crime boss, the head of a criminal organization
* Fire boss, ...
mob called The Wither out of materials found in the Nether.
The End is reached by underground portals in the Overworld. It consists of
island
An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...
s floating above a dark, endless void. A boss
dragon called the Ender Dragon guards the largest, central island. Killing the dragon opens access to an exit portal, which upon entering cues the game's ending credits and a poem written by Irish novelist
Julian Gough
Julian Gough (born 1966) is an English-Irish musician who was the singer and lyricist for the Galway band Toasted Heretic, and is best known for his songs "Galway and Los Angeles", "You can Always go Home" and "Lysergic acid diethylamide, LSD ( ...
.
Players are then teleported back to their respawn point and may continue the game indefinitely.
Game modes
Survival mode
In survival mode, players have to gather natural resources such as wood and stone found in the environment in order to craft certain blocks and items.
Depending on the difficulty, monsters spawn in darker areas outside a certain radius of the character, requiring players to build a shelter at night.
The mode also has a
health bar
Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organiza ...
which is depleted by attacks from mobs, falls, drowning, falling into lava, suffocation, starvation, and other events.
Players also have a hunger bar, which must be periodically refilled by eating food in-game (except in peaceful difficulty).
If the hunger bar is depleted, automatic healing will stop and eventually health will deplete. Health replenishes when players have a nearly full hunger bar or continuously on peaceful difficulty.
Players can craft a wide variety of items in ''Minecraft''.
Craftable items include armor, which mitigates damage from attacks; weapons (such as swords or axes), which allows monsters and animals to be killed more easily; and tools (such as pickaxes or hoes), which break certain types of blocks more quickly. Some items have multiple tiers depending on the material used to craft them, with higher-tier items being more effective and durable. Players can construct furnaces, which can cook food, process ores, and convert materials into other materials. Players may also exchange goods with a villager (
NPC) through a trading system, which involves trading
emeralds
Emerald is a gemstone and a variety of the mineral beryl (Be3Al2(SiO3)6) colored green by trace amounts of chromium or sometimes vanadium.Hurlbut, Cornelius S. Jr. and Kammerling, Robert C. (1991) ''Gemology'', John Wiley & Sons, New York, p. ...
for different goods and vice versa.
The game has an inventory system, allowing players to carry a limited number of items. Upon dying, items in the players' inventories are dropped unless the game is reconfigured not to do so. Players then re-spawn at their spawn point, which by default is where players first spawn in the game and can be reset by sleeping in a bed or using a respawn anchor. Dropped items can be recovered if players can reach them before they disappear or despawn after 5 minutes. Players may acquire
experience points by killing
mobs and other players, mining, smelting ores,
breeding animals, and cooking food. Experience can then be spent on
enchanting tools, armor and weapons.
Enchanted items are generally more powerful, last longer, or have other special effects.
Creative mode
In creative mode, players have access to nearly all resources and items in the game through the inventory menu and can place or remove them instantly.
Players can toggle the ability to fly freely around the game world at will, and their characters do not take any damage and are not affected by hunger.
The game mode helps players focus on building and creating projects of any size without disturbance.
Other game modes
Minecraft includes other game modes such as spectator mode, which allows players to fly through blocks. Hardcore mode is a survival mode variant with
permadeath
Permadeath or permanent death is a game mechanic in both tabletop games and video games in which player characters who lose all of their health are considered dead and cannot be used anymore. Depending on the situation, this could require the p ...
, where the world is deleted upon the player's death, and adventure mode is a survivor mode variant with possible restrictions added by a creator of a map.
Multiplayer
Multiplayer in ''Minecraft'' enables multiple players to interact and communicate with each other on a single world. It is available through direct game-to-game multiplayer, LAN play, local split screen (console-only), and servers (player-hosted and business-hosted).
Players can run their own servers, use a hosting provider, or connect directly to another player's game via Xbox Live. Single-player worlds have
local area network
A local area network (LAN) is a computer network that interconnects computers within a limited area such as a residence, school, laboratory, university campus or office building. By contrast, a wide area network (WAN) not only covers a larger ...
support, allowing players to join a world on locally interconnected computers without a server setup. ''Minecraft'' multiplayer servers are guided by server operators, who have access to server commands such as setting the time of day and teleporting players. Operators can also set up restrictions concerning which usernames or
IP address
An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label such as that is connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication.. Updated by . An IP address serves two main functions: network interface ident ...
es are allowed or disallowed to enter the server.
Multiplayer servers have a wide range of activities, with some servers having their own unique rules and customs. The largest and most popular server is
Hypixel
Hypixel, officially the Hypixel Network, is a ''Minecraft'' minigame server released on April 13, 2013, by Simon "Hypixel" Collins-Laflamme and Philippe Touchette, and is managed and run by Hypixel Inc. Hypixel is only available on the Java ...
, which has been visited by over 14 million unique players.
Player versus player
Player versus player (PvP) is a type of multiplayer interactive conflict within a game between human players. This is often compared to player versus environment (PvE), in which the game itself controls its players' opponents. The terms are mos ...
combat (PvP) can be enabled to allow fighting between players.
Many servers have custom plugins that allow actions that are not normally possible.
''Minecraft Realms''
In 2013, Mojang announced ''Minecraft Realms'', a server hosting service intended to enable players to run server multiplayer games easily and safely without having to set up their own.
Unlike a standard server, only invited players can join Realms servers, and these servers do not use IP addresses. ''Minecraft: Java Edition'' Realms server owners can invite up to twenty people to play on their server, with up to ten players online at a time. ''Minecraft'' Realms server owners can invite up to 3,000 people to play on their server, with up to ten players online at one time.
The ''Minecraft: Java Edition'' Realms servers do not support user-made plugins, but players can play custom ''Minecraft'' maps. ''Minecraft'' Realms servers support user-made add-ons, resource packs, behavior packs, and custom ''Minecraft'' maps.
At
Electronic Entertainment Expo 2016
The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2016 (E3 2016) was the 22nd E3, during which several hardware manufacturers and software developers and publishers from the video game industry presented new and upcoming products to the attendees, primarily re ...
, support for
cross-platform play
In video games with online gaming functionality, also called cross-compatible play, cross-platform play, crossplay, or cross-play describes the ability of players using different video game hardware to play with each other simultaneously. It is c ...
between
Windows 10
Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It is the direct successor to Windows 8.1, which was released nearly two years earlier. It was released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on J ...
,
iOS
iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...
, and
Android platforms was added through Realms starting in June 2016, with
Xbox One
The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...
and
Nintendo Switch support to come later in 2017, and support for
virtual reality
Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), e ...
devices. On 31 July 2017, Mojang released the beta version of the update allowing cross-platform play. Nintendo Switch support for Realms was released in July 2018.
Customization
![Tinkers Construct smeltery](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/Tinkers_Construct_smeltery.png)
The ''modding community'' consists of fans, users and third-party programmers. Using a variety of
application program interface
An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software Interface (computing), interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standa ...
s that have arisen over time, they have produced a wide variety of
downloadable content
Downloadable content (DLC) is additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game's publisher. It can either be added for no extra cost or it can be a form of video game monetization, enabli ...
for ''Minecraft'', such as modifications,
texture packs and custom maps. Modifications of the ''Minecraft'' code, called ''
mods'', add a variety of gameplay changes, ranging from new blocks, items, and mobs to entire arrays of mechanisms. The modding community is responsible for a substantial supply of mods from ones that enhance gameplay, such as
minimap
A mini-map or minimap is a miniature map that is often placed at a screen corner in video games to aid players in orienting themselves within the game world. They are often only a small portion of the screen and must be selective in what details ...
s, waypoints, and durability counters, to ones that add to the game elements from other video games and media. While a variety of mod frameworks were independently developed by
reverse engineering the code, Mojang has also enhanced
vanilla
Vanilla is a spice derived from orchids of the genus ''Vanilla (genus), Vanilla'', primarily obtained from pods of the Mexican species, flat-leaved vanilla (''Vanilla planifolia, V. planifolia'').
Pollination is required to make the p ...
''Minecraft'' with official frameworks for modification, allowing the production of community-created resource packs, which alter certain game elements including textures and sounds. Players can also create their own "maps" (custom world save files) which often contain specific rules, challenges, puzzles and quests, and share them for others to play.
Mojang added an adventure mode in August 2012
and "command blocks" in October 2012,
which were created specially for custom maps in ''Java Edition''. Data packs, introduced in version 1.13 of the ''Java Edition'', allow further customization, including the ability to add new advancements, dimensions, functions, loot tables, predicates, recipes, structures, tags, world generation settings, and biomes.
The ''Xbox 360 Edition'' supports downloadable content, which is available to purchase via the
Xbox Games Store
Xbox Games Store (formerly Xbox Live Marketplace) is a digital distribution platform used by Microsoft's Xbox Series X, S, Xbox One and Xbox 360 video game consoles. The service allows users to download or purchase video games (including both ...
