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Minecraft is a 2011
sandbox video game created by Swedish game developer
Markus Persson and later developed by
Mojang. The game allows players to build with a variety of different blocks in a
3D procedurally generated world, requiring creativity from players. Other activities in the game include exploration, resource gathering,
crafting, and combat.
Multiple
gameplay modes are available, including
survival mode
in which the player must acquire resources to build the world and
maintain health, creative mode where players have unlimited resources to
build with and the ability to fly, adventure mode where players can
play custom
maps
created by other players with certain restrictions, spectator mode
where players can freely move throughout a world without being allowed
to destroy or build anything and be affected by gravity and collisions,
and hardcore mode which is similar to survival mode but the player is
given only one chance and the
game difficulty is locked on hard. If the player dies on hardcore, the player does not respawn, and the world is unplayable. The
Java Edition of the game allows players to create
mods with new gameplay mechanics, items, and assets.
Minecraft received critical acclaim and has won numerous awards and accolades. Social media, parodies, adaptations, merchandise, and the
MineCon convention played large roles in popularizing the game. It has also been used in educational environments (
Minecraft Education Edition),
especially in the realm of computing systems, as virtual computers and
hardware devices have been built in it. By late 2018, over 154 million
copies had been sold across all platforms, making it the second
best-selling video game of all time, behind
Tetris. In September 2014,
Microsoft announced a deal to buy Mojang and the
Minecraft intellectual property for
US$2.5 billion, with the acquisition completed two months later. Spin-off games, such as
Minecraft: Story Mode, have also been released. By mid-2018, the game had around 91 million active players monthly.
Gameplay
Minecraft is a
3D sandbox game that has no specific goals to accomplish, allowing players a large amount of freedom in choosing how to play the game.
[17] However, there is an
achievement system.
[18] Gameplay is in the
first-person perspective by default, but players have the option for third-person perspective.
[19]
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.
[20]
The game world is virtually infinite and
procedurally generated as players explore it, using a
map seed that is obtained from the
system clock at the time of world creation (or manually specified by the player).
[21][22][23] 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.
[nb 1]
The game achieves this by splitting the world data into smaller
sections called "chunks" that are only created or loaded when players
are nearby.
[21] The world is divided into
biomes ranging from deserts to jungles to snowfields;
[24][25] the
terrain includes plains, mountains, forests, caves, and various lava/water bodies.
[23] The in-game
time system follows a day and night cycle, and one full cycle lasts 20 real-time minutes.
A few of the hostile monsters in Minecraft, displayed from left to right: zombie, spider, enderman, creeper, and skeleton
Players encounter various
non-player characters known as
mobs, such as animals, villagers, and hostile creatures.
[26] Passive mobs can be hunted for food and crafting materials, such as cows, pigs, and chickens. They
spawn in the daytime, while hostile mobs spawn during nighttime or in dark places such as caves—including large
spiders,
skeletons, and
zombies.
[23]
Some hostile mobs such as zombies, skeletons and drowned (underwater
versions of zombies), burn under the sun if they have no headgear.
[27] Some creatures unique to
Minecraft have been noted by reviewers,
[who?] including the creeper (an exploding creature that sneaks up on the player) and the enderman (a creature with the ability to
teleport, pick up, and place blocks).
[28]
There are also variants of mobs that spawn in different conditions, for
example zombies have husk variants that spawn in deserts.
[29]
Many commentators have described the game's physics system as unrealistic.
[30]
Liquids continuously flow for a limited horizontal distance from source
blocks, which can be removed by placing a solid block in its place or
by scooping it into a bucket. Complex systems can be built using
primitive mechanical devices, electrical circuits, and logic gates built
with an in-game material known as redstone.
[31]
Minecraft has two alternative dimensions besides the overworld (the main world): the Nether and the End.
[28] The Nether is a
hell-like
dimension accessed via player-built portals; it contains many unique
resources and can be used to travel great distances in the overworld.
[32] The player can build an optional boss mob called the Wither out of materials found in the Nether.
[33] The End is a barren land consisting of many islands. A
boss dragon called the Ender Dragon dwells on the main island.
[34] Killing the dragon cues the game's ending credits, written by Irish novelist
Julian Gough.
[35] Players are then allowed to teleport back to their original spawn point in the overworld and continue the game indefinitely.
