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Minecraft sales top 100 million

pdog128

Member
I didn't even know there was a Gear VR version?

http://www.ign.com/articles/2016/04/27/minecraft-now-available-on-gear-vr

Came out last month. I think it's amazing. Like I said, the draw distance is much lower than other versions, I guess there's only so much a phone can handle. I believe it's based off of the mobile version.

But (unless you experience motion sickness) the movement is fluid and feels natural. And the prospect of actually being in your creations is pretty cool.
 
can someone explain what the appeal is? i did buy it years ago while it was in alpha/beta (can't remember exactly) and i was hooked building random stuff but got boring after a while. i can understand kids enjoying it but i know it's not just kids buying it. every time i'm on youtube there are always minecraft videos. i'm not hating on it but just curious what other people get out of it.
As far as I'm concerned, nothing matches the sense of exploration that Minecraft provides. Cresting a hill to see some insane natural formation in the distance, or spelunking deeper and deeper...and deeper into some huge cave formation.
 
So, basically, like a fourth of the game's sales come from mobile? That shouldn't surprise me, I guess, but it really does for some reason.

No, that number on wikipedia is outdated (looking at the sources, it says July 2015) and includes mobile. Mobile is much bigger share of that number. The last I recall it was like 30 million in early 2015 for mobile so it is likely 40 -45 million of the total sales of minecraft. Meanwhile the PC version is apparently only a little over 23.5 million according to https://minecraft.net/en/stats/
 
can someone explain what the appeal is? i did buy it years ago while it was in alpha/beta (can't remember exactly) and i was hooked building random stuff but got boring after a while. i can understand kids enjoying it but i know it's not just kids buying it. every time i'm on youtube there are always minecraft videos. i'm not hating on it but just curious what other people get out of it.

People like exploring, even if it's in procedural levels that lack level design. Wandering around at their own pace and looking at shit is a massive hook for people. At the same time, the game also gives you quite a few options when it comes to stacking squares on top of one another which once again is at their own pace.

The game has little/no rules, little/no restrictions, doesn't gate the player's progression at all, and therefore can't be played incorrectly. Minecraft is a game that is universal and appeals to the absolute lowest common denominator. My grandma couldn't play Mario, and she couldn't play PAC-MAN. But she definitely could play minecraft, and that's what makes it special.
 

Siegfried

Member
Minecraft is just like a freaking unlimited Lego. I have no idea why Lego never did it before. It's the one game they should have made and they didn't.
 
And to think, it all started here

2009, first alpha release
https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=6273
This is way too much fun. Built a bridge:
3Eni858.png

And a bridge from modern Minecraft
 

alexbull_uk

Member
If anyone has a Vive, you should download the Minecraft VR mod for it.

Absolutely incredible. I just stood looking at things I'd already built for hours - it was kind of surreal. Everything is huge!
 

Widge

Member
Pocket version is insanely popular. The amount of times I've seen kids sitting quietly on their parent's iPad and at least half the time it's minecraft they're playing.

The thing about Pocket was that it languished as an incredibly restricted format for ages. Tiny worlds (you could walk from invisible boundary to boundary in a couple of minutes), barely any features.

Then they just started churning out the updates. Infinite worlds, the full array of foes, many more features.

Check the milestones here:

http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Pocket_Edition_version_history
 

patapuf

Member
Minecraft is just like a freaking unlimited Lego. I have no idea why Lego never did it before. It's the one game they should have made and they didn't.

Jep, how you still can't properly build in lego games is mystifying to me.

Like guys.... it's your business model! You should know it works!
 
As far as I'm concerned, nothing matches the sense of exploration that Minecraft provides. Cresting a hill to see some insane natural formation in the distance, or spelunking deeper and deeper...and deeper into some huge cave formation.

Yeah, with all of the constant references to Lego, there's a tremendous underselling of the feeling of a living world that provides amazing exploration all around. I know I've spent hundreds of hours just getting lost in new seeds and setting up countless bases with my daughter as we roam the lands looking for the perfect spots to make our mark. MC is one of the most replayable video games ever made.
 
I honestly don't believe anyone that says they don't understand why it's so popular. Maybe it's boring for you, that's fine, but the general appeal isn't hard to see.
 
I'm surprised it wasn't at 100m already. Congrats to everyone involved in its creation and success. Congrats to Notch, to Mojang, to everybody else. A well earned milestone.
 
