OCR Factsheet Minecraft

Minecraft is the second most successful video game of all time behind Tetris.

 It was created and designed by Markus Persson, a game programmer, who also developed and published the game through his company Mojang.

 A full version of the game went on release in November 2011.

Over 121 million copies have been sold across all platforms.

A recent report by the UKIE suggests that the global games market is now worth in excess of $100 billion a year, with projections estimating revenue of $120 billion by 2020. - Highlights video game growth.

Minecraft -  On its release, the game won five awards at three conferences, including an Innovation Award, Best Debut Game, Best Downloadable Game, Audience Award and Seumas McNally Grand Prize.

 Minecraft’s initial reception wasn’t commercially viable, seen more as a niche product for players with expert knowledge of computers and programming.

The pattern of release for Minecraft shows that physical copies are often released six months after the downloadable version, most likely as a way to limit the impact of piracy, hacking and file sharing.

 In 2019 there will be a joint venture with Warner Brothers to release Minecraft the movie, this will be anticipated as having as much commercial success as The Lego Movie, also a Warner Brothers Movie. No doubt, there will be several spin-offs as a result of this.

The game is a global and commercial success and also praised by several high profile critics and gaming institutions. The game has amassed such a following that MineCon conventions can be found all around the world and further support popularising the game. There are other conventions of the game that have proven popular, including the release of albums featuring the music of the game, produced by German sound designer Daniel “C418” Rosenfeld.

  David Hesmondhalgh Explore how cultural industry companies attempt to minimise risk and maximise audiences. The game has a large fan base and is owned by a division of a global conglomerate. The purchase of Mojang for US$2.5 billion illustrates that Microsoft are clearly attempting to harness the popularity of this franchise to encourage sales both of the game itself and promote Windows 10 and their smartphone market.

 Henry Jenkins Video games offer social experiences (online multi-player options) as well as communities outside of the core game experience. Jenkins’ key quote ‘if it doesn’t spread, it’s dead’ can be used as a discussion point to track the birth and popularity of the franchise. Minecraft has a strong, well developed fan base that could be researched in more detail in relation to Jenkins’ ideas about participatory culture.