[36]
The game consists of five game modes: survival, creative,
adventure, hardcore, and spectator. It also has a changeable difficulty
system of four levels. For example, the peaceful difficulty prevents
hostile creatures from spawning, and when playing on the hard difficulty
players can starve to death if their hunger bar is depleted.
[37][38]
Survival mode
The Minecraft crafting screen, showing the crafting pattern of a stone axe
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.
[23]
Depending on the difficulty, monsters spawn in darker areas outside a
certain radius of the character, requiring players to build a shelter at
night.
[23] The mode also has a
health bar
which is depleted by attacks from monsters, 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.
[38] 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.
[39]
Players can craft armor, which can help mitigate damage from attacks,
while weapons such as swords can be crafted to kill enemies and other
animals more easily. Players acquire resources to craft tools, such as
axes, shovels, or pickaxes, used to chop down trees, dig soil, and mine
ores, respectively; e.g. tools made of iron perform their tasks more
quickly than tools made of stone or wood and can be used more heavily
before they break. Players can construct furnaces which can smelt food,
process ores and materials, among others.
[40] Players may also trade goods with villager NPCs through a bartering system involving trading
emeralds for different goods, and vice versa.
[41][26]
The game has an inventory system, and players can carry a limited
number of items. Upon dying, items in the players' inventories are
dropped, and players re-spawn at their
spawn point, which is set by default where players begin the game, and can be reset if players sleep in a
bed.
[42] Dropped items can be recovered if players can reach them before they despawn, which takes 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.
[37] Enchanted items are generally more powerful, last longer, or have other special effects.
[37]
Hardcore mode is a survival mode variant that is locked to the hardest setting and has
permadeath, which permanently deletes the world if the player dies.
[43] If a player dies on a multiplayer server set to hardcore, they are put into spectator mode.
[44]
Creative mode
An example of a creation constructed in Minecraft
In creative mode, players have access to all resources and items in
the game through the inventory menu, and can place or remove them
instantly.
[45]
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.
[46][47] The game mode helps players focus on building and creating large projects.
[45]
Adventure mode
Adventure mode was added to
Minecraft in version 1.3; it was designed specifically so that players could experience user-crafted custom maps and adventures.
[48][49][50]
Gameplay is similar to survival mode but introduces various player
restrictions, which can be applied to the game world by the creator of
the map. This forces players to obtain the required items and experience
adventures in the way that the map maker intended.
[50]
Another addition designed for custom maps is the command block; this
block allows map makers to expand interactions with players through
scripted server commands.
[51]
Spectator mode
Spectator mode allows players to fly around through blocks and watch
gameplay without directly interacting. In this mode, instead of having
an inventory, players have the ability to teleport to other players. It
is also possible to view from the perspective of another player or
creature.
[52]
Multiplayer
Multiplayer in
Minecraft is available through direct
game-to-game multiplayer, LAN play, local split screen, and servers
(player-hosted and business-hosted). It enables multiple players to
interact and communicate with each other on a single world.
[53]
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 support, allowing players to join a world on locally interconnected computers without a server setup.
[54] Minecraft multiplayer servers are guided by server operators (
op
for short), 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 addresses are allowed or disallowed to enter the server.
[53]
Multiplayer servers have a wide range of activities, with some servers
having their own unique rules and customs. One of the largest and most
popular servers is
Hypixel, which is visited by over 14 million players.
[55][56] Player versus player combat (PvP) can be enabled to allow fighting between players.
[57]
Many servers have custom plugins that allow actions that are not
normally possible. 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.
[58] 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 3000 people to play on their server, with up to ten players online at one time.
[59] The
Minecraft: Java Edition Realms servers do not support user-made plugins, but players can play custom
Minecraft maps.
[60] Minecraft Realms servers support user-made add-ons, resource packs, behavior packs, and custom
Minecraft maps.
[59] At
Electronic Entertainment Expo 2016, it was announced that Realms would enable
Minecraft to support
cross-platform play between Windows 10, iOS, and Android platforms starting in June 2016,
[61] with Xbox One and Nintendo Switch support to come later in 2017,
[62] and support for
virtual reality devices. On 31 July 2017,
Mojang released the beta version of the update allowing cross-platform play.
[63] Realms also supports the Xbox One, Windows 10, Android, iOS, and Kindle platforms.
[59]
Development
Markus "Notch" Persson, the creator of Minecraft, at GDC in 2011
Markus "Notch" Persson began developing the game as a project.
