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Minecraft

Minecraft is a sandbox video game developed by

Minecraft
Mojang Studios. The game was created by Markus
"Notch" Persson in the Java programming language and
released as a public alpha for personal computers in
2009 before officially releasing in November 2011, with
Jens Bergensten taking over development. Minecraft
has since been ported to various platforms and became
the best-selling video game of all time, with 200 million
copies sold across all platforms and 126 million monthly
active users as of 2020.[19]

In Minecraft, players explore a blocky, procedurally-

generated 3D world with infinite terrain, and may
discover and extract raw materials, craft tools and items,
and build structures or earthworks. Depending on game
mode, players can fight computer-controlled "mobs", as
well as cooperate with or compete against other players
in the same world. Game modes include a survival
mode, in which players must acquire resources to build Developer(s) Mojang Studios[a]
the world and maintain health, and a creative mode,
where players have unlimited resources. Players can Publisher(s) Mojang Studios[b]
modify the game to create new gameplay mechanics, Microsoft Studios[c]
items, and assets. Sony Interactive Entertainment[d]

Minecraft has been critically acclaimed, winning several Designer(s) Markus Persson[e]
awards and being cited as one of the greatest and most Jens Bergensten[f]
influential video games of all time, being inducted into Artist(s) Markus Toivonen
the World Video Game Hall of Fame in June 2020.[20] Jasper Boerstra
Social media, parodies, adaptations, merchandise, and
the annual MineCon conventions played large roles in Composer(s) C418[g]
popularizing the game. It has also been used in Series Minecraft
educational environments, especially in the realm of
Platform(s) Windows, OS X, Linux
computing systems, as virtual computers and hardware
devices have been built in it. In 2014, Mojang and the Android
Minecraft intellectual property were purchased by iOS
Microsoft for US$2.5 billion.[21][22][23] A number of Xbox 360
spin-off games have also been produced, such as Raspberry Pi
Minecraft: Story Mode, Minecraft Dungeons, and Windows Phone
Minecraft Earth.
PlayStation 3
Fire OS
PlayStation 4
Contents Xbox One
Gameplay PlayStation Vita

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Game modes Universal Windows Platform

Multiplayer Wii U
Customization tvOS
Development Nintendo Switch
Java Edition New Nintendo 3DS
Bedrock Edition Release 18 November 2011[h]
Education Edition Windows, OS X, Linux
Console editions WW: 18 November 2011[3]
Raspberry Pi Android
Minecraft China WW: 7 October 2011[4]
Virtual reality iOS
WW: 17 November 2011[5]
Spin-off games
Xbox 360
Minecraft: Story Mode
WW: 9 May 2012[6]
Minecraft Classic
Raspberry Pi
Minecraft Earth WW: 11 February 2013[7]
Minecraft Dungeons PlayStation 3
Reception NA: 17 December 2013
Sales EU: 18 December 2013
Awards Fire OS
WW: 2 April 2014[8]
Cultural impact
PlayStation 4
Applications
WW: 4 September 2014[9]
Clones
Xbox One
Films
WW: 5 September 2014[10]
Novels PlayStation Vita
Merchandise NA: 14 October 2014[11]
MINECON EU: 15 October 2014
Footnotes Windows Phone
Notes WW: 10 December 2014[12]
References Windows 10
Further reading WW: 29 July 2015[13]
Wii U
External links
WW: 17 December 2015[14]
tvOS
WW: 19 December 2016[15]
Gameplay Nintendo Switch
NA: 11 May 2017
Minecraft is a 3D sandbox game that has no specific
goals to accomplish, allowing players a large amount of PAL: 12 May 2017
freedom in choosing how to play the game.[24] However, New Nintendo 3DS
there is an achievement system,[25] known as WW: 13 September 2017[17]
"advancements" in the Java Edition of the game.[26] EU: 20 September 2018[16]
Gameplay is in the first-person perspective by default, Sandbox, survival
Genre(s)
but players have the option for third-person
perspective.[27] The game world is composed of rough Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer
3D objects—mainly cubes and fluids, and commonly

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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.[28] Many commentators have described the game's physics
system as unrealistic;[29] 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.[30] The game
also contains a material known as redstone, which can be used to make primitive mechanical devices,
electrical circuits, and logic gates, allowing for the construction of many complex systems.[31]

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).[32][33][34] 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 An example of Minecraft's
the center.[i] The game achieves this by splitting the world data into procedurally-generated terrain,
smaller sections called "chunks" that are only created or loaded including a village and the default
when players are nearby.[32] The world is divided into biomes skin Steve
ranging from deserts to jungles to snowfields;[35][36] the terrain
includes plains, mountains, forests, caves, and various lava/water
bodies.[34] The in-game time system follows a day and night cycle, and one full cycle lasts 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 from mobs, as well as having other difficulty-specific effects. For example, the peaceful
difficulty prevents hostile mobs from spawning, and the hard difficulty allows players to starve to death
if their hunger bar is depleted.[37][38] Once selected, the difficulty can be changed, but the game mode is
locked and can only be changed with cheats.

