Why has Minecraft been a commercial and critical success?
Minecraft is a sandbox computer game meaning that the main
aim of the game is to build and construct anything you want. This is one of the
reasons why Minecraft is one of the most successful video games, there is
unlimited possibility meaning that a player can build a variety of different
things. The video game was created and designed by Marcus “Notch” Perrson in
2009 and was fully developed and published by Mojang. Players are free to
explore the different environments and realms available, choose what to build
and have the ability to be creative with the game. The game has no specific objective
giving players a more free range. As well as constructing and ‘mining,’ players
can fight with monsters and play in multi-player to build as groups. Minecraft
players build structures from different materials available; mostly 3d blocks.
There is a wide variety of different textures from a range of metals to
fabrics; potions, animals and different accessories are also available to build
with.
On opening the game, Players can choose between two types of
gameplay; survival and creative. In survival mode, the player is given limited
life and start with no materials and must collect and create all of their
tools, weapons, armour and other resources from scratch in order to build. In
this mode, monsters come out at night and can attack, so players must combat
and stay safe in order to sustain their life. These monsters include skeletons,
which can shoot arrows, creepers, which explode when getting near the player,
zombies, which can eat you and many more such as spiders. This mode is very
popular as it gives the player a chance to work for their progress and ‘survive.’
A popular reason why Minecraft is so popular is that there is no specific
genre, players can construct but also battle in action packed combat and also
explore. The other mode is called creation which differs and the player starts
with unlimited resources and are able to create whatever they wish to. In this
mode, players are also able to fly making it quicker to travel across the
environment. Players are given unlimited life so cannot die making it easier to
make whatever they want. In creation mode, players have the ability to have
monsters in their world based on whether they pick easy, medium or hard and
also peaceful where there is no monsters at all. The problem that players have
with the monsters is that they can destroy the structures that the players
spend their time on making.
After making their structures, players often share their
creations online, mainly through Youtube, so that viewers can get inspiration
and sometimes copy their ideas. This is another popular aspect. Minecraft has
created a community of players which all share their ideas and this can lead to
more multi-player game play in order to create bigger structures quicker.
Minecraft’s community has grown so big that there is now an event called
Minecon which involves players to go to one event and talk about the game and
get even more inspiration. Minecraft has influenced popular culture because of
social media. Their video channels have huge followings which learn from the
internet videos. Minecraft’s success in popularity has meant that merchandise
has now been created for players including foam pick axes, t shirts and mugs.
Minecraft has huge commercial success with over 121 million
copies of the game sold as of February 2017. An estimated 55 million people
play the game every month including a range of ages from around 8 years old to
around 30. Minecraft is the second best-selling game of all time after Tetris.
In 2014, the game was brought from Mojang by Microsoft for $2.5 billion. Since
being released, the game has been released on many platforms including Xbox,
Playstation, Wii, Nintendo, PC, Phone, etc. This is a main reason why the game
is very successful as it is on a multi-platform meaning that more people can
play the game. Since the release of the game, there have been many spin off
games including the education edition and story mode. Minecraft has also
expanded from just being video game as
there is a feature film being released in 2019, Lego have released a selection
for Minecraft and more merchandise has been released making Minecraft a global
success and a household name.
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