Minecraft is a sandbox independent video game originally created by Swedish

programmer Markus "Notch" Persson and later developed and published by the Swedish
company Mojang since 2009. The creative and building aspects of Minecraft allow players to
build constructions out of textured cubes in a 3D procedurally generated world. Other
activities in the game include exploration, gathering resources, crafting, and combat. Multiple
gameplay modes are available, including survival modes where the player must acquire
resources to build the world and maintain health, a creative mode where players have
unlimited resources to build and the ability to fly, and an adventure mode where players play
custom maps created by other players.
The alpha version was publicly released for PC on May 17, 2009, and after gradual updates,
the full version was released on November 18, 2011. A version forAndroid was released a
month earlier on October 7, and an iOS version was released on November 17, 2011. The
game was released on the Xbox 360 as an Xbox Live Arcade game on May 9, 2012, on
the PlayStation 3 on December 17, 2013, on the PlayStation 4 on September 4, 2014, on
the Xbox One the next day, and on thePlayStation Vita on October 14, 2014. All versions
of Minecraft receive periodic updates, with the console editions being co-developed by 4J
Studios.
Minecraft received five awards during the 2011 Game Developers Conference. Of the Game
Developers Choice Awards, it won the Innovation Award, Best Downloadable Game Award,
and Best Debut Game Award; from the Independent Games Festival, it won the Audience
Award and the Seumas McNally Grand Prize. In 2012, Minecraft was awarded a Golden
Joystick Award in the category Best Downloadable Game.
As of October 10, 2014, over 12 million copies of the game on the Xbox 360 and 17 million
copies on PC have been sold; nearly 54 million copies have been sold across all platforms,
making it one of the best-selling video games of all time.
On September 15, 2014, Microsoft announced a deal to buy Mojang, the developer of
Minecraft, granting the company ownership of the game's intellectual property. The all-cash
deal was worth $2.5 billion[13][14] and the deal was completed on November 6, 2014.[15]
Contents
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1 Gameplay
o 1.1 Survival mode
o 1.2 Creative mode
o 1.3 Adventure mode
o 1.4 Spectator mode
o 1.5 Multiplayer
2 Development

o 2.1 Audio
3 Platforms
o 3.1 Personal computer versions
o 3.2 Home console versions
o 3.3 Handheld versions
4 User-generated and downloadable content
5 Reception
o 5.1 Commercial
o 5.2 Critical
o 5.3 Awards
6 MineCon
7 Merchandise
8 Popular culture and social media
9 Applications
10 See also
11 Footnotes
12 References
13 External links

Gameplay
Minecraft is an open world game that has no specific goals for the player to accomplish,
allowing players a large amount of freedom in choosing how to play the game.[16] However,
there is an achievementsystem.[17] Gameplay by default is first person, but players have the
option to play in third person mode.[18] The core gameplay revolves around breaking and
placing blocks. The game world is composed of rough 3D objectsmainly cubes arranged
in a fixed grid pattern and representing different materials, such as dirt, stone, various ores,
water, and tree trunks. While players can move freely across the world, objects can only be
placed at fixed locations on the grid. Players can gather these material blocks and place
them elsewhere, thus allowing for various constructions.[19]
At the start of the game, the player is placed on the surface of a procedurally generated and
virtually infinite game world.[20] The world is divided into biomes ranging from deserts to
jungles to snowfields.[21][22]Players can walk across the terrain consisting of plains, mountains,
forests, caves, and various water bodies.[20] The in-game time system follows a day and night
cycle, with one full cycle lasting 20 real-time minutes. Throughout the course of the game,
players encounter various non-player characters known as mobs, including animals, villagers
and hostile creatures.[23] Non-hostile animalssuch as cows, pigs, and chickensspawn
during the daytime. The player may hunt them for food and crafting materials. By contrast,
hostile mobssuch as large spiders, skeletons, and zombiesspawn during nighttime or in
dark places, such as caves.[20] Some Minecraft-unique creatures have been noted by
reviewers, such as the Creeper, an exploding creature that sneaks up on the player; and the
Enderman, a creature with the ability to teleport and pick up blocks.[24]