New players have a randomly selected default character skin of

either Steve or Alex,[39] but the option to create custom skins was
made available in 2010.[40] Players encounter various non-player
characters known as mobs, such as animals, villagers, and hostile
creatures.[41] Passive mobs, such as cows, pigs, and chickens, can be
hunted for food and crafting materials. They spawn in the daytime,
while hostile mobs—including large spiders, skeletons, and zombies
A few of the hostile mobs in —spawn during nighttime or in dark places such as caves.[34] Some
Minecraft, displayed from left to hostile mobs, such as zombies, skeletons and drowned (underwater
right: a zombie, spider, enderman,[j] versions of zombies), burn under the sun if they have no
creeper, and a skeleton. headgear.[42] 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). [43] There are also variants of mobs that spawn in different conditions; for example,
zombies have husk variants that spawn in deserts.[44]

Minecraft has two alternative dimensions besides the overworld (the main world): the Nether and the
End.[43] 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, due to every block traveled in the
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Nether being equivalent to 8 blocks traveled in the overworld.[45] The player can build an optional boss
mob called the Wither out of materials found in the Nether.[46] The End is a barren land consisting of
many islands. A boss dragon called the Ender Dragon dwells on the main island.[47] 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.[48] Players are then teleported back to their spawn point and may continue
the game indefinitely.[49]

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.[34] Depending on the difficulty, monsters spawn in
darker areas outside a certain radius of the character, requiring
players to build a shelter at night.[34] The mode also has a health bar
which is depleted by attacks from mobs, falls, drowning, falling into
lava, suffocation, starvation, and other events.[50] Players also have a
The crafting menu in Minecraft,
hunger bar, which must be periodically refilled by eating food in-
showing the crafting recipe of a
game, except in peaceful difficulty.[51] If the hunger bar is depleted, stone axe as well as some other
automatic healing will stop and eventually health will deplete.[38] blocks and items in the player's
Health replenishes when players have a nearly full hunger bar or inventory.
continuously on peaceful difficulty.[50]

Players can craft a wide variety of items in Minecraft.[52] Craftable items include armor, which mitigates
damage from attacks; weapons (such as swords), which allows monsters and animals to be killed more
easily; and tools, 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.[53] Players may also exchange goods with a villager (NPC) through a trading system, which
involves trading emeralds for different goods and vice versa.[54][41]

The game has an inventory system, allowing players to carry a limited number of items.[55] Upon dying,
items in the players' inventories are dropped unless the game is configured 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[56] or using a respawn anchor.[57][58] 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.[37] Enchanted items are generally more
powerful, last longer, or have other special effects.[37]

Hardcore mode

Hardcore mode is a survival mode variant that is locked to the hardest setting and has permadeath.[59] If
a player dies in a hardcore world, they are no longer allowed to interact with it, so they can either be put
into spectator mode and explore the world or delete it entirely.[60] This game mode can only be accessed
within the Java Edition.[61]

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Creative mode

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.[62] 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.[63][64] The game mode helps players
focus on building and creating projects of any size without
disturbance.[62]
An example of a creation
constructed in Minecraft
Adventure mode

Adventure mode was designed specifically so that players could experience user-crafted custom maps
and adventures.[65][66][67] Gameplay is similar to survival mode but with various 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.[67] Another addition designed for
custom maps is the command block; this block allows map makers to expand interactions with players
through scripted server commands.[68]

Spectator mode

Spectator mode allows players to fly through blocks and watch gameplay without directly interacting.
Players do not have an inventory, but can teleport to other players and view from the perspective of
another player or creature.[69]

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.[70] 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.[71] 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 addresses are allowed or disallowed to enter the server.[70]
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, which has been visited by over 14 million
unique players.[72][73] Player versus player combat (PvP) can be enabled to allow fighting between
players.[74] 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.[75][76] 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.[77] The Minecraft: Java Edition Realms
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servers do not support user-made plugins, but players can play custom Minecraft maps.[78] Minecraft
Realms servers support user-made add-ons, resource packs, behavior packs, and custom Minecraft
maps.[77] At Electronic Entertainment Expo 2016, support for cross-platform play between Windows 10,
iOS, and Android platforms was added through Realms starting in June 2016,[79] with Xbox One and
Nintendo Switch support to come later in 2017,[80] and support for virtual reality devices. On 31 July
2017, Mojang released the beta version of the update allowing cross-platform play.[81] Nintendo Switch
support for Realms was released in July 2018.[82]

