Minecraft

Minecraft

•Minecraft is the second most successful video game of all time behind Tetris.

•It was created and designed by Markus Persson,
a game programmer, who also developed and published the game through his company Mojang. A full version of the game went on release in November 2011.

•To date, well over 121 million copies have been sold across all platforms, including over 27 million PC copies, making it the biggest selling PC game of all time.

The success of the games market.

The UK’s   US$4 billion;

China,   US$24.4 billion

America’s   US$23.6 billion.

•A recent report by the UKIE1 suggests that the global games market is now worth in excess of US$100 billion.    

•In comparison to traditional media like film, radio, print and television, video games are much  younger, exponentially growing since the 1970

Mine craft was created on the 17th May 2009
Sold to Microsoft for £2.5b
Markus Persson created it
Mine craft is a 2011 sandbox video game
The game allows players to build with a variety of different blocks in a 3D procedurally generated world, requiring creativity from players

Digitally convergent media: Video games consoles are an excellent example of a digitally convergent device, you can not only play games but access social media, surf the internet, stream films and TV content and upload content into cloud based servers. Cross-media content helps maximise profits and also improve reach to new customers.

•Production: This refers to all phases of designing, developing and making the media product;.

•Distribution: This refers to all processes linked to delivering the media product to audiences both through tangible (disc) and digital (Cloud based) media.

•Consumption: Explores the way in which the media text is used by audiences for pleasure but also explores the rise of user generated content across several platforms.

Parody video content

Simpsons opening

Crafted movies

Fits a different audience (younger)

Increases popularity

   Lego already sells Minecraft playsets so gamers can physically build their virtual creations. And Lego Worlds will invite fans to do the same in reverse."From the brick-by-brick editor, to discovering an expansive range of items, characters and creatures to populate your worlds - the creative possibilities are endless," "Lego was his favourite toy as a child and was the main inspiration behind Minecraft,

Benefits of minecraft on education

-learn to code

-creative problem solving

engineering

hand eye coordination

2009 computer code developed by Perssons (Mojang) was Java, it’s simplicity of coding enabled the gaming community  to modify and upgrade the game, consequently “users” were also involved in the production/evolution of the game improving the code /removing bugs

The specialised and institutionalised nature of media production, distribution and It is worth considering how a simple PC Java game has become a globally successful phenomenon across all consoles and hand-held devices; Minecraft is now a multi- platform game which is not only just for PC gamers but those who own smartphones, Microsoft consoles (Xbox); Playstation 3, 4 and PS Vita; and more recently Nintendo consoles (Wii U) and hand-held devices (Nintendo Switch and Nintendo New 3DS, New 2DS XL and New 3DS XL)

Minecraft started in 2009 when Swedish game developer Markus “Notch” Persson started working on an experimental sandbox game where players could build and navigate a world of textured cubes.

Notch himself credits other indie games like Zachary Barth’s Infiniminer for this idea.

2010 Minecraft was developed as a multiplayer game using JAVA code..

Gamers were able to contribute to the development of the program eliminating bugs and facilitating multiplayer capability

In September of 2013, Microsoft bought all rights to Minecraft from Mojang for $2.5 billion dollars.

Due to the original nature of the game, most players simply logged in to play Minecraft and didn’t need a physical copy of the game.

When the Xbox and PlayStation versions were created there was often a chance to offer digital versions of the same game across the Windows 10 operating system

Users were often encouraged to download the game through the cloud servers rather than a physical copy of the game which would incur more of a cost for the institution.

Physical copies of the game were released 6 months after the cloud versions t encourage online purchase and reduce the risk of piracy

Why Microsoft purchased – Minecraft for 2.5£Bn?

- Given the nature of the parent company and the loyal fan base of PC gamers, it was in the company’s interest to invest US$2.5 billion to purchase Mojang for long term revenue.

- Microsoft have since developed the product using more complex coding C++

- This has enabled multi platform access (mentioned previously)

- They have launched newer more traditional programs such as Miecraft Story board

- Minecraft in November 2014 of that year, plans to work on a virtual reality version of Minecraft in Partnership with Oculus

Minecrafts commercial success

–Budgets for games vary and Minecraft is a good example of a game that was made and developed using readily available open source software within the gaming community; creating the original Minecraft using Java gave it the advantage of being cross-platform: it will run on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.

–other mainstream games that require entire teams of programmers, artists and engineers to make video games that have budgets equal or exceeding that of mainstream films.  AN example of this includes CALL OF DUTY

•Minecraft’s not for profit funding of projects

–Minecraft has also been linked to non-profit projects such as the UNs Block by Block project, which encourages communities around the world to redesign their neighbourhoods using Minecraft.

–An educational version has also been developed, MinecraftEdu (2012), which has several applications to help teach subject and develop a culture of computer programming amongst digital natives.