Minecraft

=Minecraft=  Minecraft is a sandbox building[2] [3] indie video game written in Java originally by Swedish creator Markus "Notch" Persson and now by his company, Mojang, formed from the proceeds of the game. It was released on May 17, 2009, with a Beta on December 20, 2010. Official releases for iOS and Android are currently in development to be released later in 2011 along with a full version of the game; the Android release will be temporarily exclusive to the Xperia Play.[4] [5] A version of the game for the Xbox 360 with Kinect support is under development by 4J Studios.

The game is focused on creativity and building, allowing players to build constructions out of textured cubes in a 3D world. The game has two variants – free Classic and paid Beta – where Classic is focused entirely on construction with unlimited material supply, whereas Beta requires players to acquire resources themselves, and contains mobs, player health, and additional features and items. The gameplay is heavily inspired by Infiniminer by Zachtronics Industries,[6] Dwarf Fortress by Bay 12 Games and Dungeon Keeper byBullfrog Productions.[7] [8]

The game is currently in development and Beta is the only continuously updated version of the game. Minecraft was developed for about a week before its public release on May 17, 2009, on the TIGSource forums, where it gained a considerable level of popularity. It has been continually updated and patched since then, and while it was still in alpha release, it garnered several hundred thousand sales and received critical notice and acclaim from many reviewers. It passed a million units sold on January 12, 2011,[9] [10] less than a month after reaching Beta. By July 18, 2011, the game had sold 2.8 million units.[11] {| class="toc" id="toc" style="font-size: 12px; border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); border-right-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); border-left-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249); padding-top: 5px; padding-right: 5px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 5px; "

Contents

 * 1 Gameplay
 * 1.1 Beta
 * 1.2 Classic
 * 2 Development
 * 3 Reception
 * 3.1 Sales
 * 4 Ports
 * 5 MinecraftCon
 * 6 See also
 * 7 Footnotes
 * 8 References
 * 9 External links
 * }

Gameplay
The core gameplay revolves around construction. The game world is essentially made up of cubical blocks arranged in a fixed grid pattern, that represent different materials, such as, dirt, stone, various ores, water, tree trunks, etc. While the players can move freely across the world, objects and items can only be placed at fixed locations relative to the grid. The player can gather these material "blocks" and place them elsewhere, thus potentially creating various constructions.

Minecraft has two currently available variants, Beta and Classic, both with single-player and multiplayer options. Classic is the earliest free version and initially featured only creativegame mode with only building (block placement and removal) aspects of the game and unlimited block supply. The Classic was then split into single-player survival mode (referred to as "Survival Mode Test"), which contained monsters and a much greater variety of blocks and items available, as well as requiring players to mine their own blocks. As of Beta release, only creative Classic mode version 0.30 is available in single-player and multiplayer modes.

Classic survival mode served as the base for development of single-player non-free Indev ("In Development"), and later non-free Infdev ("Infinite Development") versions, each expanding the number of features. Indev and Infdev were later replaced by the non-free Alpha variant, which continued to add features to the game, including multiplayer mode. As of December 20, 2010, the game entered into Beta. It includes music by Daniel "C418" Rosenfeld.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-MainPage_11-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[12] For multiplayer games, servers are currently hosted by individual players or groups; there are no "official" Minecraft servers yet, the only way to connect to a server is entering the hostname or IP address in-game.

Beta
A screenshot of a pseudo-randomlygenerated Minecraft Beta landscape <p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;">The Beta version of the game is a successor to the earlier Alpha version via a sequence of updates. Minecraft moved from alpha to betastatus on December 20, 2010.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Betarelease_12-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[13] It is the only version of Minecraft continuously updated and is only available to users who have purchased the game. Beta is a survival game mode with both single-player and multiplayer variants playable as a stand-alone<sup class="noprint Inline-Template" style="line-height: 1em; white-space: nowrap; " title="Link needs disambiguation from June 2011">[disambiguation needed] client and in web browsers.

<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;">The game starts by placing the player on the surface of a huge procedurally generated game world. The player can walk across the terrain consisting of plains, mountains, caves, and various water bodies. The world is also divided into biomes ranging from deserts to snowfields. The in-game time system follows a day and night cycle. The player can acquire different resources and craft tools, weapons, armor, food, and various other items. By acquiring better resources, the player can make more proficient items. For example, tools such as axes, shovels, or pickaxes, can be used to chop down trees, dig soil, and mine ores respectively. The game has an inventory system and the player is limited in the number of items they can carry.