[64] He was inspired to create
Minecraft by several other games such as
Dwarf Fortress,
Dungeon Keeper, and later
Infiniminer.
At the time, he had visualized an isometric 3D building game that would
be a cross between his inspirations and had made some early prototypes.
[64] Infiniminer
heavily influenced the style of gameplay, including the first-person
aspect of the game, the "blocky" visual style and the block-building
fundamentals. However, unlike
Infiniminer, Persson wanted
Minecraft to have
RPG elements.
[65]
Minecraft was first released to the public on 17 May 2009, as a developmental release on
TIGSource forums,
[66] later becoming known as the
Classic version. Further milestones dubbed as
Survival Test,
Indev and
Infdev
were released between September 2009 and February 2010, although the
game saw updates in-between. The first major update, dubbed
alpha
version, was released on 28 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.
[67]
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).
[67]
To back the development of
Minecraft, Persson set up a video game company,
Mojang, with the money earned from the game.
[68][69][70] 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.
[71] Over the course of the development, Mojang hired several new employees to work on the project.
[72]
Mojang moved the game out of beta and released the full version on 18 November 2011.
[73] The game has been continuously updated since the release, with changes ranging from new game content to new server hosts.
[74] On 1 December 2011,
Jens "Jeb" Bergensten took full creative control over
Minecraft, replacing Persson as lead designer.
[75] On 28 February 2012, Mojang announced that they had hired the developers of the popular server platform "CraftBukkit"
[57] to improve
Minecraft's support of
server modifications.
[76] This acquisition also included Mojang apparently taking full ownership of the CraftBukkit modification,
[77] 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 and
Lesser General Public License.
[78] On 15 September 2014,
Microsoft 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
"trying to do the right thing".
[79][80] It was completed on 6 November 2014, and led to Persson becoming one of
Forbes' "World's Billionaires".
[81][82][83][84]
Soundtrack
Minecraft's music and sound effects were produced by German musician Daniel Rosenfeld, better known as
C418.
[85] The
background music in
Minecraft is instrumental
ambient music. On 4 March 2011, Rosenfeld released a
soundtrack, titled
Minecraft – Volume Alpha; it includes most of the tracks featured in
Minecraft, as well as other music not featured in the game.
[86] The video game blog
Kotaku chose the music in
Minecraft as one of the best video game soundtracks of 2011.
[87] On 9 November 2013, Rosenfeld released the second official soundtrack, titled
Minecraft – Volume Beta, which includes the music that was added in later versions of the game.
[88][89] 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 on 21 August 2015.
[90][91]
Release
Personal computer versions
The game can run on multiple operating systems, including
Microsoft Windows,
macOS, and
Linux.
[53][92] Apart from
Minecraft: Java Edition and
Minecraft for Windows 10, there are other versions of
Minecraft for PC, including
Minecraft Classic,
Minecraft 4k, and
Minecraft: Education Edition.
Minecraft Classic is an older version of
Minecraft that was first available online and can currently be played through the launcher. Unlike newer versions of
Minecraft,
the classic version is free to play, though it is no longer updated. 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. There are no computer creatures in this mode, and environmental
hazards such as lava do not damage players. Some blocks function
differently since their behavior was later changed during development.
[93][94][95]
Minecraft 4k is a simplified version of
Minecraft similar to the classic version that was developed for the
Java 4K game programming contest "in way less than 4 kilobytes".
[96]
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.
[97]
Minecraft: Education Edition is a version of
Minecraft created specifically for educational institutions and was launched 1 November 2016.
[98] It includes a Chemistry Resource Pack,
[99] free lesson plans on the Minecraft Education website, and two free companion applications: Code Connection and Classroom Mode.
[100]
Minecraft for Windows 10 is currently exclusive to Microsoft's
Windows 10 operating system. The
beta for it launched on the
Windows Store on 29 July 2015.
[101] This version has the ability to play with
Xbox Live friends, and to play local multiplayer with owners of
Minecraft
on mobile platforms. Other features include the ability to use multiple
control schemes, such as a gamepad, keyboard, or touchscreen (for
Microsoft Surface and other touchscreen-enabled devices),
virtual reality support, and to record and take screenshots in-game via the built-in GameDVR.
[102]
Console versions
An
Xbox 360 version of the game, developed by
4J Studios, was released on 9 May 2012.
[103][104] On 22 March 2012, it was announced that
Minecraft would be the flagship game in a new Xbox Live promotion called
Arcade NEXT.
