Early in June of last year, Minecraft surpassed a hundred million in sales, including versions for PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and the Wii. Besides being available for consoles, enthusiasts can also enjoy on their smartphones. Minecraft is currently the second best-selling title of all time.
Minecraft, many might not know, is a ‘sandbox’ video game that launched in early 2011. The brainchild of Swedish developer Markus Persson (known as Notch), it quickly spread to most platforms to become an online phenomenon.
As a sandbox game, there is little to no storyline, and its mechanics are quite simple. Players take different types of cubes by ‘mining’ them and build their personal worlds and maps. They can also interact with other players in many different ways to keep those worlds growing.
How do you play Minecraft?
Upon acquiring the game, players start will single blocks and a large meadow-like landscape. They must ‘mine’ the map by breaking the ground and surrounding objects (like) trees to make tools and find other types of blocks.
The tools players create later allow them to search the world for more blocks, and then they can combine them to create different materials. As a side note, special tools and components are available for online purchase.
Minecraft is currently available on most consoles with almost no exception. Players can also get it on most computer systems including OSX, Linux, and even on a Raspberry Pi.
Users can choose a Creation mode where they just build whatever they want or the traditional Survival mode. In the latter, they will encounter with cube-like enemies to beat, a day-night cycle, and randomly generated resources.
Why is Minecraft so popular?
Most online reviewers have pointed out to the game’s simplicity and its vast playing opportunities as the primary reasons for its popularity. Minecraft allows players to build their personal worlds in a way no other titles cannot match.
Another reason could be the quickness of Notch and his team at Mojang games to put Minecraft virtually everywhere. There is a semi-annual convention called ‘MineCon’ for fans and even an educational non-profit endeavor called MinecraftEDU.
In September 2014, tech giant Microsoft announced it would acquire all intellectual property related to the game and its founding studio, Mojang. They came to an agreement for $2.5 billion in November.
After this deal, game sales went up even more, and related projects started to flourish. To this day, Minecraft still retains its pixelated 3D style but has more input worldwide than modern 4K games.
Source: Business Insider