Customization

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.[83][84] 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 other video games and media. A smeltery within the mod Tinkers
Construct
While mod framework is fan-made, vanilla Minecraft contains
intended frameworks for modification, such as community-created
resource packs, which alter certain game elements including textures and sounds.[85] 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.[65] Mojang added an adventure mode in August 2012[66]
and "command blocks" in October 2012,[68] 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.[86][87]

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.[88] 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.[89] 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.[90] Unlike Java Edition, however, the Xbox 360
Edition does not support player-made mods or custom maps.[91] 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.[92] A mash-up pack based on Fallout was announced for release on the Wii U Edition.[93]

In June 2017, Mojang released an update known as the "Discovery Update" to the Bedrock version of the
game.[94] 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.[95][96][97]

Development

Java Edition
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Java Edition major update release timeline

Pre-release years in red

Pre-Classic
2009 Classic
Indev
Indev
2010 Infdev
Alpha
Beta
2011 Beta
Beta 1.8 & Release 1.0: "Adventure Update"
1.1
2012 1.2
1.3
Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" 1.4: "Pretty Scary Update"
Persson at GDC 2011 1.5: "Redstone Update"
2013 1.6: "Horse Update"
1.7: "The Update that Changed the World"
Before coming up with Minecraft, Markus "Notch" 2014 1.8: "Bountiful Update"
Persson was a game developer with King through 2015
March 2009, at the time serving mostly browser
1.9: "Combat Update"
games, during which he learnt a number of different 2016 1.10: "Frostburn Update"
programming languages.[98] He would prototype his 1.11: "Exploration Update"
own games during his off-hours at home, often based 2017 1.12: "World of Color Update"
on inspiration he found from other games, and 2018 1.13: "Update Aquatic"
participated frequently on the TIGSource forums for 1.14: "Village & Pillage"
independent developers.[98] One of these personal 2019
1.15: "Buzzy Bees"
projects was called "RubyDung", a base-building 2020 1.16: "Nether Update"
game inspired by Dwarf Fortress, but as an isometric
three dimensional game like Roller Coaster
Tycoon.[99] 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.[100] Among the features in
"RubyDung" he explored was a first-person view similar to Dungeon Keeper but at the time, felt the
graphics were too pixelated and omitted this mode.[100][101] Around March 2009, Persson left King and
joined jAlbum, but otherwise kept working on his prototypes.[102][101][103]

Infiniminer, a block-based open-ended mining game first released in April 2009, sparked Persson's
inspiration for how to take "RubyDung" forward.[100] Infiniminer heavily influenced the visual style of
gameplay, including bringing back the first-person mode, the "blocky" visual style and the block-building
fundamentals.[100] However, unlike Infiniminer, Persson wanted Minecraft to have RPG elements.[104]

The original edition of Minecraft, now known as the Java Edition, was first developed in May 2009.[105]
The base program of Minecraft was completed by Persson over a weekend in that month, and was first
released to the public on 17 May 2009 as a developmental release on TIGSource forums.[106] Persson
continued to update the game based on feedback from the forums.[98][107] This version later become
known as the Classic version. Further developmental phases dubbed as Survival Test, Indev and Infdev
were released between September 2009 and June 2010.[108] The first major update, dubbed Alpha, was
released on 30 June 2010.[109] 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.[110]
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).[110]
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To back the development of Minecraft, Persson set up a video game company, Mojang, with the money
earned from the game.[111][112][113] Mojang co-founders included Jakob Porser, one of Persson's
coworkers from King, and Carl Manneh, jAlbum's CEO.[98]

On 11 December 2010, Persson announced that Minecraft was entering its beta testing phase on 20
December 2010.[114] He further stated that bug fixes and all updates leading up to and including the
release would still be free.[115] Over the course of the development, Mojang hired several new employees
to work on the project.[116]

Mojang moved the game out of beta and released the full version on 18 November 2011.[117] On 1
December 2011, Jens "Jeb" Bergensten took full creative control over Minecraft, replacing Persson as
lead designer.[118] On 28 February 2012, Mojang announced that they had hired the developers of the
popular server platform "Bukkit"[74] to improve Minecraft's support of server modifications.[119] This
acquisition also included Mojang apparently taking full ownership of the CraftBukkit modification,[120]
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.[121] On
15 September 2014, Microsoft announced a $2.5 billion deal to buy Mojang, along with the ownership of
the Minecraft intellectual property.[21][22][23] 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 changing the game's end
user license agreement (EULA).[122][123] It was arbitrated on 6 November 2014, and led to Persson
becoming one of Forbes' "World's Billionaires".[124][125][126][127] 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.[128]