; these content packs usually contain additional character skins. It later received support for texture packs in its twelfth title update while introducing "mash-up packs", which combines texture packs with skin packs and changes to the game's sounds, music and user interface. The first mash-up pack (and by extension, the first texture pack) for the ''Xbox 360 Edition'' was released on 4 September 2013, and was themed after the ''
Mass Effect
''Mass Effect'' is a military science fiction media franchise created by Casey Hudson, Drew Karpyshyn and Preston Watamaniuk. The franchise depicts a distant future where humanity and several alien civilizations have colonized the known unive ...
'' franchise. Unlike ''Java Edition'', however, the ''Xbox 360 Edition'' does not support player-made mods or custom maps.
A cross-promotional resource pack based on the ''
Super Mario'' franchise by Nintendo was released for the ''Wii U Edition'' worldwide on 17 May 2016. A mash-up pack based on ''Fallout'' was announced for release on the ''Wii U Edition''. In April 2018,
malware was discovered in several downloadable user-made ''Minecraft'' skins for use with the ''Java Edition'' of the game.
Avast stated that nearly 50,000 accounts were infected, and when activated, the malware would attempt to
reformat
Disk formatting is the process of preparing a data storage device such as a hard disk drive, solid-state drive, floppy disk, memory card or USB flash drive for initial use. In some cases, the formatting operation may also create one or more new fil ...
the user's hard drive.
Mojang promptly patched the issue, and released a statement stating that "the code would not be run or read by the game itself",
and would only run when the image containing the skin itself was opened.
In June 2017, Mojang released an update known as the "Discovery Update" to the ''Bedrock'' version of the game. The update includes a new map, a new game mode, the "Marketplace", a catalogue of user-generated content that gives ''Minecraft'' creators "another way to make a living from the game", and more.
Development
![Notch](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Notch.jpg)
Before coming up with ''Minecraft'',
Markus "Notch" Persson was a game developer with
King
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...
through March 2009, at the time serving mostly
browser game
A browser game or a "flash game" is a video game that is played via the internet using a web browser. They are mostly free-to-play and can be single-player or multiplayer.
Some browser games are also available as mobile apps, PC games, or on ...
s, during which he learnt a number of different programming languages.
He would prototype his own games during his off-hours at home, often based on inspiration he found from other games, and participated frequently on the
TIGSource
TIGSource, short for The Independent Games Source, is a news blog and Internet community centered around the creation of independent video games, founded in 2005 by Jordan Magnuson but soon taken over by Derek Yu, both independent game developer ...
forums for independent developers.
One of these personal projects was called "RubyDung", a base-building game inspired by ''
Dwarf Fortress
''Dwarf Fortress'' (officially called ''Slaves to Armok: God of Blood Chapter II: Dwarf Fortress'') is a construction and management simulation and roguelike indie video game created by Bay 12 Games. Available as freeware and in development sin ...
'', but as an isometric three dimensional game like ''
RollerCoaster Tycoon''.
He had already made a 3D texture mapper for another zombie game prototype he had started to try to emulate the style of ''
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars''.
Among the features in "RubyDung" he explored was a first-person view similar to ''
Dungeon Keeper
''Dungeon Keeper'' is a strategy video game developed by Bullfrog Productions and released by Electronic Arts in June 1997 for MS-DOS and Windows 95. In ''Dungeon Keeper'', the player builds and manages a dungeon, protecting it from invading ' ...
'' but at the time, felt the graphics were too pixelated and omitted this mode.
Around March 2009, Persson left King and joined jAlbum, but otherwise kept working on his prototypes.
''
Infiniminer
Zachtronics LLC is an American indie video game studio, best known for their engineering puzzle games and programming games. Zachtronics was founded by Zach Barth in 2000, who serves as its lead designer. Some of their products include '' SpaceChe ...
'', a block-based open-ended mining game first released in April 2009, sparked Persson's inspiration for how to take "RubyDung" forward.
''Infiniminer'' heavily influenced the visual style of gameplay, including bringing back the first-person mode, the "blocky" visual style and the block-building fundamentals.
However, unlike ''Infiniminer'', Persson wanted ''Minecraft'' to have
RPG elements.
The original edition of ''Minecraft'', now known as the ''Java Edition'', was first developed in May 2009. Persson released a test video on YouTube of an early version of ''Minecraft''.
[ The base program of ''Minecraft'' was completed by Persson over a weekend in that month and a private testing was released on TigIRC on 16 May 2009. The game was first released to the public on 17 May 2009 as a developmental release on ''TIGSource'' forums. Persson updated the game based on feedback from the forums.] This version later became known as the ''Classic'' version. Further developmental phases dubbed as ''Survival Test'', ''Indev,'' and ''Infdev'' were released in 2009 and 2010.
The first major update, dubbed Alpha, was released on 30 June 2010. Although Persson maintained a day job with Jalbum.net at first, he later quit in order to work on ''Minecraft'' full-time as sales of the alpha version of the game expanded. Persson continued to update the game with releases distributed to users automatically. These updates included new items, new blocks, new mobs, survival mode, and changes to the game's behavior (e.g. how water flows). To back the development of ''Minecraft'', Persson set up a video game company, Mojang, with the money earned from the game. Mojang co-founders included Jakob Porser, one of Persson's coworkers from King, and Carl Manneh, jAlbum's CEO.
On 11 December 2010, Persson announced that ''Minecraft'' was entering its beta testing phase on 20 December 2010. He further stated that bug fixes and all updates leading up to and including the release would still be free. Over the course of the development, Mojang hired several new employees to work on the project.
Mojang moved the game out of beta and released the full version on 18 November 2011. On 1 December 2011, Jens "Jeb" Bergensten took full creative control over ''Minecraft'', replacing Persson as lead designer. On 28 February 2012, Mojang announced that they had hired the developers of the popular "Bukkit" developer API for ''Minecraft'', to improve ''Minecraft'' support of server modifications. This acquisition also included Mojang apparently taking full ownership of the CraftBukkit server mod which enables the use of Bukkit, although the validity of this claim was questioned due to its status as an open-source project with many contributors, licensed under the GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was the first copyleft for general ...
and Lesser General Public License.
On 15 September 2014, Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...
announced a $2.5 billion deal to buy Mojang, along with the ownership of the ''Minecraft'' intellectual property. The deal was suggested by Persson when he posted a tweet asking a corporation to buy his share of the game after receiving criticism for enforcing terms in the game's end user license agreement
An end-user license agreement or EULA () is a legal contract between a software supplier and a customer or end-user, generally made available to the customer via a retailer acting as an intermediary. A EULA specifies in detail the rights and restr ...
(EULA), which had been present in the EULA in the prior three years. According to Persson, Mojang CEO Carl Manneh received a call from a Microsoft executive shortly after the tweet, asking if Persson was serious about a deal. Mojang was also approached by other companies including Activision Blizzard
Activision Blizzard, Inc. is an American video game holding company based in Santa Monica, California. It was founded in July 2008 through the merger of Activision, Inc. (the publicly traded parent company of Activision Publishing) and Viven ...
and Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the ...
. The deal with Microsoft was arbitrated on 6 November 2014 and led to Persson becoming one of ''Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...
'' "World's Billionaires".
Since the first full release of ''Minecraft'', dubbed the "Adventure Update", the game has been continuously updated with many major updates, available for free to users who have already purchased the game. Early updates frequently introduced gameplay-altering mechanics while more recent updates tend to enhance the game through additional content or tweaks to existing features. The most recent major update to the game was "The Wild Update", which released in June 2022 and added new creatures, biomes, and items.
The original version of the game was renamed to ''Minecraft: Java Edition'' on 18 September 2017 to separate it from ''Bedrock Edition'', which was renamed to just ''Minecraft'' by the ''Better Together Update''.
The ''Bedrock Edition'' has also been regularly updated, with these updates now matching the themes of ''Java Edition'' updates. Other versions of the game such as the various console editions and ''Pocket Edition'' were either merged into ''Bedrock'' or discontinued and as such have not received further updates.
On 16 April 2020, a beta version of ''Minecraft'' implementing physically based rendering
Physically based rendering (PBR) is a computer graphics approach that seeks to render images in a way that models the flow of light in the real world. Many PBR pipelines aim to achieve photorealism. Feasible and quick approximations of the b ...
, ray tracing and DLSS was released by Nvidia
Nvidia CorporationOfficially written as NVIDIA and stylized in its logo as VIDIA with the lowercase "n" the same height as the uppercase "VIDIA"; formerly stylized as VIDIA with a large italicized lowercase "n" on products from the mid 1990s to ...
on RTX-enabled GPUs
A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a specialized electronic circuit designed to manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display device. GPUs are used in embedded systems, mobil ...
. The final version was released on 8 December 2020.