[104]
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.
[105][106] The worlds in the Xbox 360 version are also not "infinite", and are essentially barricaded by invisible walls.
[106]
The Xbox 360 version was originally similar in content to older PC
versions, but is being gradually updated to bring it closer to the
current PC version.
[103][107][108] An
Xbox One version featuring larger worlds among other enhancements
[109] was released on 5 September 2014.
[109]
Versions of the game for the
PlayStation 3 and
PlayStation 4 were released on 17 December 2013 and 4 September 2014 respectively.
[8] The PlayStation 4 version was announced as a launch title, though it was eventually delayed.
[110][111] A version for
PS Vita was also released in October 2014.
[112] Like the Xbox versions, the PlayStation versions were developed by 4J Studios.
[113]
On 17 December 2015,
Minecraft: Wii U Edition was released. The Wii U version received a physical release on 17 June 2016 in North America,
[114] in Japan on 23 June 2016,
[115] and in Europe on 30 June 2016.
[116] 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.
[117] During a
Nintendo Direct presentation on 13 September 2017, Nintendo announced that
Minecraft: New Nintendo 3DS 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.
[16]
Pocket Edition
On 16 August 2011,
Minecraft: Pocket Edition was released for the
Xperia Play on the
Android Market as an early alpha version. It was then released for several other compatible devices on 8 October 2011.
[118][119] An iOS version of
Minecraft was released on 17 November 2011.
[120]
A port was made available for
Windows Phones shortly after Microsoft acquired Mojang.
[121]
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 said that the
Pocket Edition of
Minecraft is written in
C++ and not Java, due to iOS not being able to support Java.
[122] Gradual updates are periodically released to bring the port closer to the PC version.
[123] On 10 December 2014, in observance of Mojang's acquisition by Microsoft, a port of
Pocket Edition was released for
Windows Phone 8.1.
[124] On 18 January 2017, Microsoft announced that it would no longer maintain the
Windows Phone versions of
Pocket Edition.
[125]
On 2 April 2014, a version of
Minecraft based on the
Pocket Edition was released for the
Amazon Fire.
[126] On 29 July 2015, a version of
Minecraft based on the
Pocket Edition was released for
Windows 10.
[127] On 19 December 2016, the full version of
Minecraft: Pocket Edition was released on
iOS,
Android,
Windows Phone and
Windows 10, along with the release of the game based on the
Pocket Edition for the
Apple TV.
[14]
Bedrock Edition
On 31 July 2017, the
Pocket Edition portion of the name was dropped and the apps were renamed to
Minecraft.
[128] The
Pocket Edition's Bedrock Engine was ported to non-mobile platforms:
Windows 10,
Xbox One,
Gear VR,
Apple TV, and
Fire TV,
[129][130][131] and later
Nintendo Switch. The various
Minecraft versions that use the Beckrock Engine are collectively referred to as the
Bedrock Edition.
Raspberry Pi
A version of
Minecraft for the
Raspberry Pi was officially revealed at
MineCon 2012. Mojang stated that the Pi Edition is similar to the
Pocket Edition
except that it is downgraded to an older version, and with the added
ability of using text commands to edit the game world. Players can open
the game code and use programming languages to manipulate things in the
game world.
[132] The game was leaked on 20 December 2012, but was quickly pulled off.
[133] It was officially released on 11 February 2013.
[134] It was announced that there would be no further updates for this version in 2016.
[135]
Virtual reality
Early on, Persson planned to support the
Oculus Rift
with a port of Minecraft, however after Facebook acquired Oculus in
2013 he abruptly canceled plans noting "Facebook creeps me out."
[136][137] 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 of the
Minecraft VR modification known as
Vivecraft ported the mod to
OpenVR, and is oriented towards supporting
HTC Vive hardware.
[138] On 15 August 2016, Microsoft launched official Oculus Rift support for
Minecraft on Windows 10.
[138] 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.
[138] Also available is a
Gear VR version, titled
Minecraft: Gear VR Edition.
[139] Windows Mixed Reality support was added in 2017. The only officially supported VR versions of
Minecraft are
Minecraft: Gear VR Edition and
Minecraft on Windows 10 for Oculus Rift and Windows Mixed Reality headsets.
[140]
Downloadable content
A wide variety of user-generated
downloadable content for
Minecraft, such as modifications,
texture packs and custom maps, exists and is available on the Internet. Modifications of the
Minecraft code, called
mods, add a variety of gameplay changes, ranging from new blocks, new items, new mobs to entire arrays of mechanisms to craft.
