As the blocky exploration game and creativity tool reaches its first decade, our games writer – and the father of someone on the autism spectrum – reflects on the impact it has had
Hidden away somewhere in my attic is an old Xbox 360 that I’ll never throw away. On its hard drive is a Minecraft save file that contains the first house my oldest son ever built in the game. He was seven and, coming from a boy on the autism spectrum with a limited vocabulary and no patience to draw and paint, his creation was a revelation. Sure, it is a monstrous carbuncle, a mess of wooden planks, cobblestone and dirt. But it is also the greatest building I ever saw.
Now Minecraft is 10. The building-and-exploring game, originally developed by one coder, Markus Persson, in his spare time, has now sold 176m copies across 21 platforms. A free-to-play version launched in China via a partnership with NetEase has been downloaded 200m times alone. Every month, 90 million people around the world play Minecraft. There are Minecraft clothes, Lego sets and spin-off games. In spring 2022, there will be a live-action Minecraft movie.
But this isn’t just a story about sales. “Minecraft is personal,” says Lydia Winters, the brand director at Mojang, the Swedish studio behind the game. “It has become part of players’ identities.” Lydia started out as a Minecraft YouTuber, making videos about the game during a tough time in her life. Her marriage had ended, she’d moved homes, she was a little bit adrift. “There is such a community feel to Minecraft. I would jump into a game with another player that I’d met online and we’d just see where the day took us. We’d hop on a server and we’d run. Every experience was unique and individual, [filled with] the limitless potential of what we could do together. It was huge for me.”
Minecraft Classic, a new version of the game that runs in browsers, based on how it looked back in 2009. Photograph: Microsoft
There are lots of ways in which the game has had a profound influence. Early on, Persson made the decision to release the game in an unfinished “alpha” state, so people could try it and give him feedback. He charged for the download but made it clear that anyone who bought it would get the finished version for free. Very quickly, thousands were playing, and the money allowed him to leave his job, set up Mojang and employ a team, while the feedback let them create a better game.
In this way, Minecraft effectively invented the “early access” model that a huge number of independent game developers have now embraced, to take some of the uncertainty out of development. Rather than working for two years on an offbeat game, then releasing it and crossing their fingers, studios will now get it out there as soon as possible, charging players to become part of a sort of extended developer community. Minecraft changed the whole structure and economic model of the games industry.
It also changed the structure of the gaming experience. You don’t win or lose in Minecraft. It presents you with a blocky world that you are free to explore. You chop down trees and make a house, you mine for materials, you can make a sword and fight zombies, but the fun – the reward structure – is all extrinsic: it’s about exploring your own creativity, making your own rules, hanging out. There were other open-ended simulation games around – The Sims, of course, but also closer influences on Persson, such as Infiniminer. But there was something about Minecraft – perhaps its quaint visuals, its mix of exploration and creativity, its cooperative multiplayer functionality – that made it special. That made it personal.
‘The experience is collaborative’ … players get together IRL at the annual Minecon event. Photograph: Katherine Anne Rose/The Observer
Minecraft also became a focus of the emerging YouTuber community. The concept of the Let’s Play video, wherein fans filmed themselves playing a game then shared it online, was in its infancy in the early 2010s, and many latched on to Minecraft as the perfect subject matter, thanks to its inherent humour, its funny, blocky creatures and its open-ended structure. YouTube gamers and presenters had a huge amount of room to express themselves and explore idiosyncratic ideas in the game. Some of the biggest YouTubers in the world, such as StampyCat, Amy Lee and DanTDM, built their millions-strong fanbases by messing about in Minecraft.Advertisement
There are other important contributions the game has made over the last decade. Early on, Persson and Mojang took a relaxed approach to their code, allowing fans to modify the graphics and rulesets and then distribute their versions across the globe. In 2015, Mojang partnered with the Hour of Code campaign designed to get children into programming, and the company created a Minecraft Hour of Code tutorial to teach fans of the game some basic elements of coding. Through Minecraft Education Edition, hundreds of schools around the world now use the game to teach everything from physics to theatre studies, proving that video games have a place in the classroom.
Most crucial for me, personally, is the social aspect. Although you can play little competitive Minecraft minigames, the main experience is collaborative. You can enter a world with a group of friends and build and explore together. For a lot of children – especially non-neurotypical children, or the shy or awkward or lonely – it has been a godsend; a way to make meaningful friendships without having to cope with or understand a lot of the intricacies of physical contact.