''Minecraft: Pocket Edition''
In August 2011, ''Minecraft: Pocket Edition'' was released for the Xperia Play
The Xperia Play is a smartphone with elements of a handheld game console produced by Sony Ericsson. With the marketshare for dedicated handheld Video game console, game consoles diminishing into the 2010s due to the rapid expansion of smartphone ...
on the Android Market as an early alpha version. It was then released for several other compatible devices on 8 October 2011. An iOS
iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...
version of ''Minecraft'' was released on 17 November 2011. A port was made available for Windows Phone
Windows Phone (WP) is a discontinued family of mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft for smartphones as the replacement successor to Windows Mobile and Zune. Windows Phone featured a new user interface derived from the Metro design l ...
s shortly after Microsoft acquired Mojang. The port concentrates on the creative building and the primitive survival aspect of the game and does not contain all the features of the PC release. On his Twitter account, 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 nam ...
said that the ''Pocket Edition'' of ''Minecraft'' is written in C++ and not Java, due to iOS not being able to support Java. However, there now exists a way to play ''Java Edition'' on both Android and iOS devices.
On 10 December 2014, a port of ''Pocket Edition'' was released for Windows Phone 8.1
Windows Phone 8.1 is the discontinued third generation of Microsoft's Windows Phone mobile operating system, succeeding Windows Phone 8. Rolled out at Microsoft's Build Conference in San Francisco, California, on April 2, 2014, it was released ...
. In January 2017, Microsoft announced that it would no longer maintain the Windows Phone versions of ''Pocket Edition''. On 19 December 2016, the full version of ''Minecraft: Pocket Edition'' was released on iOS, Android and Windows Phone.
''Pocket Edition'' was replaced by ''Minecraft: Bedrock Edition'' in 2017, enabling cross-platform play
In video games with online gaming functionality, also called cross-compatible play, cross-platform play, crossplay, or cross-play describes the ability of players using different video game hardware to play with each other simultaneously. It is c ...
with the ''Xbox One'' and ''Nintendo Switch Editions''.
''Legacy Console Editions''
An Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generati ...
version of the game, developed by 4J Studios
4J Studios Limited is a British video game developer based in Dundee. It has a second office located in East Linton. Founded in April 2005 by VIS Entertainment alumni Chris van der Kuyl, Paddy Burns and Frank Arnot, the company is best known ...
, was released on 9 May 2012. On 22 March 2012, it was announced that ''Minecraft'' would be the flagship game in a new Xbox Live promotion called ''Arcade NEXT''. The game differs from the home computer versions in a number of ways, including a newly designed crafting system, the control interface, in-game tutorials, split-screen multiplayer, and the ability to play with friends via Xbox Live. The worlds in the Xbox 360 version are also not "infinite", and are essentially barricaded by invisible walls. The Xbox 360 version was originally similar in content to older PC versions, but was gradually updated to bring it closer to the current PC version prior to its discontinuation. An Xbox One version featuring larger worlds among other enhancements was released on 5 September 2014.
Versions of the game for the PlayStation 3
The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on November 11, 2006, in Japan, November ...
and PlayStation 4 were released on 17 December 2013 and 4 September 2014 respectively. The PlayStation 4 version was announced as a launch title, though it was eventually delayed. A version for PlayStation Vita was also released in October 2014. Like the Xbox versions, the PlayStation versions were developed by 4J Studios.
On 17 December 2015, ''Minecraft: Wii U Edition'' was released. The Wii U
The Wii U ( ) is a home video game console developed by Nintendo as the successor to the Wii. Released in late 2012, it is the first eighth-generation video game console and competed with Microsoft's Xbox One and Sony's PlayStation 4.
Th ...
version received a physical release on 17 June 2016 in North America, in Japan on 23 June 2016, and in Europe on 30 June 2016. A Nintendo Switch version of the game was released on the Nintendo eShop on 11 May 2017, along with a physical retail version set for a later date. During a Nintendo Direct presentation on 13 September 2017, Nintendo announced that ''Minecraft: New Nintendo 3DS
The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo. It is the fourth system in the Nintendo 3DS family of handheld consoles, following the original Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo 3DS XL, and Nintendo 2DS. The system was released in Japan on October 1 ...
Edition'' would be available for download immediately after the livestream, and a physical copy available on a later date. The game is only compatible with the "New" versions of the 3DS and 2DS systems and does not work with the original 3DS, 3DS XL, or 2DS models.
On 20 September 2017, the ''Better Together Update'' was released on the Xbox One, Windows 10, VR, and mobile versions of the game, which used the ''Pocket Edition'' engine to enable cross-platform play
In video games with online gaming functionality, also called cross-compatible play, cross-platform play, crossplay, or cross-play describes the ability of players using different video game hardware to play with each other simultaneously. It is c ...
between each of these versions. This version of the game eventually became known as the ''Bedrock Edition''. Shortly after, the ''Bedrock Edition'' was also ported to the Nintendo Switch.
On 18 December 2018, the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Xbox 360, and Wii U versions of ''Minecraft'' received their final update and would later become known as ''Legacy Console Editions''.
The PlayStation 4 version of ''Minecraft'' was updated in December 2019 and became part of the ''Bedrock Edition'', which enabled cross-platform play
In video games with online gaming functionality, also called cross-compatible play, cross-platform play, crossplay, or cross-play describes the ability of players using different video game hardware to play with each other simultaneously. It is c ...
for users with a free Xbox Live account.
''Minecraft: Education Edition''
''Minecraft: Education Edition'' is an educational version of the base game, designed specifically for use in educational establishments such as schools, and built off of the ''Bedrock Edition'' codebase. It is available on Windows 10
Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It is the direct successor to Windows 8.1, which was released nearly two years earlier. It was released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on J ...
, MacOS
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...
, iPadOS
iPadOS is a mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc. for its iPad line of tablet computers. It is a rebranded variant of iOS, the operating system used by Apple's iPhones, renamed to reflect the diverging features of the two product ...
and ChromeOS
ChromeOS, sometimes stylized as chromeOS and formerly styled as Chrome OS, is a Linux-based operating system designed by Google. It is derived from the open-source ChromiumOS and uses the Google Chrome web browser as its principal user interfa ...
. It includes a Chemistry Resource Pack, free lesson plans on the ''Minecraft: Education Edition'' website, and two free companion applications: Code Connection and Classroom Mode.
An initial beta test was carried out between 9 June and 1 November 2016. The full game was then released on Windows 10 and MacOS on 1 November 2016. On 20 August 2018, Mojang announced that it would bring Education Edition to iPadOS in Autumn 2018. It was released to the App Store on 6 September 2018. On 27 March 2019, it was announced that the Education Edition would be operated by JD.com
JD.com, Inc., also known as Jingdong (), internationally known as Joybuy and formerly called 360buy,[ ...](_blank)
in China. On 26 June 2020, a public beta for the ''Education Edition'' was made available to Google Play Store
Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store and formerly the Android Market, is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certified devices running on the Android operating syst ...
compatible Chromebooks. The full game was released to the Google Play Store for Chromebooks on 7 August 2020.
''Minecraft China''
On 20 May 2016, ''Minecraft China'' was announced as a localized edition for China, where it was released under a licensing agreement between NetEase and Mojang. The PC edition was released for public testing on 8 August 2017. The iOS version was released on 15 September 2017, and the Android version was released on 12 October 2017. The PC edition is based on the original ''Java Edition'', while the iOS and Android mobile version is based on the ''Bedrock Edition''. The edition is free-to-play and had over 300 million players by November 2019.
Other PC versions
Apart from ''Minecraft: Java Edition'', there are other versions of ''Minecraft'' for PC, including ''Minecraft for Windows'', ''Minecraft Classic'', ''Minecraft 4K'', and a version for the Raspberry Pi
Raspberry Pi () is a series of small single-board computers (SBCs) developed in the United Kingdom by the Raspberry Pi Foundation in association with Broadcom. The Raspberry Pi project originally leaned towards the promotion of teaching basic ...
.
Minecraft for Windows
''Minecraft for Windows'' is exclusive to Microsoft's Windows 10
Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It is the direct successor to Windows 8.1, which was released nearly two years earlier. It was released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on J ...
and Windows 11
Windows 11 is the latest major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system, released in October 2021. It is a free upgrade to its predecessor, Windows 10 (2015), and is available for any Windows 10 devices that meet the new Windows 11 ...
operating systems. The beta release for Windows 10 launched on the Windows Store
Microsoft Store (formerly known as Windows Store) is a digital distribution platform operated by Microsoft. It started as an app store for Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 as the primary means of distributing Universal Windows Platform app ...
on July 29, 2015.