[141][142] The modding community is responsible for a substantial supply of mods from ones that enhance gameplay, such as
minimaps, waypoints, and durability counters, to ones that add to the game elements from
Pokémon,
Portal, and
The Hunger Games. To make mods easier to create and install, Mojang announced in November 2012 that it planned to add an official modding
application programming interface (API).
[57]
Texture packs that alter the game's textures and
HUD are also available, as created by the community.
[143]
In July 2013, texture packs were replaced with "resource packs", which
have the same role as texture packs, but allow custom audio as well.
[144]
Players are also create their own maps, which often contain specific
rules, challenges, puzzles and quests, and share them for others to
play.
[48] In August 2012, Mojang added adventure mode
[49] for custom maps and in October 2012, Mojang added command blocks,
[51]
which were created specially for custom maps. In February 2016, Mojang
added 2 new versions (Repeat, and Chain) of the classic command block,
which were also created specifically for custom maps.
[145][146]
The
Xbox 360 Edition supports downloadable content, which is available to purchase via the
Xbox Games Store; these content packs usually contain additional character skins.
[147]
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.
[148] 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 franchise.
[149] Unlike the PC version, however, the
Xbox 360 Edition does not support player-made mods or custom maps.
[150] 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.
[151] A mash-up pack based on
Fallout was announced for release on the
Wii U Edition.
[152]
In June 2017, Mojang released an update known as the "Discovery Update".
[153]
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.
[154][155]
Spin-off games
Minecraft: Story Mode
Minecraft: Story Mode, an episodic spin-off game developed by
Telltale Games
in collaboration with Mojang, was announced in December 2014.
Consisting of five episodes plus three additional downloadable episodes,
the standalone game is a narrative and player choice-driven, and it was
released on Microsoft Windows, OS X, iOS, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4,
Xbox 360 and Xbox One via download on 13 October 2015.
[156][157][158] A physical disc that grants access to all episodes was released for the aforementioned four consoles on 27 October.
[158] Wii U [159] and Nintendo Switch version were also later released
[160][161] The first trailer for the game was shown at MineCon on 4 July 2015, revealing some of the game's features. In
Minecraft: Story Mode, players control Jesse (voiced by
Patton Oswalt and
Catherine Taber),
[158]
who sets out on a journey with his or her friends to find The Order of
the Stone—four adventurers who slayed an Ender Dragon—in order to save
their world.
Brian Posehn,
Ashley Johnson,
Scott Porter,
Martha Plimpton,
Dave Fennoy,
Corey Feldman,
Billy West and
Paul Reubens portray the rest of the cast.
[162]
Minecraft: Education Edition
In January 2016, Microsoft announced a new tool for education, called
Minecraft: Education Edition, which was released on 1 November 2016.
Minecraft has already been used in classrooms around the world to teach subjects ranging from core
STEM topics to arts and poetry.
Minecraft: Education Edition is designed specifically for classroom use. The Education Edition gives teachers the tools they need to use
Minecraft on an everyday basis.
[163][164]
There are few differences between regular
Minecraft and the
Education Edition. The main concept is the same – the game is an open sandbox world. The students' characters in
Education Edition
are able to retain characteristics. Students are be able to download
the game at home, without having to buy their own version of the game.
The last large difference is that students can take in-game photos with a
camera item. These photos are stored in an online notebook with the
students' online notes. These online notebooks can be shared with other
students.
[165]
Education Edition has brought some partnerships from other traditional publishers to bring educational content within the game.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt developed a full version of
The Oregon Trail within
Education Edition, keeping the entirety of the original game while adding other educational activities alongside it.
[166]
Users who play the Bedrock (or cross-play) edition can activate Education Edition features in the options section of the game.
Minecraft: Dungeons
Minecraft Dungeons is a planned
dungeon crawler game that was announced as in development at
Minecon 2018. Set in the Minecraft universe the game can be played alone or in a party of up to 4 people.
[167]
Reception
|
|
This article is missing information about the individual reception of each version of the game. Please expand the article to include this information. Further details may exist on the talk page. (October 2018) |
Minecraft received critical acclaim, praising the creative freedom it grants players in-game, as well as the ease of enabling
emergent gameplay.
[191][192][193] Critics have praised
Minecraft's complex crafting system, commenting that it is an important aspect of the game's open-ended gameplay.