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.[129]
The latest update is 1.16, the "Nether Update", which overhauls the Nether dimension, adding new
biomes and mobs, and was released on 23 June 2020.[130] 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 and/or
discontinued and as such have not received further updates.[128]

Music

Minecraft's music and sound effects were produced by German

musician Daniel Rosenfeld, better known as C418.[131] The background
music in Minecraft is instrumental ambient music.[132] 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.[133] Kirk Hamilton of Kotaku
chose the music in Minecraft as one of the best video game soundtracks
of 2011.[134] On 9 November 2013, Rosenfeld released the second
official soundtrack, titled Minecraft – Volume Beta, which includes the
C418, the lead composer of the
music that was added in later versions of the game.[135][136] A physical
game
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.[137][138] In addition to
Rosenfeld's work, other composers have contributed tracks to the game since release, including Samuel
Åberg, Gareth Coker, and Lena Raine.[139][140] Raine's work was included in a separate album titled
Minecraft: Nether Update (Original Game Soundtrack).[141]
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Variants

For the tenth anniversary of the game's release, Mojang remade a version of Minecraft Classic in
JavaScript and made it available to play online[142][143] 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.[144][145][146]

Minecraft 4K is a simplified version of Minecraft similar to the Classic version that was developed for
the 2011 Java 4K game programming contest "in way less than 4 kilobytes".[147] 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.[148]

Bedrock 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.[149][150] An iOS version of Minecraft was released on 17 November 2011.[151] A port was made
available for Windows Phones shortly after Microsoft acquired Mojang.[152] 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.[153] Gradual updates are
periodically released to bring the port closer to the PC version.[154]

On 10 December 2014, in observance of Mojang's acquisition by Microsoft, a port of Pocket Edition was
released for Windows Phone 8.1.[155] On 18 January 2017, Microsoft announced that it would no longer
maintain the Windows Phone versions of Pocket Edition.[156] On 19 December 2016, the full version of
Minecraft: Pocket Edition was released on iOS, Android and Windows Phone. On 31 July 2017, the
Pocket Edition portion of the name was dropped and the apps were renamed simply as Minecraft.[157]
The Pocket Edition's engine, known as "Bedrock", was ported to non-mobile platforms Windows 10,
Xbox One, Gear VR, Apple TV, Fire TV, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation 4.[158][159][160][161] Versions of
the game on the Bedrock engine are collectively referred to as the Bedrock Edition.

Minecraft for Windows 10 is a version of Bedrock Edition is currently exclusive to Microsoft's Windows
10 operating system. The beta for it launched on the Windows Store on 29 July 2015.[162] 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 and other touchscreen-enabled devices),
virtual reality support, and to record and take screenshots in-game via the built-in GameDVR.[163]

On 16 April 2020, a beta version of Minecraft implementing physically based rendering, ray tracing and
DLSS was released by Nvidia on RTX-enabled GPUs.[164] The final version is expected to be released
later in 2020.[165]

Education Edition

Minecraft: Education Edition is an educational version of base game, designed specifically for used in
educational establishments such as schools, and built off of the Bedrock codebase. It is available on
Windows 10, MacOS, iPadOS and Chrome OS.[166] It includes a Chemistry Resource Pack,[167] free

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lesson plans on the Minecraft: Education Edition website, and two free companion applications: Code
Connection and Classroom Mode.[168]

An initial beta test was carried out between June 9 and November 1, 2016.[169] The full game was then
released on Windows 10 and MacOS on November 1, 2016.[170] On August 20, 2018, Mojang Studios
announced that it would bring Education Edition to iPadOS in Autumn 2018. It was released to the App
Store on September 6, 2018.[171] On March 27, 2019, it was announced that the Education Edition would
be operated by JD.com in China.[172] On June 26, 2020, an Education Edition Public Beta was made
available to Google Play Store compatible Chromebooks. The full game was released to the Google Play
Store for Chromebooks on August 7, 2020.[173]

Console editions

An Xbox 360 version of the game, developed by 4J Studios, was released on 9 May 2012.[174][175] On 22
March 2012, it was announced that Minecraft would be the flagship game in a new Xbox Live promotion
called Arcade NEXT.[175] 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.[176][177] The worlds in the Xbox 360
version are also not "infinite", and are essentially barricaded by invisible walls.[177] 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.[174][178][179] An Xbox One version featuring
larger worlds among other enhancements[180] was released on 5 September 2014.[180]

Versions of the game for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 were released on 17 December 2013 and 4
September 2014 respectively.[9] The PlayStation 4 version was announced as a launch title, though it was
eventually delayed.[181][182] A version for PlayStation Vita was also released in October 2014.[183] Like
the Xbox versions, the PlayStation versions were developed by 4J Studios.[184]