<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;">During daytime, different non-hostile animals spawn, which can be hunted for food and crafting materials. Hostile mobs, such as large spiders, skeletons, zombies, and the dangerous exploding "Creeper" will spawn in unlit areas, such as during nighttime and in caves. Armor can help mitigate damage from mob attacks, while weapons can be used to kill enemies and other animals. The player has a health bar, which is depleted by attacks from monsters, falls, or environmental damage (such as drowning or falling into lava or magma) and can be replenished by eating certain food items, or by playing on the easiest difficulty, at which health regenerates by itself. Upon dying, items in the player's inventory are dropped and the player is teleported to the starting spawn point. The items can be recovered if the player reaches them in time.

<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;">Complex systems can be built using the in-game physics engine with the use of primitive electrical circuits and logic gates. For example, a door can be opened or closed by pressing a connected button or stepping on a pressure plate. Similarly, larger and more complex systems can be produced, such as a working arithmetic logic unit – as used in CPUs.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-RedstoneComputer_13-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[14]

<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;">The game world is procedurally generated as the player explores it. Although limits exist on vertical movement both up and down, Beta allows for an infinitely large game world to be generated on the horizontal plane, only running into technical problems when extremely distant locations are reached.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-persson1_14-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[† 1] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-NotchExplain1_15-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[15] The game achieves this by splitting the game world data into smaller sections, called "chunks",<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-persson1_14-1" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[† 1] only created or loaded into memory when the player is nearby.

<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;">Some multiplayer servers offer fan-made mods that enhance or change the gameplay, such as providing unlimited material supply, new enemies or weapons, or enhanced transportation systems.<sup class="Template-Fact" style="line-height: 1em; white-space: nowrap; " title="This claim needs references to reliable sources from March 2011">[citation needed]

Classic
A screenshot of Minecraft Classic (single player) <p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;">The other Minecraft variant is Classic. It is only the game's base functionality, allowing players to build and destroy any and all parts of the world either alone or in a multiplayer server, without the need to worry about being attacked by computer-controlled enemies or avoiding environmental hazards like lava and steep falls. The player is given an unlimited supply of blocks with which to build and can place or remove any block instantly, regardless of their type. New blocks and environment interactions introduced in Indev version and later are not available in Classic mode. For example, in Classic mode, TNT will act like any other block and break when hit, but, in Beta mode, TNT will detonate after the fuse is lit. Unlike Beta, Classic is free to play, though it is not updated.

<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;">Players have created bots to help them build inside of Classic mode servers. One of the intended uses of these bots is replicating in-game structures. Classic is intended to be phased out as Beta progresses, leaving Beta as the only Minecraft game. An official version of the Classic server software is available from the Minecraft website; however, many fans have created their own custom servers with additional features, such as the ability to place water blocks.<sup class="Template-Fact" style="line-height: 1em; white-space: nowrap; " title="This claim needs references to reliable sources from July 2011">[citation needed]

Development
<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;">The developer of Minecraft, Markus Persson aka Notch, had previously worked on games such as Wurm Online and as a game developer for King.com for over four years.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-GSint_7-1" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[8] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-PCGAMERinterview_16-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[16] Minecraft development began on May 10, 2009, soon after Persson had quit his job at King.com in order to concentrate more on independent development.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-GSint_7-2" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[8] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-MCabout_17-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[17] Persson was inspired to create Minecraft by several other games such as Dwarf Fortress, Infiniminer by Zachtronics Industries, and Dungeon Keeper by Bullfrog Software. He was still working out the basics of gameplay when he discovered Infiniminer and played with others on the TIGSource.com forums.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-PCGAMERinterview_16-1" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[16] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-MCabout_17-1" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[17] At the time, he had also been visualizing an isometric 3D building game that would be a cross between his inspirations and had made some early prototypes.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-GSint_7-3" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[8] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-MCorigins_18-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[18] After discovering Infiniminer, Notch declared "My god, I realized that that was the game I wanted to do".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-notchbasis_5-1" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[6] Infiniminer heavily influenced the style of gameplay that eventually resulted in Minecraft, including the first-person aspect of the game and the "blocky" visual style.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-MCabout_17-2" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[17]