[183] Most publications were impressed by the game's "blocky" graphics, with
IGN describing them as "instantly memorable".
[17] Reviewers also liked the game's adventure elements, noting that the game creates a good balance between exploring and building.
[183]
The game's multiplayer feature has been generally received favorably,
with IGN commenting that "adventuring is always better with friends".
[17] Jaz McDougall of
PC Gamer commended
Minecraft,
deeming it "intuitively interesting and contagiously fun, with an
unparalleled scope for creativity and memorable experiences".
[188] It has been regarded as having introduced millions of children to the digital world, insofar as its basic
game mechanics are logically analogous to computer commands.
[194]
Reviewers have said the game's lack of in-game tutorials and
instructions make it difficult for new players to learn how to play the
game. IGN was disappointed about the troublesome steps needed to set up
multiplayer servers, calling it a "hassle".
[17] Critics also said visual glitches that occur periodically.
[183] Despite its release out of beta in 2011,
GameSpot said the game had an "unfinished feel", adding that some game elements seem "incomplete or thrown together in haste".
[183]
A review of the alpha version, by Scott Munro of the
Daily Record, called it "already something special" and urged readers to buy it.
[195] Jim Rossignol of
Rock, Paper, Shotgun also recommended the alpha of the game, calling it "a kind of generative 8-bit
Lego Stalker".
[196] On 17 September 2010, gaming
webcomic Penny Arcade began a series of comics and news posts about the addictiveness of the game.
[197]
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.
[150]
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 criticised.
[185][198][199]
After updates adding more content, Pocket Edition started receiving
more positive reviews. Reviewers complimented the controls and the
graphics, but still noted a lack of content.
[185]
Sales
Minecraft surpassed over a million purchases less than a month after entering its beta phase in early 2011.
[200][201] At the same time, the game had no
publisher backing and has never been commercially advertised except through
word of mouth,
[202] and various unpaid references in popular media such as the
Penny Arcade webcomic.
[203] 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.
[204] In November 2011, prior to the game's full release,
Minecraft beta surpassed 16 million registered users and 4 million purchases.
[205] By March 2012,
Minecraft had become the 6th
best-selling PC game of all time.
[206] As of 10 October 2014, the game has sold 17 million copies on PC, becoming the best-selling PC game of all time.
[207] As of 10 October 2014, the game has sold approximately 60 million copies across all platforms, making it one of the
best-selling video games of all time.
[207][208] On 25 February 2014, the game reached 100 million registered users.
[209] As of January 2018, over 154 million copies had been sold across all platforms,
[210] making it the second
best-selling video game of all time behind
Tetris.
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.
[211] Within a week of being on the Xbox Live Marketplace,
Minecraft sold upwards of a million copies.
[212] GameSpot announced in December 2012 that
Minecraft sold over 4.48 million copies since the game debuted on
Xbox Live Arcade in May 2012.
[213] 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 users per day.
[214] As of 4 April 2014, the Xbox 360 version has sold 12 million copies.
[215] In addition,
Minecraft: Pocket Edition has reached a figure of 21 million in sales.
[216] The PlayStation 3 version sold one million copies in five weeks.
[217] 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.
[218]
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.
[219] 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.
[220] Minecraft helped improve Microsoft's total first-party revenue by $63 million for the 2015 second quarter.
[221]
Awards
In July 2010,
PC Gamer listed
Minecraft as the fourth-best game to play at work.
[222] In December of that year,
Good Game selected
Minecraft as their choice for Best Downloadable Game of 2010,
[223] Gamasutra named it the eighth best game of the year as well as the eighth best indie game of the year,
[224][225] and Rock, Paper, Shotgun named it the "game of the year".
[226] 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.
[227] It was also awarded Game of the Year by
PC Gamer UK.
[228]
The game was nominated for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize, Technical
Excellence, and Excellence in Design awards at the March 2011
Independent Games Festival and won the Grand Prize and the community-voted Audience Award.
[229][230] 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.
[231][232] It also won
GameCity's video game arts award.
[233] 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 exhibit that opened on 16 March 2012.
[234][235] At the 2011
Spike Video Game Awards,
Minecraft won the award for Best Independent Game and was nominated in the Best PC Game category.
[236][237] In 2012, at the
British Academy Video Games Awards,
Minecraft was nominated in the GAME Award of 2011 category and Persson received The Special Award.
