Who created Minecraft and when?
Swedish programmer Markus ‘Notch’ Persson created Minecraft in 2009 with a company called Mojang.
Name some YouTube influencers/gamers who are famous for playing Minecraft.
What can you find out about them?
Ali A – Started YouTube in 2009. He has over 5
million subscribers.
AshleyMarieeGaming – She started to play
Minecraft as she liked the variety of possibilities the game offered. She
started to make YouTube videos as she felt that it was an escape from reality
and wanted to entertain audiences.
The Diamond Minecart – Has over 5 million subscribers. Has received over 1 billion views.
YouTubers have become very popular over the past few years and are becoming
‘celebrities’ in a way as they are gaining millions of fans and gaining lots of
money. For example, PewDiePie is the most watched person on YouTube, making
over $4 million a year and has over 30 million subscribers.
In 2014, Microsoft purchased Minecraft for $2.5 billion.
Why would this be a good investment for Microsoft and why did the founder of Minecraft agree to this?
This would be a good investment for
Microsoft as for purchasing Mojang and Minecraft for $2.5
billion, Microsoft will be gaining a $2.5 billion asset. Also, in its first
year, it was expected to make as much in profits as it would have made in
interest payments. For buying Minecraft, Microsoft is getting a product and an
audience that completes what Microsoft wanted to have, meaning that this
purchase was a benefit to them as they wanted to have a younger, more engaged
audience.
Markus Persson agreed to this because he
was not working on Minecraft anymore but was still responsible for it when a problem with EULA lead to Markus Persson
getting some hate online which he did not want to put up with anymore and he
wanted to work on prototypes for new games that made him happy. He wanted to
sell the game to another company as he lost interest in the game and didn't want to feel responsible for it anymore. Markus sold the game to Microsoft as
they were the fastest and most realistic offer and he had a prior working
relationship with Microsoft.
Minecraft allows kids to be able to be
creative rather than being destructive. Stephen Reid, co funder of Immersive Minds, uses Minecraft as an
educational tool. He visits schools all over the world promoting Minecraft as a
viable tool to educate children. His way of educating is by getting the
children to understand the term robot; that it means slave, and allowing the children to use Minecraft as a way to create robots for new objectives and start conversations about
the history of robots and the future of robots. Also, there are projects
happening. For example Mojang, who are going to places such as Kenya where they
are creating their communities in Minecraft and then making them a reality. Additionally, Minecraft can be used to teach someone how to programme. Overall,
Minecraft is limitless on the possibilities available to be able to be used as
an educational tool.
How does Minecraft build a community?
Minecraft is a game for all ages so a
variety of people come together to play Minecraft and go to conventions to
learn new things about the game and meet other people who play the game. Also,
Minecraft has allowed people to start being creative and to entertain audiences
through YouTube channels. Some
people such as AshleyMarieeGaming have created videos of
herself playing Minecraft. This has created a community as she is gaining fans
and viewers who all come together to watch her videos and Ashley Mariee gets to meet new
people who also create YouTube videos. Therefore, Minecraft helps build a huge
community.
Minecraft is available on all gaming platforms:
Xbox, iPhone, PlayStation, PC.
Ownership and Funding facts
-
Originally
owned by Mojang which is a company developed as a result of the game.
-
Markus
‘Notch’ Persson has a direct influence on the game as he wanted to create a
game that would instantly gratify audiences and reward them for their hard
work.
-
Audience
ownership of the game has been crucial - in that the players have become the
prosumers by helping to develop the game.
-
Minecraft
is not a ‘top-down’ game in terms of ownership as it has not been developed by
just one person/company. Instead, the code has been used as a resource that can
be used in a myriad of ways.
-
The
company was acquired by Microsoft in 2014 (due to the success of Minecraft) as
Microsoft wanted to gain access to this large and successful audience of
gamers.
-
Generates
money from:
-
the
sale of the game (£17.95 for Java edition on Mac and PC).
-
Subscription
to Minecraft Realms.
-
Tie-Ins
with Lego
-
Mods
on Marketplace
-
Online
merchandise shop
-
Deals
with children’s books & magazines.
-
Minecraft
film in production which will bring in more revenue.
-
One
month after its release in 2011, the beta version has over 1 million purchases.
-
By
April 2011, Persson estimated that it has made $33 million in revenue.
-
It
is now considered the 2nd most successful game of all time (behind Tetris) with
over 144 million copies sold across all platforms as of 2018.
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