How valuable is this? Where do I even begin? Having written a novel in which Minecraft is a major component, I have spent the last two years talking at festivals, conferences, bookshops and libraries about autism and Minecraft and the power of video games. Whenever I speak, I end up chatting to people afterwards and, invariably, somewhere in the little queue, I’ll spot a parent standing beside a slightly shy child, and they will both look kind of worried or hesitant, not knowing quite what to say.
Minecraft Education Edition is used in the classroom to teach physics, coding … even drama. Photograph: Microsoft
But then they’ll tell me their story. Their son or daughter barely spoke, struggled at school, had no friends – and, oh god, I saw the worry of that, the worry and sorrow of it, every time in the way they spoke to me. But then their kid started playing Minecraft. Often that’s a concern at the start, because the parents aren’t always gamers, but the next thing everyone knows is that the kid has friends, they’re building Hogwarts together, they’re chatting, they’re confident. They have ideas and plans. I’ve heard it dozens of times, all over the world, from Brussels to Dubai, and it never gets old: this game changed our lives.
Sitting there nodding and smiling in agreement, I sometimes struggle to hold it together. Because in the back of my mind is that old Xbox 360 in the attic, and what lives on it, and what it means. The house my kid built when we weren’t sure he’d ever draw or paint or make anything, and the goddamn sunlight of that, the beauty of it. The relief.
So forget the sales figures, forget the revolutionary industry practices, forget the “brand extensions”. Ten years of Minecraft has been 10 years of people finding a place to be creative, expressive and social, somewhere they feel safe and welcome, and 10 years of parents like me looking on, holding themselves together, thinking, at last. At last.
The Minecraft team at Microsoft has finally taken the wraps off a new mobile augmented reality game. It’s called Minecraft Earth, and it’s going to bring an augmented reality (or AR) Minecraft world to your Android or iOS smartphone later this year.
I was among the lucky few to try an early version of Minecraft Earth. Here’s what I learned.
Minecraft Earth requires augmented reality
Pokémon Go is often called an AR game, but its blend of the virtual and real is light and optional. Yes, you can see Pokémon appear in the world through your camera, yet you also have the option to turn that off entirely. Augmented reality is not a requirement.
MinecraftEarth is different. The game requires use of augmented reality because it always maps in-game elements to the real world. An overworld map based off Open Street Maps data exists, but when it comes time to see Minecraft come to life, you have no fallback option. You must use your camera, and you must hold your phone up to play.
The overworld will look familiar
Microsoft
Minecraft Earth lets you explore a virtual world built on Open Street Maps data of our real world. The graphics are given a bit of blocky Minecraft paint, but the overall look and feel of the overworld map isn’t far off previous games in this genre. It’s full of things you can tap for rewards when GPS says you’re close enough (I was told the range will be about 70 meters). These are officially called “tapables.”
Like Pokémon Go and other competitors, Minecraft Earth will be making some judgement calls about where game objects should be located. They will appear only in “public” spaces, and will avoid private residence, businesses, or places that could be dangerous, like busy roads.
Tapables reward you with blocks, items, or animals. There’s a variety of rarities, from common cobblestone to very rare obsidian.
The augmented reality adventures are unique
Tapables are only one thing you’ll find on the map. You’ll also encounter Adventures, and that’s where Minecraft Earth starts to set itself apart.
Adventures are essentially mini-games that are linked to a specific real-world location. You might be walking through a park and see an Adventure appear. Walk up to it and you’ll see, through your phone, some Minecraft blocks on the ground. You can walk up to mine them, and when you do, you might uncover a cave with skeletons to kill or a puzzle to solve.
Microsoft
All this happens in AR through your phone, so what’s happening in the game mirrors reality. If you want to dodge an enemy’s arrow, you must move. If you want to pick up loot sitting twenty feet away, you must walk there. There’s no shortcuts or alternatives to playing in AR.
You can play at home, too
You find Tapables in the real world, and Adventures as well. Does that mean you have to stop playing when you get home?
Nope! Minecraft Earth lets you play in your living room by throwing down a Build Plate. That’s where the blocks you collected on your commute or a walk through the nearest park can be used to build a home, a castle, or a dungeon.
Build Plates map themselves to a flat surface in your play space (a table, in most cases) and give you a god’s eye view for easy editing. However, you can blow up the Build Plate to life-size scale to experience what your creation looks like from a first-person perspective.