[238] In 2012,
Minecraft XBLA was awarded a
Golden Joystick Award in the Best Downloadable Game category,
[239] and a
TIGA Games Industry Award in the Best Arcade Game category.
[240] In 2013 it was nominated as the family game of the year at the
British Academy Video Games Awards.
[241] Minecraft Console Edition won the award for
TIGA Game Of The Year in 2014.
[242] In 2015, the game placed 6th on
USgamer's The 15 Best Games Since 2000 list.
[243] In 2016,
Minecraft placed 6th on
Time's The 50 Best Video Games of All Time list.
[244]
Minecraft was nominated for the
2013 Kids' Choice Awards for Favorite App, but lost to
Temple Run.
[245] It was nominated for the
2014 Kids' Choice Awards for Favorite Video Game, but lost to
Just Dance 2014.
[246] The game later won the award for the Most Addicting Game at the
2015 Kids' Choice Awards.
[247] In addition, the
Java Edition was nominated for "Favorite Video Game" at the
2018 Kids' Choice Awards.
[248][249]
Cultural impact
Social media sites such as
YouTube,
Facebook, and
Reddit played a significant role in popularising
Minecraft.
[250] Research conducted by the
University of Pennsylvania's
Annenberg School of Communication showed that one-third of
Minecraft players learned about the game via Internet videos.
[251] 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.
[252] 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 4 million
Minecraft-related YouTube videos had been uploaded.
[253] Some popular commentators have received employment at
Machinima, a gaming video company that owns a highly watched entertainment channel on YouTube.
[252] The Yogscast is a British organization that regularly produces
Minecraft videos; their YouTube channel has attained billions of views, and their panel at MineCon 2011 had the highest attendance.
[252][254] Other well known YouTube personnel include
Jordan Maron, who has created many
Minecraft parodies, including "Minecraft Style", a parody of the internationally successful single "
Gangnam Style" by South Korean rapper
PSY.
[255]
Herobrine is a major community icon of
Minecraft, who first appeared as a single image on
4chan's /v/ board. According to rumors, Herobrine appears in players' worlds and builds strange constructions.
[256] However, Mojang has confirmed that Herobrine has never existed in
Minecraft, and there are no plans to add Herobrine.
[257]
Minecraft has been referenced by other video games, such as
RuneScape,
[citation needed] Torchlight II,
Borderlands 2,
Choplifter HD,
Super Meat Boy,
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim,
The Binding of Isaac,
The Stanley Parable, and
FTL: Faster Than Light.
[258][259] It was also referenced by electronic music artist
deadmau5 in his performances.
[260] A simulation of the game was featured in
Lady Gaga's "
G.U.Y." music video.
[261] The game is also referenced heavily in "
Informative Murder Porn", the second episode of the
seventeenth season of the animated television series
South Park.
[262] "
Luca$", the seventeenth episode of the
25th season of the animated sitcom
The Simpsons was inspired by
Minecraft; Persson responded by tweeting "I'm not sure how I feel about it."
[263]
Clones
After the release of
Minecraft, some video games were released with various similarities with
Minecraft, and some were called "
clones" of the game. Examples include
Ace of Spades,
CastleMiner,
CraftWorld,
FortressCraft,
Terraria, and
Total Miner.
[264] David Frampton, designer of
The Blockheads, 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.
[265] 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.
[266]
In response to Microsoft's acquisition of Mojang and their
Minecraft
IP, various developers announced even further clone titles that were
being developed specifically for Nintendo's consoles, as they were the
only major platforms to not officially receive
Minecraft at the time.
[267] These clone titles include
UCraft (Nexis Games),
[268] Cube Life: Island Survival (
Cypronia),
[269] Discovery (noowanda),
[270] Battleminer (Wobbly Tooth Games),
[271] Cube Creator 3D (Big John Games),
[272] and
Stone Shire (Finger Gun Games).
[273] Despite this the fears were unfounded with official Minecraft releases on Nintendo consoles eventually resuming.
[274][159][13]
Adaptations
In 2012, Mojang received offers from Hollywood producers who wanted to produce
Minecraft-related TV shows; however, Mojang stated that they would only engage in such projects when "the right idea comes along".
[253] By February 2014, Persson revealed that Mojang was in talks with
Warner Bros. regarding a
Minecraft film.
[275][276] and by that October, it was "in its early days of development".
[277][278] The film was scheduled for release on 24 May 2019, and was going to be directed by
Shawn Levy and written by
Jason Fuchs.
