Minecraft passes 10 million registered users

[Emil]

The immensely popular PC sandbox game Minecraft has passed 10 million registered users. The number comes straight from the horse's mouth: the game's creator, Markus Persson, also known as Notch.

There is still no official release date for Minecraft. The game was supposed to leave beta status on November 11, 2011 but that date was pushed back about a week since Notch wants to find a good venue for MinecraftCon and the date 11/11/11 is fully booked.

When it finally ships, Minecraft will be available for €20.00 ($28.87); right now it's still in beta and goes for €14.95 ($21.58). Notch says that despite other upcoming versions of the game, he is still focused on the PC version and won't be coding any of the other ports.

Minecraft is coming to the Xbox 360 this winter. The new version of the game, which doesn't have a name yet, will be designed specifically for console play. It will feature (but not require) Kinect support, and will be an exclusive Xbox 360 title.

Minecraft - Pocket Edition, an Android port, is also in development. The game will be arriving on the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play first, before it shows up for other Android devices. The Xperia Play was likely chosen because it has dedicated gaming buttons. The price of the app is still unknown, nor do we have a release date or specific exclusivity period for the Xperia Play, but we do know there is already working code, courtesy of the video released two months ago.

Minecraft was originally released (now referred to as the classic version) on May 17, 2009. It entered Indev status on December 23, 2009, Infdev status on February 27, 2010, alpha status on June 28, 2010, and finally beta status on December 20, 2010. 

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https://www.techspot.com/news/44525-minecraft-passes-10-million-registered-users.html

 

[treetops]

I don't see the appeal. Looks like populus without the waring and god like interference. Must be something sims fans like?

 

[Guest]

Terraria is an awesome 2D version of a similar thing. Give it a try.

 

[Guest]

This is the most pointless thing I have ever seen. Its reason for being eludes me.
It's like a step backwards for mankind. I'm sure this will be the reason for the dumbing down of the generation it captivates.

 

[Lokalaskurar]

Some people will always go on about how they absolutely adore Minecraft. And some will always go on about how they absolutely hate it. Of course, Minecraft might seem to be a dull game because it lacks a storyline, sufficient audio and any kind of ''stunning'' graphics. But if you use a little bit of imagination, it becomes much more interesting. And after building your first shack, platform, cart system, ship, mobavator, monster killer, redstone keylock, redstone song, calculator... one's pretty much stuck with a very simple game without stunning graphics, without epic music, and with a storyline often written by you and your friends -- and it somehow becomes epic.

 

[freedomthinker]

I still don't get why this game got so popular ?

 

[Guest]

I told myself that i would never play this game and then i tried the free version creative mode and got hooked. if you like creating epic buildings and/or contraptions then this is a game to play.

 

[Guest]

I just spent like 7 hours viewing Minecraft creations, playthroughs, and timelapses on Youtube. I never played the game; only heard a few things about it. Now it is one of the most anticipated games of mine for the XBox. When I see the game, I feel I'll be hooked for a week or two, then leave for a long time. When I come back, I'll probably play even longer, then leave again. It's a weird thing I do, but I only do it for really good and creative games. This shows that this game fits that description. For those who doubt, go look up a few of those videos on Youtube or elsewhere; it can't hurt, right? I hope you see how creative and lifeless people can be!

 

[g4mer]

This doesn't deserve to be called "a game".

 

[g4mer]

Guest said:
I just spent like 7 hours viewing Minecraft creations, playthroughs, and timelapses on Youtube. I never played the game; only heard a few things about it. Now it is one of the most anticipated games of mine for the XBox. When I see the game, I feel I'll be hooked for a week or two, then leave for a long time. When I come back, I'll probably play even longer, then leave again. It's a weird thing I do, but I only do it for really good and creative games. This shows that this game fits that description. For those who doubt, go look up a few of those videos on Youtube or elsewhere; it can't hurt, right? I hope you see how creative and lifeless people can be!

Maybe i don't get it, but you spent 7 hours looking at videos and you call those people lifeless?

 

[lipe123]

Guest said:
This is the most pointless thing I have ever seen. Its reason for being eludes me.
It's like a step backwards for mankind. I'm sure this will be the reason for the dumbing down of the generation it captivates.

As opposed to? What game have you played recently that gave you the answer to life and everything, or cured aids or fed the poor or stopped wars?

Maybe you should wake up and realize that playing games is by definition the choice to do something pointless to escape the important stuff we could be doing.
Minecraft is very good at making people spend hours being pointless, its also cheap and has a active dev team that constantly makes the game better. MUCH MUCH more that can be said for any other piece of junk big brand game that costs 60$ and never gets an update or costs another 15$ for some maps or textures.

 

[Guest]

One epic creation in Minecraft. This was a train station built, with rail networks connecting to different parts of the game world on the server.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxPsrOmm4mQ&feature=player_embedded

 

[IvanAwfulitch]

The reason this game became so popular is because it's basically a giant sandbox online lego game that you can play with your friends. Haven't any of you haters ever spent your time as a kid building a lego starwars starship? Or setting up a model train and rail system? Or making a giant house of cards? Playing Jenga? Building anything at all? This is all of those things combined into one online experience with any one of your friends who has the game. People have done things from building a replica of 16 bit Yoshi, Mario, and Samus, to building an extravagant household, to amusement parks, and even complicated calculators. One chap even built a scale model of the Starship Enterprise. Spelunking and exploring deep underground in the search for rare minerals adds a questing element and the enemy types that show up at night and in dark shadows make survival a challenge.

It's not just some dumb game. There's actually something to it if you'd be willing to try it. But as with any game, it's not for everyone to love, and it can get boring as quickly as any other game. In order to have fun in Minecraft, you need friends to play with you to have fun, and you have to come up with challenging build-projects. Otherwise, yeah it's going to seem pretty dumb and boring.

Terraria took the same sorts of concepts, but made treasure-hunting, boss fights, and exploration the centerpiece instead of accumulation of wealth and materials for the creation of a super mansion. And I personally thought Terraria was a much better take on this genre of game. But Minecraft has its own place in gaming history.

Hope this sheds some more light on its popularity.