After nearly one and a half years in beta, Microsoft fully released ''Minecraft for Windows'' on December 19, 2016. Called the "Ender Update", this release implemented new features to this version of ''Minecraft'' like world templates and add-on packs. This version has the ability to play with Xbox Live friends, and to play local multiplayer with owners of ''Minecraft'' on other ''Bedrock'' platforms. Other features include the ability to use multiple control schemes such as a gamepad, keyboard, or touchscreen (for Microsoft Surface
Microsoft Surface is a series of touchscreen-based personal computers, tablets and interactive whiteboards designed and developed by Microsoft, running the Microsoft Windows operating system, apart from the Surface Duo, which runs on Andro ...
and other touchscreen-enabled devices). Virtual reality
Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), e ...
support has been implemented, as well as the ability to record and take screenshots in-game via the Windows built-in GameDVR.
As of 7 June 2022, the ''Java'' and ''Bedrock Editions'' of ''Minecraft'' for Windows were merged into a single title for purchase; those who owned one version would automatically gain access to the other version. Both game modes would otherwise remain separate.
Minecraft 4K
''Minecraft 4K'' is a simplified version of ''Minecraft'' similar to the Classic version that was developed for the Java 4K game programming contest
The Java 4K Game Programming Contest, also known as Java 4K and J4K, is an informal contest that was started by the Java Game Programming community to challenge their software development abilities.
Concept
The goal of the contest is to develo ...
"in way less than 4 kilobytes". The map itself is finite—composed of 64×64×64 blocks—and the same world is generated every time. Players are restricted to placing or destroying blocks, which consist of grass, dirt, stone, wood, leaves, and brick.
Raspberry Pi
A version of ''Minecraft'' for the Raspberry Pi
Raspberry Pi () is a series of small single-board computers (SBCs) developed in the United Kingdom by the Raspberry Pi Foundation in association with Broadcom. The Raspberry Pi project originally leaned towards the promotion of teaching basic ...
was officially revealed at Minecon 2012. The ''Pi Edition'' is based on an alpha version of ''Pocket Edition'' with the added ability of using text commands to edit the game world. Players can open the game code and use the Python
Python may refer to:
Snakes
* Pythonidae, a family of nonvenomous snakes found in Africa, Asia, and Australia
** ''Python'' (genus), a genus of Pythonidae found in Africa and Asia
* Python (mythology), a mythical serpent
Computing
* Python (pro ...
programming language to manipulate things in the game world. It also includes a scripting API to modify the game, and server software for multiplayer. The game was leaked on 20 December 2012, but was quickly pulled off. It was officially released on 11 February 2013. Mojang stopped providing updates to ''Minecraft: Raspberry Pi Edition'' in 2016. It is preinstalled on Raspberry Pi OS
Raspberry Pi OS (formerly Raspbian) is a Unix-like operating system based on the Debian Linux distribution for the Raspberry Pi family of compact single-board computers. First developed independently in 2012, it has been produced as the primary ...
and can be downloaded for free from the official ''Minecraft'' website.
Music
''Minecraft'' music and sound effects were produced by German musician Daniel Rosenfeld, better known as C418
Daniel Rosenfeld (born 9 May 1989), better known by his stage/online name C418 (pronounced "see four eighteen"), is a German musician, producer and sound engineer, best known as the composer and sound designer for the sandbox video game ''Minec ...
. The background music
Background music (British English: piped music) is a mode of musical performance in which the music is not intended to be a primary focus of potential listeners, but its content, character, and volume level are deliberately chosen to affect behav ...
in ''Minecraft'' is instrumental ambient music. On 4 March 2011, Rosenfeld released a soundtrack
A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack ...
titled ''Minecraft – Volume Alpha
''Minecraft – Volume Alpha'' is the second studio album and first soundtrack album by German electronic musician Daniel Rosenfeld, known by his pseudonym C418. It was digitally released on 4 March 2011 independently as the first installment ...
''; it includes most of the tracks featured in ''Minecraft'', as well as other music not featured in the game. Kirk Hamilton of '' Kotaku'' chose the music in ''Minecraft'' as one of the best video game soundtracks of 2011. On 9 November 2013, Rosenfeld released the second official soundtrack, titled ''Minecraft – Volume Beta
''Minecraft – Volume Beta'' is the fifth studio album and second soundtrack album by German electronic musician Daniel Rosenfeld, known by his pseudonym C418. It was digitally released independently on 9 November 2013 as the second instalment ...
'', which includes the music that was added in later versions of the game. A physical release of ''Volume Alpha'', consisting of CDs, black vinyl, and limited-edition transparent green vinyl LPs, was issued by indie electronic label Ghostly International
Ghostly International is an American independent record label founded in 1999 by Samuel Valenti IV and currently headquartered in Brooklyn, New York City. Chief artists include Matthew Dear, Dabrye (a.k.a. Tadd Mullinix), Com Truise, Tycho, Go ...
on 21 August 2015. In addition to Rosenfeld's work, other composers have contributed tracks to the game since release, including Samuel Åberg, Gareth Coker, Lena Raine
Lena "Kuraine" Raine (born February 29, 1984), also known as Lena Chappelle, is an American-Canadian composer, producer, and video game developer. Raine is best known for her work on the soundtracks of ''Celeste (video game), Celeste'', ''Min ...
, and Kumi Tanioka
is a Japanese composer and pianist. Born in Hiroshima, Japan, she graduated from Kobe University with a degree in musical performance, and began working as a video game composer in 1998. She joined video game developer and publisher Square tha ...
.
Variants
For the tenth anniversary of the game's release, Mojang remade a version of ''Minecraft'' Classic in JavaScript
JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language that is one of the core technologies of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. As of 2022, 98% of websites use JavaScript on the client side for webpage behavior, of ...
and made it available to play online. It functions much the same as creative mode, allowing players to build and destroy any and all parts of the world either alone or in a multiplayer server. Environmental hazards such as lava do not damage players, and some blocks function differently since their behavior was later changed during development.
Around 2011, prior to ''Minecraft''s full release, there had been collaboration between Mojang and The Lego Group
Lego A/S (trade name: The Lego Group) is a Danish toy production company based in Billund, Denmark. It manufactures Lego-brand toys, consisting mostly of interlocking plastic bricks. The Lego Group has also built several amusement parks aroun ...
to make a Lego brick-based ''Minecraft'' game to be called ''Brickcraft''. This would have modified the base ''Minecraft'' game to use Lego bricks, which meant adapting the basic 1×1 block to account for larger pieces typically used in Lego sets. Persson had worked on the preliminary version of this game, which he had named "Project Rex Kwon Do" based on the joke from ''Napoleon Dynamite
''Napoleon Dynamite'' is a 2004 American comedy film produced by Jeremy Coon, Chris Wyatt and Sean Covel, written by Jared and Jerusha Hess and directed by Jared Hess. The film stars Jon Heder in the role of the titular character, a nerdy ...
''. Lego had greenlit the project to go forward, and while Mojang had put two developers on the game for six months, they later opted to cancel the project, as Mojang felt that the Lego Group were too demanding on what they could do, according to Mojang's Daniel Kaplan. The Lego Group had considered buying out Mojang to complete the game, but at this point Microsoft made its offer to buy the company for over $2 billion. According to the Lego Group's Ronny Scherer, the company was not yet sure of the potential success of ''Minecraft'' at this point and backed off from acquisition after Microsoft brought this offer to Mojang.
Virtual reality
Early on, Persson planned to support the Oculus Rift
Oculus Rift is a discontinued line of virtual reality headsets developed and manufactured by Oculus VR, a division of Meta Platforms, released on March 28, 2016.
In 2012 Oculus initiated a Kickstarter campaign to fund the Rift's development, af ...
with a port of ''Minecraft''. However, after Facebook acquired Oculus in 2013, he abruptly canceled plans noting "Facebook creeps me out." A community-made modification known as ''Minecraft VR'' was developed in 2016 to provide virtual reality support to ''Minecraft: Java Edition'' oriented towards Oculus Rift hardware. A fork
In cutlery or kitchenware, a fork (from la, furca 'pitchfork') is a utensil, now usually made of metal, whose long handle terminates in a head that branches into several narrow and often slightly curved tine (structural), tines with which one ...
of the ''Minecraft VR'' modification known as ''Vivecraft'' ported the mod to OpenVR, and is oriented towards supporting HTC Vive
VIVE, sometimes referred to as HTC Vive, is a virtual reality brand of HTC Corporation. It consists of hardware like its titular virtual reality headsets and accessories, virtual reality software and services, and initiatives that promote appl ...
hardware. On 15 August 2016, Microsoft launched official Oculus Rift support for ''Minecraft'' on Windows 10. Upon its release, the ''Minecraft VR'' mod was discontinued by its developer due to trademark complaints issued by Microsoft, and ''Vivecraft'' was endorsed by the community makers of the ''Minecraft VR'' modification due to its Rift support and being superior to the original ''Minecraft VR'' mod. Also available is a Gear VR
The Samsung Gear VR is a virtual reality headset developed by Samsung Electronics, in collaboration with Oculus VR, and manufactured by Samsung. The headset was released on November 27, 2015.