Microsoft
You can also invite friends to visit your Build Plate, though only so long as they’re in the same room as you. There’s no online multi-player in the traditional sense. And make sure your friends are trustworthy because, like with a normal Minecraftserver, they change the build plate when they visit.
It’s free-to-play, and micro-transaction details are slim
Minecraft Earth will be a free-to-play game. Microtransactions will certainly be a part of the experience, but details about what will be sold and how much it will cost remain thin. The developers of course promise the game won’t be “pay to win.” However, since the game is almost entirely cooperative – there’s no PvP of any kind – it’s unclear what the lack of “pay to win” will mean in practice.
The developers say the game won’t have loot boxes.
It runs the Bedrock engine
Despite its differences, Minecraft Earth still runs the same Bedrock engine that’s used in Minecraft. It’s an important point, and one the developers took care to maintain. The vanilla game is now 10 years old and has a huge fan base that’s come to know and love certain in-game oddities, like the specific way water flows, or how redstone switches work.
All that knowledge you’ve retained from Minecraft continues to apply in the mobile game. MinecraftEarth does have a few unique blocks and mobs, but they’re variations instead of all-new mechanics. You might run across a “Muddy Pig” that loves mud like no pig you’ve seen before, but it otherwise looks and acts like any other Minecraft pig.
Can you craft?
Yes, you can. The game will drop the traditional three-by-three grid for simple recipes, but the recipes will be familiar to Minecraft players. With that said, exact details about what can and can’t be crafted, and the materials required, haven’t been made public yet.
Can you use mods?
No, you can’t. Mod support has not been ruled out in the future, but it’s not planned for launch and there’s no timeline for when it might be included.
Is cross-play supported?
No. Minecraft Earth may use the same Bedrock game engine as Minecraft, but it’s a very different game in most respects. You can’t play with people playing vanilla Minecraft and you can’t import or export creations from Minecraft Earth to Minecraft.
Can you play on HoloLens?
The Minecraft team previously announced a HoloLens version of the game. The experience working on that helped inform the team working on Minecraft Earth, but the two games are separate entities and there’s no plan to make Minecraft Earthavailable on Microsoft HoloLens or HoloLens 2.
You’ll need a beefy phone
Microsoft
The game’s recommended technical specifications aren’t official, but I tried the game on a selection of Apple hardware that, to my eye, appeared to be the latest Apple iPhone XS. Playing the game caused the phone to become quite warm, a good indication that it was using all it had to render Minecraft Earth.
Augmented reality games tend to be demanding. They run best on relatively new hardware. They also drain battery life quickly. There’s no reason to think Minecraft Earth will be different. You’ll want a recently released phone for the best experience, and don’t forget to bring a portable battery.
When is the beta, and how do I join?
The closed beta will launch “this summer” on both iOS and Android. Entry will be limited, though the developers expect they’ll be able to invite “hundreds of thousands” of players over time, so your chances are good. You’ll also receive a free character skin if you sign up for the beta.
The final, full release date hasn’t been announced. Minecraft Earth is slated to come out later in 2019 and the team seems confident it will hit that window.
You can expect to hear more about the game at E3 2019.
Minecraft, which launched 10 years ago for the PC, has sold more than 176 million copies, which possibly makes it the best-selling video game of all time.
Microsoft announced the milestone in an Xbox Wire post that celebrates Minecraft‘s 10th birthday. Despite being around for a decade, the game’s popularity remains strong, helped by its presence in practically all video game platforms available.
At more than 176 million copies sold, Minecraft may be the best-selling video game of all time. Tetris is considered its closest rival, but it is difficult to compare the two games due to the different versions of the block-matching puzzler.
According to Windows Central, past iterations of Tetris, not including the free-to-play versions, have sold 70 million copies, which was reported in 2009. Electronic Arts then said that the mobile version reached 100 million copies sold in 2010, before adopting a free-to-play model. There may be some overlap, but even if the two figures are combined, they will come up short to Minecraft‘s reported copies sold.
There are estimates that suggest Tetris has been downloaded more than 500 million times, but with the different spin-offs, it is hard to keep track and make a direct comparison with Minecraft. The better comparison would be the also still wildly popular Grand Theft Auto V, which has sold about 110 million copies after launching in 2013.