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,[185] in Japan on 23 June 2016,[186] and in Europe on 30 June
2016.[187] 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.[188] 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.[17]

On 18 December 2018, the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Xbox 360, and the Wii U versions of
Minecraft received their final update.[189]

The PlayStation 4 version of Minecraft was updated in December 2019 to support cross-platform play
with all other Bedrock editions, though users are required to have a free Xbox Live account to play.[161]

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

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use the Python programming language to manipulate things in the game world.[190] The game was
leaked on 20 December 2012, but was quickly pulled off.[191] It was officially released on 11 February
2013.[192]

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.[193] 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.[194][195][196] 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.[197]

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."[198][199] 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.[200] On 15 August 2016, Microsoft launched official Oculus Rift support for Minecraft on
Windows 10.[200] 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.[200] Also available is a Gear VR version, titled Minecraft: Gear VR Edition.[201] Windows Mixed
Reality support was added in 2017. On September 7, 2020, Mojang Studios announced that the
PlayStation 4 version of the game would be getting PlayStation VR support in the same month.[202] 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.[203][202]

Spin-off games

Minecraft: Story Mode

Minecraft: Story Mode, an episodic spin-off game developed by Telltale Games in collaboration with
Mojang, was announced in December 2014. Consisting of five episodes plus three additional
downloadable episodes, the standalone game is a narrative and player choice-driven, and it was released
on Windows, OS X, iOS, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One via download on 13
October 2015.[204][205][206] A physical disc that grants access to all episodes was released for the
aforementioned four consoles on 27 October.[206] Wii U [207] and Nintendo Switch version were also
later released [208][209] 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),[206] 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.[210]

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Minecraft Classic

Minecraft Classic is a browser remake of the 2009 Classic version of

Minecraft. The game was released on 7 May 2019, to celebrate the Minecraft Classic
10th anniversary of Minecraft. Minecraft Classic recreates the game Type of Browser game
as it was in 2009, including the bugs present in the 2009 version of site
Minecraft.[211] The game has a total of 32 block types that players Owner Mojang Studios
can place.[212] The game also supports multiplayer with up to a total URL classic.minecraft.net (ht
of 10 players.[213]
tp://classic.minecraft.ne
t/)
Minecraft Earth Launched 7 May 2019

Minecraft Earth is an upcoming augmented reality game that was announced by Microsoft in May 2019.
The game will allow players to interact with the world and build Minecraft-style structures and objects
that will persist and can be modified by other players. The game will implement the resource-gathering
and many of other features of the original game in an augmented-reality setting. The game had a beta
release in July 2019.[214]

Minecraft Dungeons

Minecraft Dungeons is a dungeon crawler game that was announced at MineCon 2018 and released on
26 May 2020. Set in the Minecraft universe, the game can be played alone or in a party of up to four
people.[215] It was released for Windows, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation 4 in 2020.[216]

Reception
Reception
Minecraft received critical acclaim, praising the
creative freedom it grants players in-game, as
well as the ease of enabling emergent
gameplay.[245][246][247] Critics have praised
Minecraft's complex crafting system,
commenting that it is an important aspect of
the game's open-ended gameplay.[232] Most
publications were impressed by the game's
"blocky" graphics, with IGN describing them as
"instantly memorable".[24] Reviewers also liked
the game's adventure elements, noting that the
game creates a good balance between exploring
and building.[232] The game's multiplayer
feature has been generally received favorably,
with IGN commenting that "adventuring is
always better with friends".[24] Jaz McDougall
of PC Gamer said Minecraft is "intuitively
interesting and contagiously fun, with an
unparalleled scope for creativity and
memorable experiences". [239] It has been
regarded as having introduced millions of
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children to the digital world, insofar as its basic Aggregate score

game mechanics are logically analogous to
Aggregator Score
computer commands. [248]
(PC) 93/100[217]
IGN was disappointed about the troublesome (PS4) 89/100[218]
steps needed to set up multiplayer servers, (XONE) 88/100[219]
calling it a "hassle".[24] Critics also said that (PS3) 86/100[220]
visual glitches occur periodically.[232] Despite (NS) 86/100[221]
its release out of beta in 2011, GameSpot said Metacritic
(VITA) 84/100[222]
the game had an "unfinished feel", adding that
(X360) 82/100[223]
some game elements seem "incomplete or
(WIIU) 77/100[224]
thrown together in haste".[232]
(3DS) 62/100[225]
A review of the alpha version, by Scott Munro of (iOS) 53/100[226]
the Daily Record, called it "already something Review scores
special" and urged readers to buy it.[249] Jim
Rossignol of Rock, Paper, Shotgun also Publication Score
recommended the alpha of the game, calling it 1Up.com (PC) A+[227]
"a kind of generative 8-bit Lego Stalker".[250] Edge (PC) 9/10[228]
On 17 September 2010, gaming webcomic
Penny Arcade began a series of comics and (PC) 10/10[43]
Eurogamer
news posts about the addictiveness of the (X360) 9/10[229]
game.[251] The Xbox 360 version was generally Game (PC) 9.25/10[230]
received positively by critics, but did not receive Informer (X360) 8.75/10[231]
as much praise as the PC version. Although
(PC) 8.5/10[232]
reviewers were disappointed by the lack of GameSpot
features such as mod support and content from (X360) 7.0/10[177]
the PC version, they acclaimed the port's GameSpy (PC) [233]