When in use, a compatible Samsung Galaxy device acts ...
version, titled ''Minecraft: Gear VR Edition''. Windows Mixed Reality
Windows Mixed Reality is a platform introduced as part of the Windows 10 and 11 operating system, which provides augmented reality and virtual reality experiences with compatible head-mounted displays.
Its flagship device, Microsoft HoloLens, w ...
support was added in 2017. On 7 September 2020, Mojang Studios announced that the PlayStation 4 version of the game would be getting PlayStation VR
The PlayStation VR (PS VR, known by its code name Project Morpheus during development) is a virtual reality headset developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, which was released in October 2016.
It is fully functional with the PlayStation 4 an ...
support in the same month. The only officially supported VR versions of ''Minecraft'' are the ''PlayStation 4'' version, ''Minecraft: Gear VR Edition'' and ''Minecraft for Windows 10'' for Oculus Rift and Windows Mixed Reality headsets.
Reception
Critics
Early versions of ''Minecraft'' received critical acclaim, praising the creative freedom it grants players in-game, as well as the ease of enabling emergent gameplay
Emergent gameplay refers to complex situations in video games, board games, or table top role-playing games that emerge from the interaction of relatively simple game mechanics.
Designers have attempted to encourage emergent play by providing too ...
. Critics have praised ''Minecraft'' complex crafting system, commenting that it is an important aspect of the game's open-ended gameplay. Most publications were impressed by the game's "blocky" graphics, with IGN
''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
describing them as "instantly memorable". Reviewers also liked the game's adventure elements, noting that the game creates a good balance between exploring and building. The game's multiplayer feature has been generally received favorably, with IGN commenting that "adventuring is always better with friends". Jaz McDougall of ''PC Gamer
''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games m ...
'' said ''Minecraft'' is "intuitively interesting and contagiously fun, with an unparalleled scope for creativity and memorable experiences". It has been regarded as having introduced millions of children to the digital world, insofar as its basic game mechanics
In tabletop games and video games, game mechanics are the rules or ludemes that govern and guide the player's actions, as well as the game's response to them. A rule is an instruction on how to play, a ludeme is an element of play like the L-sha ...
are logically analogous to computer commands.
IGN was disappointed about the troublesome steps needed to set up multiplayer servers, calling it a "hassle". Critics also said that visual glitches occur periodically. Despite its release out of beta in 2011, GameSpot
''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...
said the game had an "unfinished feel", adding that some game elements seem "incomplete or thrown together in haste".
A review of the alpha version, by Scott Munro of the '' Daily Record'', called it "already something special" and urged readers to buy it. Jim Rossignol
James Michael Rossignol (born July 1978) is a British video game journalist and critic, as well as an author. He has also branched out into games, founding the company Big Robot in 2010.
Biography
Rossignol started his career as a reporter o ...
of Rock, Paper, Shotgun also recommended the alpha of the game, calling it "a kind of generative 8-bit Lego '' Stalker''". On 17 September 2010, gaming webcomic
Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on a website or mobile app. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or comic books.
Webcomics can be c ...
''Penny Arcade'' began a series of comics and news posts about the addictiveness of the game. The Xbox 360 version was generally received positively by critics, but did not receive as much praise as the PC version. Although reviewers were disappointed by the lack of features such as mod support and content from the PC version, they acclaimed the port's addition of a tutorial and in-game tips and crafting recipes, saying that they make the game more user-friendly. The ''Xbox One Edition'' was one of the best received ports, being praised for its relatively large worlds.
The ''PlayStation 3 Edition'' also received generally favorable reviews, being compared to the ''Xbox 360 Edition'' and praised for its well-adapted controls. The PlayStation 4 edition was the best received port to date, being praised for having 36 times larger worlds than the PlayStation 3 edition and described as nearly identical to the Xbox One edition. The ''PlayStation Vita Edition'' received generally positive reviews from critics but was noted for its technical limitations.
The Wii U version received generally positive reviews from critics but was noted for a lack of GamePad integration. The 3DS version received mixed reviews, being criticized for its high price, technical issues, and lack of cross-platform play. The ''Nintendo Switch Edition'' received fairly positive reviews from critics, being praised, like other modern ports, for its relatively larger worlds.
''Minecraft: Pocket Edition'' initially received mixed reviews from critics. Although reviewers appreciated the game's intuitive controls, they were disappointed by the lack of content. The inability to collect resources and craft items, as well as the limited types of blocks and lack of hostile mobs, were especially criticized. After updates added more content, Pocket Edition started receiving more positive reviews. Reviewers complimented the controls and the graphics, but still noted a lack of content.
Sales
''Minecraft'' surpassed over a million purchases less than a month after entering its beta phase in early 2011. At the same time, the game had no publisher
Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...
backing and has never been commercially advertised except through word of mouth
Word of mouth, or ''viva voce'', is the passing of information from person to person using oral communication, which could be as simple as telling someone the time of day. Storytelling is a common form of word-of-mouth communication where one pe ...
, and various unpaid references in popular media such as the ''Penny Arcade'' webcomic. By April 2011, Persson estimated that ''Minecraft'' had made €23 million (US$33 million) in revenue, with 800,000 sales of the alpha version of the game, and over 1 million sales of the beta version. In November 2011, prior to the game's full release, ''Minecraft'' beta surpassed 16 million registered users and 4 million purchases. By March 2012, ''Minecraft'' had become the 6th best-selling PC game of all time. , the game has sold 17 million copies on PC, becoming the best-selling PC game of all time. , the game has sold approximately 60 million copies across all platforms, making it the best-selling video game of all time
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 platf ...
. On 25 February 2014, the game reached 100 million registered users. By May 2019, 180 million copies had been sold across all platforms, making it the single best-selling video game
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 ...
of all time. The free-to-play ''Minecraft China'' version had over 300 million players by November 2019. By April 2021, ''Minecraft'' sold more than 238 million copies worldwide.
The Xbox 360 version of ''Minecraft'' became profitable within the first day of the game's release in 2012, when the game broke the Xbox Live sales records with 400,000 players online. Within a week of being on the Xbox Live Marketplace, ''Minecraft'' sold upwards of a million copies. GameSpot announced in December 2012 that ''Minecraft'' sold over 4.48 million copies since the game debuted on Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) is a digital video game download service available through the Xbox Games Store, Microsoft's digital distribution network for the Xbox 360. It focuses on smaller downloadable games from both major publishers and independent ...
in May 2012. In 2012, ''Minecraft'' was the most purchased title on Xbox Live Arcade; it was also the fourth most played title on Xbox Live based on average unique user
Website popularity is commonly determined using the number of unique users, and the metric is often quoted to potential advertisers or investors. A website's number of unique users is usually measured over a standard period of time, typically a m ...
s per day. , the Xbox 360 version has sold 12 million copies. In addition, ''Minecraft: Pocket Edition'' has reached a figure of 21 million in sales. The ''PlayStation 3 Edition'' sold one million copies in five weeks. The release of the game's PlayStation Vita version boosted ''Minecraft'' sales by 79%, outselling both PS3 and PS4 debut releases and becoming the largest ''Minecraft'' launch on a PlayStation console. The PS Vita version sold 100,000 digital copies in Japan within the first two months of release, according to an announcement by SCE Japan Asia. By January 2015, 500,000 digital copies of ''Minecraft'' were sold in Japan across all PlayStation platforms, with a surge in primary school children purchasing the PS Vita version. ''Minecraft'' helped improve Microsoft's total first-party revenue by $63 million for the 2015 second quarter.
The game, including all of its versions, had over 112 million monthly active players by September 2019. On its 11th anniversary in May 2020, the company announced that ''Minecraft'' had reached over 200 million copies sold across platforms with over 126 million monthly active players. By April 2021, the number of active monthly users had climbed to 140 million.
Awards
In July 2010, ''PC Gamer'' listed ''Minecraft'' as the fourth-best game to play at work. In December of that year, Good Game selected ''Minecraft'' as their choice for Best Downloadable Game of 2010, Gamasutra
''Game Developer'', known as ''Gamasutra'' until 2021, is a website founded in 1997 that focuses on aspects of video game development. It is owned and operated by Informa and acts as the online sister publication to the print magazine '' Gam ...
named it the eighth best game of the year as well as the eighth best indie game of the year, and Rock, Paper, Shotgun named it the "game of the year". Indie DB awarded the game the 2010 Indie of the Year award as chosen by voters, in addition to two out of five Editor's Choice awards for Most Innovative and Best Singleplayer Indie. It was also awarded Game of the Year by ''PC Gamer UK''. The game was nominated for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize
The Seumas McNally Grand Prize is the main award given at the Independent Games Festival (IGF), an annual event that takes place during the Game Developers Conference, one of the largest gatherings of the indie video game industry. The award is na ...
