minecraft essay

Minecraft introduction

By James Eaglesfield

Minecraft is single player and multiplayer video game available on XBOX, Playstation and PC. It offers a survival campaign and multiplayer sandbox mode. This allows for any gamer with any style of play creative freedom or a specific objective they are required to achieve. Markus Person founded Mojang specification in order to act as a self run independent studio for the development of Minecraft. The original Minecraft was written in code by Markus Person and Jakob Posér.  

The game was launched on the 17th may 2009. With multiplayer being released on June 8th of the same year. Multiplayer allowed for team work and player interaction meaning the game was more enjoyable and likely to be talked about. Before being taken over by Microsoft who own XBOX. Minecraft is played using a block by block world with each block connecting face to face. Meaning anything can be built and created. This allows for creative freedom which has been the key to mojang’s success.

As Minecraft was released it gained a fanbase slowly but soon rocketed. BY June 2010 it had gained 20,000 players all paying the small 10 euros fee to play. By January of the next year it gained 10 million players. Then by July of the same year it gained 10 million players.

Mojang has also been extremely successful in marketing and advertising with large success in LEGO, Conventions and toys. On feb 15th 2012 Mojang joined up with lego o roles its first lego set. It also hosted it first MINE-CON Convention in 2013 in Florida and its own cosmetic costume range has been a great success. These marketing schemes all increase talk about the game and help build towards the games image. 

Minecraft is constantly being updated and modified with new materials, weapons, biomes, enemies and in game cosmetics. After Microsoft brought Minecraft regular updates have been constantly been added further intensifying the games depth and user creative freedom.Versions of the game can be brought over the internet via the Playstation network, Xbox arcade, IOS app store or their website.

On its release it won 5 awards including an innovation award, best debut game, best downloadable game, audience award and the semis McNally grand prize. By winning these awards Minecraft set its self up as a serious competitor in market.

Minecraft didn’t need to invest into major advertising such as big budget tv advert, billboards or poster to expose the game. Minecraft's fan base grew so quickly all it need was word of mouth to advertise the game. Minecraft’s fan base also used Youtube heavily to show off their creations and ensigns which also boosted mine crafts fan base drastically. This also exposed Minecraft to younger audience who are usually found on youtube roughly 8-14 meaning they could start selling toys and cloths that this audience would buy. This would also boost advertisement if thousands of kids are walking around with Minecraft tops on.