Mojang Studio, a Sweden based video game company developed the sandbox video game Minecraft. It has been programmed in Java programming language by Markus ‘Notch’ Persson. The game was initially released in various versions in the testing phase privately. The game was launched for the public in 2009 before getting an official public release commercially in November 2011. With this, Jen Bergensten took over the development of Minecraft.
The game continues to grow to become one of the most sold video games of all time and it has been made available for other platforms as well. The records reflect that there have been nearly 238 million copies sold over time and as of 2021 the game registered 140 million monthly active users.
The game offers exquisite gameplay in which the players explore and interact in a 3D world. The terrain in the game is infinite and grows as the player proceeds with the game. They can discover new things, extract minerals from the crust as miners, make tools used for mining and buildings or structure made of earth.
The game has blocks that can be a solid or a liquid representing dirt, stone, ores, tree trunks, water, and lava. Players can gain these objects to contract the virtual world. The Redstone available in the game can be employed to make basic mechanical and electrical equipment such as electrical circuits, logic gates, and other mechanical devices.
The game offers several modes which come with different adventures and challenges. Players can face a computer-controlled mob and work in cooperation with other players or compete against them to collect as many coins as they can in the same world.
The game has a survival mode in which players acquire resources to build the virtual things in that world and maintain their health. In creative mode, players have unlimited resources and where they can compete with other players as well. Players can even change the gameplay, virtual goods and underlying assets in the game.
Unlike any other game, the game allows players to decide how they want to play it. There are no pre-defined goals or missions that are to be accomplished to level up. Players can build the game through the map seed as it is procedurally generated where the virtual world of the game manifests according to the interaction and activity of the player.
The game has received positive reviews from the players and critics. It has won many accolades and is considered the most influential video game of all time. The popularity and fame of the game can be ascribed to various social media platforms, movie and cartoon adaptations, Minecraft merchandise and goodies, and the annual Minecon.
The game also serves an educational purpose and it is also used in educational environments to teach chemistry, CAD or computer-aided design, and CS or computer science. In 2014, Microsoft purchased the intellectual property for Mojang and Minecraft for $2.5 billion. Several other spin-off games such as Minecraft: Story Mode, Minecraft Dungeons, and Minecraft Earth have also been launched till now.