, Technical Excellence, and Excellence in Design awards at the March 2011 Independent Games Festival
The Independent Games Festival (IGF) is an annual festival at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), the largest annual gathering of the independent video game industry. Originally founded in 1998 to promote independent video game developers, ...
and won the Grand Prize and the community-voted Audience Award. At Game Developers Choice Awards 2011, ''Minecraft'' won awards in the categories for Best Debut Game, Best Downloadable Game and Innovation Award, winning every award for which it was nominated. It also won GameCity's video game arts award. On 5 May 2011, ''Minecraft'' was selected as one of the 80 games that would be displayed at the Smithsonian American Art Museum as part of The Art of Video Games
''The Art of Video Games'' was an exhibition by the Smithsonian American Art Museum which was on display from March 16, 2012 through September 30, 2012. The exhibition was designed to highlight the evolution of art within the video game medium o ...
exhibit that opened on 16 March 2012. At the 2011 Spike Video Game Awards
The Spike Video Game Awards (in short VGAs, known as the VGX for the final show) was an annual award show hosted by American television network Spike from 2003 to 2013 that recognized the best computer and video games of the year. Produced by ...
, ''Minecraft'' won the award for Best Independent Game and was nominated in the Best PC Game category. In 2012, at the British Academy Video Games Awards
The BAFTA Games Awards or British Academy Games Awards are an annual British awards ceremony honouring "outstanding creative achievement" in the video game industry. First presented in 2004 following the restructuring of the BAFTA Interactive En ...
, ''Minecraft'' was nominated in the GAME Award of 2011 category and Persson received The Special Award. In 2012, ''Minecraft'' XBLA was awarded a Golden Joystick Award
The Golden Joystick Awards, also known as the People's Gaming Awards, is a video game award ceremony; it awards the best video games of the year, as voted for originally by the British general public, but is now a global event that can be voted ...
in the Best Downloadable Game category, and a TIGA Games Industry Award in the Best Arcade Game category. In 2013, it was nominated as the family game of the year at the British Academy Video Games Awards. ''Minecraft Console Edition'' won the award for TIGA Game Of The Year in 2014. In 2015, the game placed 6th on ''USgamer
Gamer Network Limited (formerly Eurogamer Network Limited) is a British mass media company based in Brighton. Founded in 1999 by Rupert and Nick Loman, it owns brands—primarily editorial websites—relating to video game journalism and oth ...
'' The 15 Best Games Since 2000 list. In 2016, ''Minecraft'' placed 6th on Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
's The 50 Best Video Games of All Time list.
''Minecraft'' was nominated for the 2013 Kids' Choice Awards
The 26th Annual Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards was held on March 23, 2013, at the Galen Center in Los Angeles, California. Actor Josh Duhamel hosted the ceremony. The "Orange Carpet" was set up in front of Galen Center on the sidewalks of Jef ...
for Favorite App, but lost to ''Temple Run
''Temple Run'' is a 3D endless running video game developed and published by Imangi Studios. The player controls an explorer who has obtained an ancient relic and runs from demonic monkey-like creatures chasing him. The game was initially rele ...
''. It was nominated for the 2014 Kids' Choice Awards
The 27th Annual Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards was held on March 29, 2014, at the Galen Center in Los Angeles, California. Actor Mark Wahlberg hosted the ceremony. The "Orange Carpet" was set up in front of Galen Center on the sidewalks of Jef ...
for Favorite Video Game, but lost to ''Just Dance 2014
''Just Dance 2014'' is a 2013 dance rhythm game developed by Ubisoft Paris, Ubisoft Milan, Ubisoft Reflections, Ubisoft Bucharest, Ubisoft Pune, Ubisoft Montpellier and Ubisoft Barcelona and published by Ubisoft. The fifth main installment of ...
''. The game later won the award for the Most Addicting Game at the 2015 Kids' Choice Awards
The 28th Annual Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards was held on March 28, 2015, at the Forum in Inglewood, California, and hosted by Nick Jonas. The show was broadcast at 8:00 PM (ET/PT), produced by Nickelodeon Productions, with a simulcast in the ...
. In addition, the ''Java Edition'' was nominated for "Favorite Video Game" at the 2018 Kids' Choice Awards, while the game itself won the "Still Playing" award at the 2019 Golden Joystick Awards, as well as the "Favorite Video Game" award at the 2020 Kids' Choice Awards
The 33rd Annual Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards ceremony (officially titled ''"Nickelodeon's Kids' Choice Awards 2020: Celebrate Together"'') was held virtually on May 2, 2020, with Victoria Justice serving as host. It aired on Nickelodeon and i ...
. ''Minecraft'' also won "Stream Game of the Year" at inaugural Streamer Awards in 2022.
Controversies
2014 EULA changes
Microsoft and Mojang announced in 2014 that it would be changing the ''Minecraft'' End-user license agreement
An end-user license agreement or EULA () is a legal contract between a software supplier and a customer or end-user, generally made available to the customer via a retailer acting as an intermediary. A EULA specifies in detail the rights and rest ...
(EULA) to prohibit servers from accepting donations or payments in exchange for the donating or paying players receiving in-game advantages on such server, essentially banning servers from enacting "pay-to-win
Free-to-play (F2P or FtP) video games are games that give players access to a significant portion of their content without paying or do not require paying to continue playing. Free-to-play is distinct from traditional commercial software, which ...
" (PTW) servers. Mojang spokesperson Owen Hill provided examples of what it would and would not allow, saying company would allow for pay-to-play servers in which a player is required to pay a fee to access the server, or for cosmetic enhancements (such as in-game costumes or pets), but that Mojang would be cracking down on paying to obtain powerful swords or potions. The new crackdowns were supported by Persson, citing him receiving multiple emails from parents of children who had spent hundreds of dollars on servers. The ''Minecraft'' community and server owners, however, heavily despised the new change in enforcement and protested en masse, which included comparing Mojang to monolithic video game publishers like Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the ...
and Activision
Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one ...
, gaming companies often criticized online for their highly restrictive digital rights management and user license agreements. Many argued that the crackdown would force smaller servers to close their doors, and some blamed the crackdown on Mojang attempting to suppress competition for its own ''Minecraft Realms'' subscription service.
Account migration
In 2020, Mojang Studios revealed that it would begin the process of requiring that Microsoft account
A Microsoft account or MSA (previously known as Microsoft Passport, .NET Passport, and Windows Live ID) is a single sign-on Microsoft user account for Microsoft customers to log in to Microsoft services (like Outlook.com), devices running on ...
s be used in order to log into the ''Java Edition'' of the game, and that older Mojang Studios accounts would be sunsetted. The move to Microsoft accounts also required ''Java Edition'' players to create Xbox network
The Xbox network, formerly and still sometimes branded as Xbox Live, is an online multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft. It was first made available to the Xbox system on November 15, 2002. An u ...
Gamertags. Mojang Studios defended the move to Microsoft accounts by saying that improved security could be offered, which included Java accounts being able to use two factor authentication
Multi-factor authentication (MFA; encompassing two-factor authentication, or 2FA, along with similar terms) is an electronic authentication method in which a user is granted access to a website or application only after successfully presenting ...
, players could block cyberbullies in chat, and improve parental controls. The community responded with intense backlash against this announcement, particularly taking issue to the various technical difficulties encountered in the process and how account migration would be mandatory, even for those who do not play on servers. As of March 10, 2022, Microsoft requires all players to migrate in order to access the ''Java Edition'' of ''Minecraft''.
''Java Edition'' chat reporting
In June 2022, Microsoft and Mojang Studios announced it would be releasing a player reporting feature in all future builds of ''Java Edition''. In earlier development builds, players could report other players on multiplayer servers for sending messages that are prohibited by the Xbox Live Code of Conduct; report categories included profane language, substance abuse, hate speech, threats of violence, and nudity, though Microsoft in later builds has since excluded the profane language category from the player reporting feature. If a player was found to be in violation of Xbox Community Standards, the player would be banned from all servers for a specific period of time or permanently. The update containing the report feature was released on 27 July 2022.
Microsoft and Mojang Studios received substantial backlash and protest from community members, one of the most common complaints being that banned players would be forbidden from joining any server, even private ones. Others took issue to what they saw as Microsoft increasing control over its player base and exercising censorship, sparking some to dub the version "1.19.84", in reference to the novel ''Nineteen Eighty-Four
''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' (also stylised as ''1984'') is a dystopian social science fiction novel and cautionary tale written by the English writer George Orwell. It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell's ninth and fina ...
''.
Cultural impact
In September 2019, ''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' classified ''Minecraft'' as the best video game of (the first two decades of) the 21st century, and in November 2019
''Polygon
In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure that is described by a finite number of straight line segments connected to form a closed ''polygonal chain'' (or ''polygonal circuit''). The bounded plane region, the bounding circuit, or the two to ...
'' called the game the "most important game of the decade" in its 2010s "decade in review". In December 2019, ''Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...