A screenshot of the Minecraft Beta crafting screen, showing a stone axe being crafted <p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;">Minecraft was first released to the public on May 17, 2009, as a developmental "alpha" release. Although Persson maintained a day job with Jalbum.net at first, he later moved to working part time and has since quit in order to work on Minecraft full time as sales of the beta version of the game have expanded.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-PCGAMERinterview_16-2" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[16] Persson continues to update the game with releases distributed to users automatically. Persson plans to continue these updates after the release of the full game as long as there is still an active userbase.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-MCabout_17-3" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[17] These updates have included features such as new items, new blocks, an alternate "Hell" dimension (accessible through construction of a portal) that Persson terms "The Nether", tamable wolves that assist the player, and changes to the game's behavior (e.g., how water flows). Persson plans to eventually release the game as open-source after sales have dropped off and when he wants to move onto other projects.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-PCGAMERinterview_16-3" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[16]

A screenshot of "The Nether", analternate dimension <p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;">In September 2010 Persson announced that he and a friend were starting a video game company, Mojang, with the money earned fromMinecraft. This company was intended to back the development of Minecraft and an unrelated game, Scrolls, which his friend would primarily work on. As part of creating the company, Persson has hired "an artist, a web site developer, and a business guy", additional programmers, and established an office in Stockholm.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-LackOfUpdates_19-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[19] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-MCcompany_20-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[20] Although Persson plans to spend the majority of his time working on Minecraft while his partner spends the majority of his time working on the other game, he says that "everyone working at the company will be involved in both projects to some degree".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-MCcompany_20-1" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[20] Persson said that part of his motivation behind hiring staff was that he felt he was spending too much time working on the website and reading emails rather than developing Minecraft.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-MCcompany_20-2" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[20] The four additional employees hired in 2010 were Jens Bergensten, a programmer; Daniel Kaplan, the "business guy"; Jakob Porser, who will be working on the other game for Mojang; and Markus "Junkboy" Toivonen, a pixel artist.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-MCJens_21-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[21] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-MCDaniel_22-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[22] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-MCJakob_23-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[23] The plans for Persson's new company were delayed by weeks when his account with PayPal, containing over US$763,000 in proceeds from Minecraft sales, was frozen due to a "suspicious withdrawal or deposit".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-ESCAPEpaypal_24-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[24] On October 20, 2010, the official Minecraft website suffered a prolonged DDoS attack.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-KotakoDDoS_25-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[25] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-EGDDOS_26-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[26]

<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;">On December 11, 2010, Persson announced, via his personal blog, that Minecraft would be entering its beta testing phase on December 20, 2010, and that the price would increase to €14.95.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-BetaDate_27-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[27] He further stated that users who bought the game after this date would no longer be guaranteed to receive all future content free of charge as it "scared both the lawyers and the board." However, bug fixes and all updates leading up to and including the release would still be free. At the start of 2011 Mojang expanded to include Carl Manneh as a "managing director" and Tobias Möllstam as a programmer.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-MCMannehMollstam_28-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[28] On April 7, 2011, Persson made a post on his blog that Mojang has decided to move the game out of Beta on November 11, 2011; however this would not be the "finished product", as the game would be continuously updated before and after the release.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-releasedate_29-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[29]

<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;">Minecraft.net provided online systems to authenticate logins and host the player's profile including its modifiable character skin pattern and the purchased gift codes. On January 18, 2011, Persson announced in a blog post that Minecraft's web servers would be switching to being hosted solely on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) content delivery network. Notch stated in his personal blog that their old help host was having trouble and that Mojang would be switching to using AWS as their host for both Minecraft.net and Minecraft's web functions such as logging in.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-notchMigr_30-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[30] This was followed by a tweet the next day confirming the migration and that Tobias would be the one to setup the new servers.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-TobiasBP_31-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[31] Upon this hosting migration, both Minecraft.net and Minecraft game features experienced fluctuating down time.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-McDown_32-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[32] On February 21, Mojang hired Dan Frisk to oversee the servers and backend for bothMinecraft and Scrolls.

<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;">On May 19, 2011, Persson announced via his Twitter about an additional dimension which is currently being tested to add to the game. The "Sky Dimension" is similar to the Nether, however set above the sky with floating islands.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-33" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[33] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-34" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[34]

<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;">On June 10, 2011, Persson announced via his blog that the official release of Minecraft has been delayed due to November 11 being fully booked at MinecraftCon, and stated he expects a release by the following week.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-35" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[35]

<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;">Currently, an official iOS, and Android version of Minecraft is being developed by new Mojang employee Aron Nieminen for release later in the year 2011.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-MobileGamas_3-1" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[4] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-MobileKotaku_4-1" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[5]

Reception
<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;">Minecraft has received favorable responses from critics, and has had notably large numbers of sales.