In celebration of the milestone, Microsoft also announcedMinecraft Earth, a free-to-play augmented reality game for mobile phones that looks to bring the game’s mechanics into the real world. It looks to better utilize AR technology compared to Pokémon Go, while staying true to the world-building experience with the same Bedrock engine used in all other versions of the game.
Minecraft Earth will feature microtransactions, but details on that remain scarce. The developers claim that it will not be a pay-to-win game, but that is also unclear because there will be no player vs. player mode in the mobile game.
The closed beta for Minecraft Earth will launch this summer on both iOS and Android. Microsoft seemingly has more in store for Minecraft‘s 10th birthday though, so fans of the franchise should stay tuned.
“Minecraft” may be one of the best-selling video games of all time – with more than 154 million copies purchased to date – but the developers haven’t stopped building more into the game.
Acquired by Microsoft in 2014, developer Mojang has just launched Village & Pillage, a free update that adds a plethora of new goodies to “Minecraft,” for both the Java and Bedrock versions of game, which includes Windows PC ($26.95 and $26.99 for PC and Macintosh), mobile (iOS and Android, $6.99), Xbox One ($19.99) and Nintendo Switch ($29.99), and virtual reality platforms.
Before we get into what’s new and newsworthy in this new update, take in these additional facts about the world-renowned building simulation, released ten years ago this month: more people are playing “Minecraft” than ever before at about 91 million unique players every month (across all platforms); more than 160 million people have watched more than 5 billion hours of Minecraft video content on YouTube; and not only is “Minecraft” one of the best-selling games in history, but also one of the highest-rated, with the PC version netting a 93% average “metascore” at Metacritic.com.
Building better ‘Minecraft’ villages
As the name suggests, villages have changed quite a bit and are among the highlights in this latest ‘Minecraft’ update.
Visually, villages will look different based on biome, or region – plains, desert, savannah, taiga, and so forth – therefore you can expect to see changes based on climate and local resources. In fact, villages are now generated differently, so the layout and architecture of the village will vary.
Villages are generated differently now in ‘Minecraft,’ and enjoy a new look and gameplay elements tied to each biome, or region. (Photo: Mojang/Microsoft)
Along with new building types, villagers also look more unique, with clothing that matches the biome they’re in, as well as their level and profession. With the latter, villagers now learn a trade when near a job site block, such as a Blacksmith, Librarian, Butcher, Cartographer and Shepherd, to name a few.
Villagers go about their business with a specific routine – from bed to work to socializing with others – and with better “pathfinding” artificial intelligence, too.
There are other additions, too, such as Masons and Nitwit villagers, kids who play tag, and more.
Prepare to fend off Pillagers
Want to pick a fight? Even if you don’t, you might be forced to defend yourself from an angry mob in the “Minecraft” Village & Pillage update.
While not too bright, the crossbow-wielding pillagers will disrupt the villagers’ daily lives, by attacking them in small groups, at fortified outposts, and will plunder indiscriminately throughout the land. Unlike skeletons, these pillagers may not be smart enough to move out of the way of your return fire; their aim isn’t the best; and they’ll often hurt each other with friendly fire (and say “Ow!”).
What’s better than a bow? A crossbow, of course. This is the main new weapon found in the ‘Village & Pillage’ update for ‘Minecraft.’ (Photo: Mojang/Microsoft)
But what they lack in brains they make up for in tenacity. Pillagers will respawn in large outpost towers and swarm and destroy villagers in their path. So, keep a shield handy to minimize damage from an onslaught of arrows.
Once you clear them out, you can score some loot. Players who successfully defend a village from a raid will receive some fireworks and the Hero of the Village effect, which provides a deep discount on trades with villagers (see below). And if you take out a pillager captain – the ones with the banners on their backs – you’ll be rewarded with a triggered raid when you enter a village.
Along with pillagers, there are other new mobs in this update, including chubby pandas, stray cats, Ravagers (a powerful new mob), and some other surprises.
Trading up in the ‘Minecraft’ update
As previously mentioned, there are new occupations in each village you visit, and that means new opportunities for trading.
When villagers make trades, they gain experience. Gain enough experience and they level up. Leveling up unlocks new trades. You get the idea.
Villagers now have a new visual-based trading system and will hold up an item they wish to trade if the player is holding something they want.
Also new is Wandering Traders, which are mysterious salesmen – flanked by a llama on each side of him – who deal items from several different biomes, often with rare materials, and offering up to six randomly generated trades. These special characters stay alive at night by drinking invisibility potions. And their loyal llamas spit at mobs if approached.