'' gave ''Minecraft'' a special mention in a list of the best video games of the 2010s, stating that the game is "without a doubt one of the most important games of the last ten years." In June 2020, ''Minecraft'' was inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame
The World Video Game Hall of Fame is an international hall of fame that opened on June 4, 2015. It is located in The National Museum of Play's ''eGameRevolution'' exhibit; the hall's administration is overseen by The Strong and the Internatio ...
.
''Minecraft'' is recognized as one of the first successful games to use an early access
Early access, also known as alpha access, alpha founding, paid alpha, or game preview, is a funding model in the video game industry by which consumers can purchase and play a game in the various pre-release development cycles, such as pre-alph ...
model to draw in sales prior to its full release version to help fund development. As ''Minecraft'' helped to bolster indie game development in the early 2010s, it also helped to popularize the use of the early access model in indie game development.
Social media sites such as YouTube, Facebook, and Reddit
Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, imag ...
played a significant role in popularizing ''Minecraft''. Research conducted by the University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
's Annenberg School of Communication showed that one-third of ''Minecraft'' players learned about the game via Internet videos. In 2010, ''Minecraft''-related videos began to gain influence on YouTube, often made by commentators. The videos usually contain screen-capture footage of the game and voice-overs. Common coverage in the videos includes creations made by players, walkthroughs of various tasks, and parodies of works in popular culture. By May 2012, over four million ''Minecraft''-related YouTube videos had been uploaded. The game would go on to be a prominent fixture within YouTube's gaming scene during the entire 2010s; in 2014, it was the second-most searched term on the entire platform. By 2018, it was still YouTube's biggest game globally.
Some popular commentators have received employment at Machinima, a gaming video company that owns a highly watched entertainment channel on YouTube. The Yogscast
The Yogscast, officially registered as Yogscast Limited, is a British entertainment company based in Bristol that primarily produces video gaming-related videos on YouTube and Twitch, and also operates the Yogscast multi-channel network for a ...
is a British company that regularly produces ''Minecraft'' videos; their YouTube channel has attained billions of views, and their panel at Minecon 2011 had the highest attendance. Other well-known YouTube personalities include Jordan Maron, who has created many ''Minecraft'' parodies
A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its sub ...
, including "Minecraft Style", a parody of the internationally successful single " Gangnam Style" by South Korean rapper Psy
Park Jae-sang (, ; born December 31, 1977), known professionally as Psy (stylized in all caps as PSY) (; ; ), is a South Korean singer, rapper, songwriter, and record producer. Psy is known domestically for his humorous videos and stage per ...
. ''Minecraft''s popularity on YouTube was described by ''Polygon
In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure that is described by a finite number of straight line segments connected to form a closed ''polygonal chain'' (or ''polygonal circuit''). The bounded plane region, the bounding circuit, or the two to ...
'' as quietly dominant, although in 2019, thanks in part to PewDiePie
Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg ( , ; born 24 October 1989), better known as PewDiePie ( ), is a Swedish YouTuber known for his Let's Play videos and comedic formatted videos and shows. Kjellberg's popularity on YouTube and extensive media coverage ...
's playthrough of the game, ''Minecraft'' experienced a visible uptick in popularity on the platform. YouTube later announced that on December 14, 2021, the total amount of ''Minecraft''-related views exceeded one trillion since the game's inception in 2009.
''Minecraft'' has been referenced by other video games, such as ''Torchlight II
''Torchlight II'' is an action role-playing dungeon crawler video game developed by Runic Games, released for Microsoft Windows on September 20, 2012. It is the sequel to ''Torchlight'', and features peer-to-peer multiplayer support and extended ...
'', ''Team Fortress 2
''Team Fortress 2'' is a 2007 multiplayer first-person shooter game developed and published by Valve Corporation. It is the sequel to the 1996 ''Team Fortress'' mod for '' Quake'' and its 1999 remake, '' Team Fortress Classic''. The game was ...
'', '' Borderlands 2'', '' Choplifter HD'', '' Super Meat Boy'', '' The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim'', '' The Binding of Isaac'', ''The Stanley Parable
''The Stanley Parable'' is a story-based video game designed and written by developers Davey Wreden and William Pugh. The game carries themes such as choice in video games, the relationship between a game creator and player, and predestination ...
'', '' FTL: Faster Than Light'', and ''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 ...
'', the lattermost of which features a downloadable character and stage based on ''Minecraft''. It was also referenced by electronic music artist 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 ...
in his performances. The game is also referenced heavily in "Informative Murder Porn
"Informative Murder Porn" is the second episode in the seventeenth season of the American animated television series ''South Park''. The 239th episode of the series overall, it premiered on Comedy Central in the United States on October 2, 2013. ...
", the second episode of the seventeenth season of the animated television series '' South Park''. "Luca$
"Luca$" is the seventeenth episode of the twenty-fifth season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons'' and the 547th episode of the series. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on April 6, 2014. It was written ...
", the seventeenth episode of the 25th season of the animated sitcom ''The Simpsons
''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer Simpson, Homer, Marge ...
'', and "Minecraft is for Everyone" by Starbomb
Starbomb was an American musical-comedy group composed of Dan Avidan and Brian Wecht of musical-comedy duo Ninja Sex Party together with Flash animator and Internet personality Arin Hanson and "space rock masters" TWRP, a Canadian music group ...
was inspired by ''Minecraft''.
Applications
The possible applications of ''Minecraft'' have been discussed extensively, especially in the fields of computer-aided design and education. In a panel at Minecon 2011, a Swedish developer discussed the possibility of using the game to redesign public buildings and parks, stating that rendering using ''Minecraft'' was much more user-friendly for the community, making it easier to envision the functionality of new buildings and parks. In 2012, a member of the Human Dynamics group at the MIT Media Lab
The MIT Media Lab is a research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, growing out of MIT's Architecture Machine Group in the School of Architecture. Its research does not restrict to fixed academic disciplines, but draws from ...
, Cody Sumter, said: "Notch hasn't just built a game. He's tricked 40 million people into learning to use a CAD program
Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computers (or ) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design. This software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve co ...
." Various software has been developed to allow virtual designs to be printed using professional 3D printers
3D printing or additive manufacturing is the construction of a three-dimensional object from a CAD model or a digital 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material is deposited, joined or solidified under computer co ...
or personal printers such as MakerBot
MakerBot Industries, LLC is an American desktop 3D printer manufacturer company headquartered in New York City. It was founded in January 2009 by Bre Pettis, Adam Mayer, and Zach "Hoeken" Smith to build on the early progress of the RepRap Proje ...
and RepRap
The RepRap project started in England in 2005 as a University of Bath initiative to develop a low-cost 3D printer that can print most of its own components, but it is now made up of hundreds of collaborators worldwide. RepRap is short for rep''li ...
.
In September 2012, Mojang began the ''Block by Block
''Block by Block'' is a 2013 Indian documentary film produced by Vidhi Kasliwal. A Landmarc Films production and presentation, it is directed by Hina Sayada. It explores the experiences of the construction laborers who built Palais Royale, Mumba ...
'' project in cooperation with UN Habitat to create real-world environments in ''Minecraft''. The project allows young people who live in those environments to participate in designing the changes they would like to see. Using ''Minecraft'', the community has helped reconstruct the areas of concern, and citizens are invited to enter the ''Minecraft'' servers and modify their own neighborhood. Carl Manneh, Mojang's managing director, called the game "the perfect tool to facilitate this process", adding "The three-year partnership will support UN-Habitat's Sustainable Urban Development Network
Specific definitions of sustainability are difficult to agree on and have varied in the literature and over time. The concept of sustainability can be used to guide decisions at the global, national, and individual levels (e.g. sustainable livi ...
to upgrade 300 public spaces by 2016." Mojang signed ''Minecraft'' building community, ''FyreUK'', to help render the environments into ''Minecraft''. The first pilot project began in Kibera, one of Nairobi
Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper h ...
's informal settlements and is in the planning phase. The ''Block by Block'' project is based on an earlier initiative started in October 2011, ''Mina Kvarter'' (My Block), which gave young people in Swedish communities a tool to visualize how they wanted to change their part of town. According to Manneh, the project was a helpful way to visualize urban planning ideas without necessarily having a training in architecture. The ideas presented by the citizens were a template for political decisions.
In 2013, Stuart Duncan, known online as AutismFather, started a server for autistic children and their families, called Autcraft. The server was created because the public servers had many bullies and trolls that made the autistic kids angry and feel hurt. It was constantly monitored to help players and prevent bullying. The server had a whitelist that only allowed approved players, of which there are 8,000 players worldwide in 2017. The server had a unique ranking system based on the attributes of the player, offering titles such as "Player of the Week" and "Caught Being Awesome". The server was called "one of the best places on the Internet" and was a subject of a research paper.