[279][280] Levy later dropped out and was replaced by
Rob McElhenney.
[281][282] In August 2018, McElhenney left the film and Fuchs was replaced with
Aaron and Adam Nee resulting in its release date getting delayed.
[283]
In addition, a documentary about the development of Mojang and
Minecraft was released in December 2012. Titled
Minecraft: The Story of Mojang, the film was produced by
2 Player Productions.
[284] In 2014, an attempt to
crowdfund a
fan film through
Kickstarter was shut down after Persson refused to let the filmmakers use the license.
[285][286]
Merchandise
A physical prop of a diamond sword
A Lego set based on
Minecraft called
Lego Minecraft was released on 6 June 2012.
[287] The set, called "Micro World", centres around the game's default
player character and a creeper.
[288] Mojang submitted the concept of
Minecraft merchandise to Lego in December 2011 for the
Lego Cuusoo program, from which it quickly received 10,000 votes by users, prompting Lego to review the concept.
[289] Lego Cuusoo approved the concept in January 2012 and began developing sets based on
Minecraft.
[289]
Two more sets based on the Nether and village areas of the game were
released on 1 September 2013. A fourth Micro World set, the End, was
released in June 2014. Six more, larger
Lego minifigure scale, sets became available November 2014.
[290]
Mojang collaborates with
Jinx, an online game merchandise store, to sell
Minecraft merchandise, such as clothing, foam pickaxes, and toys of creatures in the game.
[68] By May 2012, over 1 million dollars were made from
Minecraft merchandise sales. T-shirts and socks were the most popular products.
[253] In March 2013 Mojang signed a deal with the
Egmont Group, a children's book publisher, to create
Minecraft handbooks,
annuals, poster books, and magazines.
[291][292][293]
MineCon
MineCon is an official
convention dedicated to
Minecraft. The first one was held in November 2011 at the
Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino in
Las Vegas. All 4,500 tickets for MineCon 2011 were sold out by 31 October.
[294] 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.
[295] After MineCon, there was an
Into The Nether after-party with deadmau5.
[296] Free codes were given to every attendee of MineCon that unlocked alpha versions of Mojang's
Scrolls, as well as an additional non-Mojang game,
Cobalt, developed by Oxeye Game Studios.
[297] Similar events occurred in MineCon 2012, which took place in
Disneyland Paris from in November.
[298] The tickets for the 2012 event sold out in less than two hours.
[299] MineCon 2013 was held in
Orlando in November as well.
[300][301] MineCon 2015 was held in
London in July.
[302] MineCon 2016 was held in
Anaheim in September.
[303] MineCon 2017 was held as a
livestream instead of being held at a show floor. Titled "MineCon Earth", it was streamed live on November.
[nb 2]
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.
[252] In 2012, a member of the
Human Dynamics group at the
MIT Media Lab, Cody Sumter, said: "Notch hasn't just built a game. He's tricked 40 million people into learning to use a
CAD program." Various software has been developed to allow virtual designs to be printed using professional
3D printers or personal printers such as
MakerBot and
RepRap.
[306]
In September 2012, Mojang began the
Block By Block project in cooperation with
UN Habitat to create real-world environments in
Minecraft.
[307]
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 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'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.
[308]
In April 2014, the Danish Geodata Agency generated all of Denmark in fullscale in
Minecraft based on their own geodata.
[309] This is possible because Denmark is
one of the flattest countries with the highest point at 171 meters (ranking as the country with the
30th smallest elevation span), where the limit in default
Minecraft is around 192 meters above in-game sea level.
Minecraft has also been used in educational settings.
[310] 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. In September 2012, MinecraftEdu said that
approximately 250,000 students around the world have access to
Minecraft through the company.
[311]
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.
[311] Great Ormond Street Hospital
has been recreated in Minecraft, and it proposed that patients can use
it to virtually explore the hospital before they actually visit.
[312]
With the introduction of redstone blocks to represent electrical
circuits, users have been able to build functional virtual computers
within
Minecraft.
[313] Such virtual creations include a working
hard drive,
[314] an 8-bit virtual computer,
[315] and
emulators for the
Atari 2600 (by
SethBling)
[316] and
Game Boy Advance.
[317]
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.
[318]
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.
[319]
In September 2014, the
British Museum in London announced plans to recreate its building along with all exhibits in
Minecraft in conjunction with members of the public.
[320]