addition of a tutorial and in-game tips and (PC) 9.0/10[234]

crafting recipes, saying that they make the game
(iOS) 7.5/10[235]
more user-friendly.[91]
(X360) 8.5/10[91]
Minecraft: Pocket Edition initially received (PS3) 9.5/10[236]
IGN
mixed reviews from critics. Although reviewers (PS4) 9.7/10[237]
appreciated the game's intuitive controls, they (XONE) 9.7/10[237]
were disappointed by the lack of content. The (VITA) 9.5/10[236]
inability to collect resources and craft items, as (NS) 9.5/10[238]
well as the limited types of blocks and lack of
hostile mobs, were especially (WII U) 7.5/10[242]
criticized.[235][252][253] After updates added Nintendo Life (3DS) 6.6/10[243]
more content, Pocket Edition started receiving (NS) 8.2/10[244]
more positive reviews. Reviewers complimented PC Gamer (PC) 96/100[239]
the controls and the graphics, but still noted a (US)
lack of content.[235] [240]
(iOS)
TouchArcade (Version 0.12)
Sales [241]

Minecraft surpassed over a million purchases

less than a month after entering its beta phase in early 2011.[254][255] At the same time, the game had no
publisher backing and has never been commercially advertised except through word of mouth,[256] and
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various unpaid references in popular media such as the Penny Arcade webcomic.[257] 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.[258] In November 2011,
prior to the game's full release, Minecraft beta surpassed 16 million registered users and 4 million
purchases.[259] By March 2012, Minecraft had become the 6th best-selling PC game of all time.[260] As of
10 October 2014, the game has sold 17 million copies on PC, becoming the best-selling PC game of all
time.[261] 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.[261][262] On 25 February 2014, the game
reached 100 million registered users.[263] By May 2019, 180 million copies had been sold across all
platforms, making it the single best-selling video game of all time. The free-to-play Minecraft China
version had over 300 million players by November 2019.[197]

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.[264] Within a week of
being on the Xbox Live Marketplace, Minecraft sold upwards of a million copies.[265] GameSpot
announced in December 2012 that Minecraft sold over 4.48 million copies since the game debuted on
Xbox Live Arcade in May 2012.[266] 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.[267]
As of 4 April 2014, the Xbox 360 version has sold 12 million copies.[268] In addition, Minecraft: Pocket
Edition has reached a figure of 21 million in sales.[269] The PlayStation 3 version sold one million copies
in five weeks.[270] 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.[271] 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.[272] 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.[273] Minecraft helped improve Microsoft's total first-party revenue by
$63 million for the 2015 second quarter.[274] The game, including all of its versions, had over 112 million
monthly active players by September 2019.[275]

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.[19]

Awards

In July 2010, PC Gamer listed Minecraft as the fourth-best game to play at work.[276] In December of
that year, Good Game selected Minecraft as their choice for Best Downloadable Game of 2010,[277]
Gamasutra named it the eighth best game of the year as well as the eighth best indie game of the
year,[278][279] and Rock, Paper, Shotgun named it the "game of the year".[280] 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.[281] It was also awarded Game of the Year by PC
Gamer UK.[282] 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.[283][284] 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.[285][286] It also won GameCity's video game
arts award.[287] 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.[288][289] At the 2011 Spike Video Game Awards, Minecraft won the award for Best
Independent Game and was nominated in the Best PC Game category.[290][291] In 2012, at the British
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Academy Video Games Awards, Minecraft was nominated in the GAME Award of 2011 category and
Persson received The Special Award.[292] In 2012, Minecraft XBLA was awarded a Golden Joystick
Award in the Best Downloadable Game category,[293] and a TIGA Games Industry Award in the Best
Arcade Game category.[294] In 2013 it was nominated as the family game of the year at the British
Academy Video Games Awards.[295] Minecraft Console Edition won the award for TIGA Game Of The
Year in 2014.[296] In 2015, the game placed 6th on USgamer's The 15 Best Games Since 2000 list.[297] In
2016, Minecraft placed 6th on Time's The 50 Best Video Games of All Time list.[298]