In April 2014, the Danish Geodata Agency
The Danish Geodata Agency (GST) ( da, Geodatastyrelsen), (previously National Survey and Cadastre of Denmark ( da, Kort & Matrikelstyrelsen, short KMS)), is the Danish state owned central agency responsible for surveying, mapping and land regist ...
generated all of Denmark in fullscale in ''Minecraft'' based on their own geodata
Geographic data and information is defined in the ISO/TC 211 series of standards as data and information having an implicit or explicit association with a location relative to Earth (a geographic location or geographic position).
It is also call ...
. This is possible because Denmark is one of the flattest countries with the highest point at (ranking as the country with the 30th smallest elevation span), where the limit in default ''Minecraft'' is around above in-game sea level.
Taking advantage of the game's accessibility where other websites are censored, the non-governmental organization Reporters Without Borders have used an open ''Minecraft'' server to create the Uncensored Library
The Uncensored Library is a ''Minecraft'' server and map released by Reporters Without Borders and created by BlockWorks, DDB Berlin, and MediaMonks as an attempt to circumvent censorship in countries without freedom of the press. The libra ...
, a repository within the game of journalism by authors from countries (including Egypt, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam) who have been censored and arrested, such as Jamal Khashoggi
Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi (; ar, جمال أحمد خاشقجي, Jamāl ʾAḥmad Ḵāšuqjī, ; 13 October 1958 – 2 October 2018) was a Saudi journalist, dissident, author, columnist for ''Middle East Eye'' and ''The Washington Post'', and a ge ...
. The neoclassical virtual building was created over about 250 hours by an international team of 24 people.
Despite its unpredictable nature, ''Minecraft'' has become a popular game for speedrun
Speedrunning is the act of playing a video game, or section of a video game, with the goal of completing it as fast as possible. Speedrunning often involves following planned routes, which may incorporate sequence breaking and can exploit glit ...
ning, where players time themselves from being dropped into a new world to reaching The End and defeating the Ender Dragon boss. Some the speedrunners use a combination of mods, external programs, and debug menus, while other runners play the game in a more vanilla or more consistency-oriented way.
Education
''Minecraft'' has also been used in educational settings. In 2011, an educational organization named MinecraftEdu was formed with the goal of introducing ''Minecraft'' into schools. The group works with Mojang to make the game affordable and accessible to schools. The version of ''Minecraft'' through MinecraftEdu includes unique features to allow teachers to monitor the students' progress within the virtual world, such as receiving screenshots from students to show completion of a lesson. In September 2012, MinecraftEdu said that approximately 250,000 students around the world have access to ''Minecraft'' through the company. A wide variety of educational activities involving the game have been developed to teach students various subjects, including history, language arts and science. For an example, one teacher built a world consisting of various historical landmarks for students to learn and explore. Another teacher created a large-scale representation of an animal cell
Cell most often refers to:
* Cell (biology), the functional basic unit of life
Cell may also refer to:
Locations
* Monastic cell, a small room, hut, or cave in which a religious recluse lives, alternatively the small precursor of a monastery ...
within ''Minecraft'' that student could explore and learn how the cell functions work. Great Ormond Street Hospital
Great Ormond Street Hospital (informally GOSH or Great Ormond Street, formerly the Hospital for Sick Children) is a children's hospital located in the Bloomsbury area of the London Borough of Camden, and a part of Great Ormond Street Hospit ...
has been recreated in ''Minecraft'', and it proposed that patients can use it to virtually explore the hospital before they actually visit. ''Minecraft'' may also prove as an innovation in Computer Aided Design (CAD). ''Minecraft'' offers an outlet of collaboration in design and could have an impact on the industry.
With the introduction of redstone blocks to represent electrical circuits, users have been able to build functional virtual computers within ''Minecraft''. Such virtual creations include a working hard drive
A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magne ...
, an 8-bit virtual computer, and even a smaller-scale version of ''Minecraft'' that is playable and able to be built completely in survival mode with no external modifications. In at least one instance, a mod has been created to use this feature to teach younger players how to program within a language set by the virtual computer within a ''Minecraft'' world.
Another computational mechanic in ''Minecraft'' is the command block, a block that is only accesible in creative mode and can alter game logic. It has been used to create emulators for the Atari 2600
The Atari 2600, initially branded as the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS) from its release until November 1982, is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977, it popularized microprocesso ...
(including one by YouTube personality SethBling
SethBling (born April 3, 1987) is an American video game commentator and Twitch (service), Twitch Video game live streaming, video game live streamer known for YouTube videos focused around the 1990 Side-scrolling video game, side-scrolling Platf ...
) and the Game Boy Advance
The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, ...
.
In September 2014, the British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
in London announced plans to recreate its building along with all exhibits in ''Minecraft'' in conjunction with members of the public.
Microsoft and non-profit Code.org had teamed up to offer ''Minecraft''-based games, puzzles, and tutorials aimed to help teach children how to program; by March 2018, Microsoft and Code.org reported that more than 85 million children have used their tutorials.
Clones
After the release of ''Minecraft'', other video games were released with various similarities to ''Minecraft'', and some were described as being "clones
Clone or Clones or Cloning or Cloned or The Clone may refer to:
Places
* Clones, County Fermanagh
* Clones, County Monaghan, a town in Ireland
Biology
* Clone (B-cell), a lymphocyte clone, the massive presence of which may indicate a pathologi ...
". Examples include ''Ace of Spades
The Ace of Spades (also known as the Spadille and Death Card) is traditionally the highest and most valued card in the deck of playing cards in English-speaking countries. The actual value of the card varies from game to game.
Design
The orn ...
'', ''CastleMiner
''CastleMiner'' is a 2011 video game developed by American indie studio DigitalDNA Games and released on Xbox Live Indie Games on July 27, 2011. It is a block-building sandbox game that uses Xbox Live Avatars as the player characters. Less than ...
'', ''CraftWorld'', ''FortressCraft
''FortressCraft'' is a video game by British indie developer Projector Games, released on Xbox Live Indie Games on April 8, 2011. ''FortressCraft'' cites ''Minecraft'', ''Infiniminer'' and '' Dwarf Fortress'' as direct inspirations for the design ...
'', ''Terraria
''Terraria'' is an action-adventure sandbox game developed by Re-Logic. The game was first released for Windows on May 16, 2011, and has since been ported to several other platforms. The game features exploration, crafting, building, painting ...
'', BlockWorld 3D, ''Total Miner'', and ''Minetest
''Minetest'' is a free and open-source sandbox video game and game creation system with focus on voxel graphics. It is written primarily in C++ and makes use of the Irrlicht Engine. ''Minetest'' provides an API for users to write their own gam ...
''. David Frampton, designer of ''The Blockheads
The Blockheads are an English rock band formed in London in 1977. Originally fronted by lead singer Ian Dury as Ian Dury and the Blockheads or Ian and the Blockheads, the band has continued to perform since Dury's death in 2000. Current member ...
'', reported that one failure of his 2D game was the "low resolution pixel art" that too closely resembled the art in ''Minecraft'', which resulted in "some resistance" from fans. A homebrew adaptation of the alpha version of ''Minecraft'' for the Nintendo DS, titled ''DScraft'', has been released; it has been noted for its similarity to the original game considering the technical limitations of the system.
In response to Microsoft's acquisition of Mojang and their ''Minecraft'' IP, various developers announced further clone titles developed specifically for Nintendo's consoles, as they were the only major platforms to not officially receive ''Minecraft'' at the time. These clone titles include ''UCraft'' (Nexis Games), '' Cube Life: Island Survival'' (Cypronia
Cypronia (formerly Cypron Studios, originally Ablaze Entertainment) is a Slovak indie video game developer based in Michalovce. Cypronia is largely a Microsoft Windows, Nintendo DS, Nintendo DSi, Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One ...
), ''Discovery'' (Noowanda), ''Battleminer'' (Wobbly Tooth Games), ''Cube Creator 3D'' (Big John Games), and ''Stone Shire'' (Finger Gun Games). Despite this, the fears of fans were unfounded, with official ''Minecraft'' releases on Nintendo consoles eventually resuming.
Markus Persson made another similar game, ''Minicraft
''Minicraft'' is a 2D top-down action game designed and programmed by Markus Persson, the creator of ''Minecraft'', for a Ludum Dare, a 48-hour game programming competition. The game was released on December 19, 2011.
Gameplay
Similar to ''Mi ...
'', for a Ludum Dare
Ludum Dare (LD; , meaning 'to give a game', also referenced as LDJAM) is a game jam competition. It was founded by Geoff Howland and was first held in April 2002. It is currently run by Mike Kasprzak, who has been part of the team since the be ...
competition in 2011.
Minecon
Minecon is the annual official fan convention dedicated to ''Minecraft''. The first Minecon 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 Vegas ...
. 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. In 2016, Minecon was held in-person for the last time, with the following years featuring annual livestreams instead.
Notes
References
Further reading
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2011 video games
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