Yeah, with all of the constant references to Lego, there's a tremendous underselling of the feeling of a living world that provides amazing exploration all around. I know I've spent hundreds of hours just getting lost in new seeds and setting up countless bases with my daughter as we roam the lands looking for the perfect spots to make our mark. MC is one of the most replayable video games ever made.
I'd argue it's the ultimate role playing game, in the purest sense of the word. Want to be an explorer, or fight monsters, or do battle royales with friends, or learn the basic of programming with redstone, or recreate Manhattan to scale, and so on
 

Molemitts

Member
I mean, I get that. I truly do, but: Everytime I've played Minecraft for programs at work: I just get bored to death by the "gathering" materials to "craft" things with.

Honestly, I'd rather just mess with legos. At least there's no "hmmm, I need four wool to create a brick" going on there.

There's a creative mode for that. Let's you pick out any item/block and build whatever you want.
 

w0s

Member
I mean, I get that. I truly do, but: Everytime I've played Minecraft for programs at work: I just get bored to death by the "gathering" materials to "craft" things with.

Honestly, I'd rather just mess with legos. At least there's no "hmmm, I need four wool to create a brick" going on there.

Why not switch out of survival mode and just have everything at your fingertips?
 

TheSeks

Blinded by the luminous glory that is David Bowie's physical manifestation.
Why not switch out of survival mode and just have everything at your fingertips?

Is it really survival mode if it dumps you into that sort of gathering for MinecraftEdu?
 

Ferr986

Member
As far as I'm concerned, nothing matches the sense of exploration that Minecraft provides. Cresting a hill to see some insane natural formation in the distance, or spelunking deeper and deeper...and deeper into some huge cave formation.

This is what I love about the game, more than building stuff.

Those little caves that you start to explore and end up being huge underground caverns that takes hours to fully explore are always awesome.
 

DJ_Lae

Member
Well deserved, the game is fantastic and offers an insane amount of freedom. My daughter loves it and while I've never been able to get too much into it, I definitely appreciate what's going on.

Chalk us up for 5 copies on different platforms.
 
I thought I was done with Minecraft when I moved on from the 360. I remembered I had a PC copy earlier this year and installed a mod pack out of curiosity and I've put in another 300 hours in the last 2-3 months alone. The depth of some of the mods is incredible. I always lost interest in vanilla once I'd amassed loads of materials and built a castle or something. Now that's just stage one leading to crazy complex wired machines, computers and quarry's auto-mining. I just built a nuclear reactor for power management. My base is a mess of cables, item transport pipes and machines and I love the puzzle of trying to put it all together and make it efficient. It's zen-like.
 

d00d3n

Member
How many copies have they sold since ownership passed from Notch till MS? How much money has that made them?
 

Chris1

Member
The craziest part is the sales won't slow down for a long ass time, and when they do, MS will pop out with Minecraft 2 and sell another 50 million in a few years.
 

gafneo

Banned
I keep telling everyone PS1 graphics in HD is the prettiest thing ever. There's no need to strive for a zillion pollys and $25,000 computer chips. We could clone earth in a video game if people worked together on DS looking games.
 

Aaron D.

Member
This is what I love about the game, more than building stuff.

Those little caves that you start to explore and end up being huge underground caverns that takes hours to fully explore are always awesome.

This is me as well.

Maybe I'm missing a creativity gene or two, but I enjoy mining and exploring more than anything.

I build up my home-camp bases pretty well, but compared to the towering monstrosities I've seen in pics and video, my stuff is an absolute drop in the ocean.

I just enjoy the laid back pace and freedom of Survival mode. It's so open to opportunities and caters to absolutely any kind of mood/mindset.
 
Did Tetris even cost money on most of those "sales"? It was a pretty common game to be preinstalled on phones, or given as a promo.


Say one thing for Minecraft, it doesn't go on sale much (ie hardly ever). Even the mobile game stays at its $7 price tag all these years later.


Based on the mobile/PC/Console split on those graphs, revenue for Minecraft as a game is well over $1B ltd. The real money at this point is probably licencing though.
Pretty sure that list only counts paid sales/downloads.
 

Mashing

Member
Congrats. I've personally never found the appeal (I'm not a creative person and I find it tedious to create content). There are obviously a lot of people who feel different.
 
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