Minecraft was nominated for the 2013 Kids' Choice Awards for Favorite App, but lost to Temple
Run.[299] It was nominated for the 2014 Kids' Choice Awards for Favorite Video Game, but lost to Just
Dance 2014.[300] The game later won the award for the Most Addicting Game at the 2015 Kids' Choice
Awards.[301] In addition, the Java Edition was nominated for "Favorite Video Game" at the 2018 Kids'
Choice Awards,[302][303] while the game itself won the "Still Playing" award at the 2019 Golden Joystick
Awards,[304] as well as the "Favorite Video Game" award at the 2020 Kids' Choice Awards.[305]

Cultural impact
In September 2019, The Guardian classified Minecraft as the best video game of (the first two decades
of) the 21st century,[306] and in November 2019 Polygon called the game the "most important game of
the decade" in its 2010s "decade in review".[307] In December 2019, Forbes 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."[308] In June 2020, Minecraft was inducted into the
World Video Game Hall of Fame.[20]

Social media sites such as YouTube, Facebook, and Reddit played a significant role in popularizing
Minecraft.[309] 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.[310] 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.[311]
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.[312] Some popular commentators have received employment at Machinima, a
gaming video company that owns a highly watched entertainment channel on YouTube.[311] The
Yogscast 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.[311][313] 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.[314] In 2019, YouTube again popularized Minecraft.[315]

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.[316]
However, Mojang has confirmed that Herobrine has never existed in Minecraft, and there are no plans
to add Herobrine.[317]

Minecraft has been referenced by other video games, such as Torchlight II, Borderlands 2, Choplifter
HD, Super Meat Boy, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, The Binding of Isaac, The Stanley Parable, FTL:
Faster Than Light, and Geometry Dash.[318][319][320] It was also referenced by electronic music artist
deadmau5 in his performances.[321] A simulation of the game was featured in Lady Gaga's "G.U.Y."
music video.[322] The game is also referenced heavily in "Informative Murder Porn", the second episode

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of the seventeenth season of the animated television series South Park.[323] "Luca$", the seventeenth
episode of the 25th season of the animated sitcom The Simpsons and "Minecraft is for Everyone" by
Starbomb was inspired by Minecraft.[324][325]

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.[311] 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.[326]

In September 2012, Mojang began the Block By Block project in cooperation with UN Habitat to create
real-world environments in Minecraft.[327] 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.[328]

In 2013, Stuart Duncan, known online as AutismFather, started a server for children with autism and
their families, called Autcraft.[329] The server was created because the public servers had many bullies
and trolls that made the autistic kids angry and feel hurt.[329] It was constantly monitored to help
players and prevent bullying.[329] The server had a whitelist that only allowed approved players, of which
there are 8,000 players worldwide in 2017.[329] The server had an unique ranking system based on the
attributes of the player, such as "Player of the Week" and "Caught Being Awesome".[329] The server was
called "one of the best places on the Internet" and was a subject of a research paper.[330][329]

In April 2014, the Danish Geodata Agency generated all of Denmark in fullscale in Minecraft based on
their own geodata.[331] This is possible because Denmark is one of the flattest countries with the highest
point at 171 metres (561 ft) (ranking as the country with the 30th smallest elevation span), where the
limit in default Minecraft is around 192 metres (630 ft) above in-game sea level.[332][333]

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, 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.[334]
The neoclassical virtual building was created over about 250 hours by an international team of 24
people.[335]

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Education

Minecraft has also been used in educational settings.[336] 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.[337] In
September 2012, MinecraftEdu said that approximately 250,000 students around the world have access
to Minecraft through the company.[338] 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.[338] Another teacher created a large-scale representation of an animal cell within Minecraft that
student could explore and learn how the cell functions work.[337] 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.[339] Minecraft may also prove as an innovation in Computer Aided Design (CAD).[340]
Minecraft offers an outlet of collaboration in design and could have an impact on the industry.[341]

With the introduction of redstone blocks to represent electrical circuits, users have been able to build
functional virtual computers within Minecraft.[342] Such virtual creations include a working hard
drive,[343] an 8-bit virtual computer,[344] and emulators for the Atari 2600 (including one by YouTube
personality SethBling)[345][346] and Game Boy Advance.[347] 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.[348]

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.[349] 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.[350]

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.[351] 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.[352] 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.[353]

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.[354] These clone titles include UCraft (Nexis Games),[355]
Cube Life: Island Survival (Cypronia),[356] Discovery (Noowanda),[357] Battleminer (Wobbly Tooth
Games),[358] Cube Creator 3D (Big John Games),[359] and Stone Shire (Finger Gun Games).[360] Despite
this the fears were unfounded with official Minecraft releases on Nintendo consoles eventually
resuming.[361][207][14] Persson made a similar game, Minicraft, for a Ludum Dare competition in
2011.[362]