The latest ‘Minecraft’ update adds several new professionals to the game, including cartographer, librarian, butcher, and, shown here, the stone mason. (Photo: Mojang/Microsoft)
Bamboo, berries and bells
There are dozens of other new features (and fixes) in the Village & Pillage update. Here are a few more worthy features:
•Like bamboo? Then you’ll love the update as there’s plenty of it in two new biomes: bamboo jungle and bamboo jungle hills. You can not only chop it down easily by hitting it with a sword, but also combine it with string to make scaffolding in building structures.
•Several new blocks now pop up, including a variety of slabs, stairs, and walls. New textures have been added to blocks, too, such as stained glass. And there are new job site blocks that assign trades to jobless villagers.
•As you might expect, crossbows offer many benefits over a regular bow: the weapon enjoys higher damage (and can pierce multiple enemies), plus it reloads faster, and can also shoot fireworks.
•Other additions include a bell you can ring to warn villagers of an impending attack or danger – so they run inside and hide; campfires, which serve as a light source or to cook meat; Sweet Berries, a new source of food found in taiga biomes; seven new Achievements including one for killing a pillager captain; and some accessibility features such as text to speech, which can now be enabled to read in-game chat.
Minecraft turns 10 this weekend and fans of the popular-blocky-game are celebrating this big milestone in various ways, like baking cakes in real life or sharing old stories and screenshots.
Last weekend, Minecraft developer Mojang released a new and free map to celebrate the big milestone. However, while that map was cool, it was also a bit early. This weekend (specifcally May 16th) is actually the official 10 year anniversary of the first release of Minecraft.Outstream Video
Beyond this small cake topping, fans across Reddit and Twitter have been sharing tons of videos, photos, builds and more in honor of a decade of Minecraft.
One fan shared a handwritten letter they received from Jeb, a lead developer on the game, from nearly 10 years ago. When he sent his letter and received a response, he was 9 years old and in 5th grade.
A Minecraft player and creator shared some new skins they made in honor of the celebrations. It shows the main default characters of Minecraft holding up cakes. The cake is actually the head and the shoulder is the top of the hands. A very clever design.
A few players across Reddit and elsewhere shared images of some of their first builds or even their very first homes. Like Ryan-1- on the Minecraft subreddit, who shared a screenshot of their first dirt house.
This screenshot reminded me of my first dirt home.
I downloaded Minecraft and watched a short tutorial on how to play the game and jumped in. This was right near the release of the game and I scared of the night. The moment the sun started to slide down the sky, I panicked and dug out some dirt and made a small crappy home like this. After a few days of playing that first world, my small home was a castle. But in the middle of it all, was still my first home and chest.
What memories of Minecraft do you have? Do you remember the first time you built a home? The first time you joined a random server? The first skin you used? Share your memories and stories in the comments.
The first version of Minecraft appeared 10 years ago this Friday, which is a truly terrifying thought. Microsoft and Mojang are marking the occasion with, among other things, a fancy new map that’s free for all players to download. It’s a theme park and museum, put together by the builders at BlockWorks to take you on a trip through the game’s history.
Walking through static exhibits wouldn’t be very Minecraft, so this museum is interactive, complete with rides, puzzles and Easter eggs. It’s also absolutely huge. There are buildings dedicated to displaying every block and creature in the game, gargantuan architectural wonders, giant circuit boards, biodomes and a minecart ride through a decade of milestones. There’s a lot to see.
Mojang has teased some Easter eggs, though I confess I haven’t been looking too hard. I’ve just been wandering around aimlessly, nodding thoughtfully at pretty exhibits and snapping away.
I haven’t played in years, but after popping in for a nostalgic saunter, I’ve found myself eager to stay. I’ve missed a lot of updates, but a quick browse on Reddit revealed plenty of impressive creations and sources of inspiration. I spent a whole year building a retro sci-fi ‘City of Tomorrow’ once and I’ve got the itch again.
A pair of big announcements are also coming on May 17, but all we know about them is that they’ll be better than huggable Creepers. What could possible be better than that?
You can download the map for Java here and for Bedrock on the Minecraft Marketplace. There’s also an anniversary sale going on in the shop, reducing the base game by 50 percent and the top ten items by 10 percent. Minecraft merchandise has been discounted, too.