<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;">The game has been praised for the creative freedom it grants its players in-game, and for how dynamic the overall gameplay is.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-PCGamerUK_36-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[36] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-PCPowerPlay_37-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[37] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Valve_38-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[38] PC Gamer listed Minecraft as the fourth-best game to play at work.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-PCGamer_39-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[39]

<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;">A review of the alpha version, by Scott Munro of the Daily Record, called it "already something special" and urged readers to buy it.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-DRreview_40-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[40] Jim Rossignol of Rock, Paper, Shotgun also recommended the alpha of the game, calling it "a kind of generative 8-bit Lego Stalker".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-RPSreview_41-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[41] On September 17, 2010, gaming webcomic Penny Arcade began a series of comics and news posts about the addictiveness of the game.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-PennyArcade_42-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[42] Video game talk show Good Game gave it a 7.5 and 9 out of 10, praising its creativity and customization, though they criticized its lack of a tutorial.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-ABCTV_43-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[43]

<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;">In December 2010, Good Game selected Minecraft as their choice for "Best Downloadable Game of 2010" title,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-GGaward_44-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[44] Gamasutra named it the eighth best game of the year as well as the eighth best indie game of the year,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-GSaward_45-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[45] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-GSaward2_46-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[46] and Rock, Paper, Shotgun named it the game of the year.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-RPSgoty_47-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[47] Indie DB awarded the game the 2010 "Indie of the Year" award as chosen by voters, in addition to two out of five Editor's Choice awards for "Most Innovative" and "Best Singleplayer Indie".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-IDBaward_48-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[48] It was also awarded "Game of the Year" by PC Gamer UK.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-PCGamerUK1_49-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[49] The game was nominated for the "Seumas McNally Grand Prize", "Technical Excellence", and "Excellence in Design" awards at the March 2011 Independent Games Festival<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-IGFnoms_50-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[50] and won the Grand Prize along with community-voted "Audience Award".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-IGFwins_51-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[51] At Game Developers Choice Awards 2011, Minecraft won the award for Best debut game, Best downloadable game and Most Innovative game award, winning every award for which it was nominated.<sup class="Template-Fact" style="line-height: 1em; white-space: nowrap; " title="This claim needs references to reliable sources from March 2011">[citation needed]

<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;">On May 5, 2011, Minecraft was selected as one of the 80 games that will be displayed at the Smithsonian American Art Museum as part of "The Art of Video Games" exhibit that will open on March 16, 2012.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-52" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[52] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-53" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[53]

Sales
<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;">In September 2010, after an impromptu "free to play" weekend, the game had a spike in sales of over 25,000 purchases in 24 hours.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-freeweekend_54-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[54] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-124hourpeak_55-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[55] On January 12, 2011, Minecraft passed 1,000,000 purchases,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-usercount12012011_8-1" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[9] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-usercountblog_9-1" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[10] less than a month after reaching Beta. At the same time, the game had no publisher backing and has never been commercially advertised except throughword of mouth.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-noads_56-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[56] By April 2011, Persson estimated that Minecraft had made €23 million (US$33 million) in revenue, with 800,000 sales of the alpha version of the game at €9.95, and over 1 million sales of the beta version at €14.95.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-GSAprilsales_57-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[57] On July 1, 2011 Minecraft passed the 10 million registered users mark.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-58" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[58] As of July 18, 2011, Minecraft had over 10 million registered users, and over 2.8 million purchases.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-usercount18072011_10-1" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[11]

Ports
<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;">The game is set to be released on several other platforms, including Android, iOS and the Xbox 360. The Xbox 360 version of the game, developed by 4J Studios, will support Kinectplay and cross-platform playability with the PC version.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-59" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[59]

MinecraftCon
<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;">On May 11, 2011, Notch announced via his blog about an official Minecraft convention titled "MinecraftCon" to be held on the date of the official release of the game. Entry will be US$90 with planned features such as cosplay, speed building and Q&A. The event is planned to be held in Las Vegas, with other venues being considered via a poll.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-60" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[60] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-60" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">