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Films

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.[363] In 2014, an
attempt to crowdfund a fan film through Kickstarter was shut down after Persson refused to let the
filmmakers use the license.[364][365]

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".[312] By February 2014, Persson revealed that Mojang was in talks with Warner Bros.
Pictures regarding a Minecraft film[366][367] and, by that October, it was "in its early days of
development".[368][369] The film was scheduled for release on 24 May 2019, and was going to be directed
by Shawn Levy and written by Jason Fuchs.[370][371] Levy later dropped out and was replaced by Rob
McElhenney.[372][373] In August 2018, McElhenney left the film and Fuchs was replaced with Aaron and
Adam Nee, resulting in its release date getting delayed.[374] According to McElhenney, he had been
drawn to the film based on the open world nature of the game, an idea Warner Bros. had initially been in
agreement with and provided him with a preliminary US$150 million budget for.[375] In 2016, early
production had started on the film, including having Steve Carell on contract for starring. At that time,
Warner Bros. Pictures CEO Greg Silverman stepped down and was replaced by Toby Emmerich who had
a different vision for the studio.[376] McElhenney's Minecraft movie "slowly died on the vine", and he
eventually departed the film.[375]

In January 2019, Peter Sollett was announced to write and direct the film, featuring a wholly different
story from McElhenney's version.[377] The film is expected to be released in theaters on 4 March
2022.[378]

Novels

The game has inspired several officially licensed novels:

Max Brooks (18 July 2017). Minecraft: The Island: An Official Minecraft Novel. Del Rey.
ISBN 9780399181771.[379]
Tracey Baptiste (10 July 2018). Minecraft: The Crash: An Official Minecraft Novel. Del Rey.
ISBN 9780399180668.[380]
Mur Lafferty (9 July 2019). Minecraft: The Lost Journals: An Official Minecraft Novel. Del Rey.
ISBN 9780399180699.[380]
Catherynne Valente (3 December 2019). Minecraft: The End: An Official Minecraft Novel. Del Rey.
ISBN 9780399180729.[380]

Merchandise

A Lego set based on Minecraft called Lego Minecraft was released on 6 June 2012.[381] The set, called
"Micro World", centres around the game's default player character and a creeper.[382] 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.[383] Lego Cuusoo
approved the concept in January 2012 and began developing sets based on Minecraft.[383] 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
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available November 2014.[384]

Mojang often collaborates with Jinx, an online game merchandise store, to sell
Minecraft merchandise, such as clothing, foam pickaxes, and toys of creatures in the
game.[111] By May 2012, over 1 million dollars were made from Minecraft
merchandise sales. T-shirts and socks were the most popular products.[312] 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.[385][386][387]

MINECON A physical prop

of a diamond
MINECON (alternatively capitalized "MineCon") is an official convention dedicated sword, a
to Minecraft. The first one was held in November 2011 at the Mandalay Bay Hotel weapon from
and Casino in Las Vegas. All 4,500 tickets for MineCon 2011 were sold out by 31 the game
October.[388] 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.[389] After MineCon, there was an Into The Nether after-party with
deadmau5.[390] 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.[391] Similar events occurred in MineCon 2012, which took place in Disneyland Paris from in
November.[392] The tickets for the 2012 event sold out in less than two hours.[393] MineCon 2013 was
held in Orlando in November as well.[394][395] MineCon 2015 was held in London in July.[396] MineCon
2016 was held in Anaheim in September.[397] MineCon 2017 was held as a livestream instead of being
held at a show floor. Titled "MINECON Earth", it was streamed live in November.[398] MineCon Earth
2018 followed the same format as the 2017 event, but was renamed in 2019 to "MINECON Live" to avoid
confusion with Mojang's augmented-reality game, Minecraft Earth.

In MineCon Live 2019, Mojang announced that the Minecraft Festival would be an in-person event to be
held September 25–27, 2020, in Orlando, Florida. The event has been postponed to late 2021 due to
coronavirus fears.[399][400]

Footnotes

Notes
a. Ports to consoles developed by 4J Studios;[1] New Nintendo 3DS port developed by Other Ocean
Interactive[2]
b. PC/Java, Android, iOS, Wii U, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo Switch
c. Xbox 360, Xbox One, Windows Phone, Windows 10 Edition
d. PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita
e. (2009–2011)
f. (2011–present)
g. Samuel Åberg, Gareth Coker, and Lena Raine have also contributed since release.
h. Minecraft was first publicly available on 17 May 2009,[18] and was fully released on 18 November
2011.

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