Minecraft (franchise)

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Minecraft
Created byMarkus Persson
Original workFirst version of Minecraft made public in May 2009
OwnerMojang Studios
Years2009–present
Print publications
Novel(s)List of novels
Graphic novel(s)
    • Dark Horse Comics Volumes (2019–2021)
    • Minecraft: Wither Without You
    • Minecraft: Open World
    • Minecraft: Stories from the Overworld
Films and television
Film(s)
Web seriesMinecraft Mini Series (2017–2018)
Games
Traditional
Video game(s)
Miscellaneous
Toy(s)Lego Minecraft
Official website
minecraft.net

Minecraft is a media franchise developed from and centered around the video game of the same name. Primarily developed by Mojang Studios, the franchise consists of five video games, along with various books, merchandise, events, and an upcoming theatrical film. Microsoft acquired Mojang Studios in 2014, alongside the Minecraft franchise and its editions.

Minecraft

Minecraft is a

Mojang, spanning multiple platforms. It was originally created by the independent video game designer Markus Persson in 2009, before giving the development to Jens Bergensten in 2011. The game has no specific goals to accomplish, allowing players a large amount of freedom in choosing how to play the game.[1] Gameplay is in the first-person perspective,[2] with the core gameplay modes being survival, in which players must acquire resources to build the world and maintain health (optionally with a "hardcore" limit, which deletes the world after the player dies); and creative, in which players have unlimited resources, no hunger and are able to fly. The game world is composed of voxels—cubes, commonly called "blocks"—representing various materials, such as dirt, stone, ores, tree trunks, water, and lava, which are arranged in a 3-dimensional grid. Gameplay revolves around picking up and placing these objects as the player pleases, while being able to move freely around the world.[3]

Spin-off games

Minicraft

Minicraft is a 2011

top-down action game created by Markus Persson, the creator of the Minecraft franchise. It was developed in 48 hours as part of the 22nd Ludum Dare game jam competition.[4][5][6] At the time of its release, it was reported to be a "sequel" to Minecraft.[7]

Minecraft: Story Mode

Minecraft: Story Mode, an episodic spin-off game developed by

OS X, iOS, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One via download on 13 October 2015. A physical disc that grants access to all episodes was released for the aforementioned four consoles on 27 October.[10] Wii U[11] and Nintendo Switch versions were available in 2017.[12][13] From late 2018 to 5 December 2022, it was only available on Netflix, where only the first five episodes were available.[14][15] The first trailer for the game was shown at Minecon on 4 July 2015, revealing some of the game's features. In Minecraft: Story Mode, players control Jesse (voiced by Patton Oswalt and Catherine Taber),[10] who sets out on a journey with his or her friends to find The Order of the Stone—four adventurers who slayed an Ender Dragon—in order to save their world. Brian Posehn, Ashley Johnson, Scott Porter, Martha Plimpton, Dave Fennoy, Corey Feldman, Billy West and Paul Reubens portray the rest of the cast.[16]

Release timeline
2011Minecraft
2012
2013
2014
2015Minecraft: Story Mode
2016
2017Minecraft: Story Mode: Season 2
2018
2019Minecraft Earth
2020Minecraft Dungeons
2021
2022
2023Minecraft Legends

Minecraft: Story Mode: Season 2

The second season was released from July to December 2017. It continued the story from the first season, with the player's choices affecting elements within Season Two. Patton Oswalt, Catherine Taber, Ashley Johnson, and Scott Porter were confirmed to continue voicework for the new season. The game supports the new Crowd Play feature that Telltale introduced in Batman: The Telltale Series, allowing up to 2,000 audience members to vote on decisions for the player using Twitch or other streaming services.[17] It was shut down along with the original Minecraft: Story Mode, on 25 June 2019.[14]

Minecraft Earth

Minecraft Earth was an augmented reality sandbox game developed by Mojang Studios and published by Xbox Game Studios. A spin-off of the video game Minecraft, it was first announced in May 2019, and was available on Android, iOS, and iPadOS. The game allowed players to interact with the world and build Minecraft-style structures and objects that will persist and can be modified by other players. The game implemented the resource-gathering and many of the other features of the original game in an augmented-reality setting. The game had a beta release in July 2019.[18] The game was free-to-play, and was released in early access in October 2019. The game was shut down on 30 June 2021, and players who made in-game purchases on the app received a free copy of the Bedrock Edition.[19][20]

Minecraft Dungeons

Minecraft Dungeons is a

Windows, and Xbox One on 26 May 2020. The game received mixed reviews; many deemed the game fun and charming, with praise for its visuals and music. However, its simple gameplay and use of procedural generation
received a more mixed reception, with its short story and lack of depth criticized. It is a
dungeon crawler, rendered from an isometric perspective.[23] Players explore procedurally generated and hand crafted dungeons filled with new variants of existing Minecraft monsters and also deal with traps, puzzles, bosses and finding treasure.[24][25]

Minecraft Dungeons Arcade

In early 2021, Mojang announced an arcade adaptation version of Minecraft Dungeons associated with collectible cards.[26][27]

Minecraft Legends

Minecraft Legends is an action-strategy game developed by Mojang Studios and Blackbird Interactive, announced on 12 June 2022 and released on 18 April 2023.[28][29] It stopped receiving updates on January 10, 2024.[30]

Film

In 2012, Mojang received offers from Hollywood producers who wanted to produce Minecraft-related TV shows; however, Mojang stated they would only engage in such projects when "the right idea comes along".[31]

Two years later, in February 2014, an attempt to

crowdfund a fan film through Kickstarter was shut down after Markus 'Notch' Persson declined to let the filmmakers use the license, the given reason being that the Kickstarter was set up before any agreement with Mojang had been made.[32][33] That same month, Persson revealed that Mojang was in talks with Warner Bros. Pictures to develop an official Minecraft film to be produced by Roy Lee and Jill Messick.[34][35] In October 2014, Mojang COO Vu Bui stated that the movie was "in its early days of development", saying that it was a "large-budget" production, and also said that it might not be released until 2018.[36][37] That same month, Warner Bros. hired Shawn Levy to direct the film,[38] while in December, it was confirmed that Levy and writers Kieran and Michele Mulroney, who were developing the film together had left the project.[39]

In July 2015, it was announced that Warner Bros. had hired Rob McElhenney to direct the film. According to McElhenney, he had been drawn to the film based on the open-world nature of the game, an idea Warner Bros. had initially agreed with and for which they had provided him with a preliminary US$150 million budget.[40][41] In 2016, early production started on the film, including in June assigning a release date of 24 May 2019,[42] in October setting Jason Fuchs to write the script,[43] and in November contracting Steve Carell to star as the voice of an unknown character.[44] McElhenney's Minecraft film "slowly died on the vine," and due to scheduling conflicts, he left the film in August 2018,[45] Aaron and Adam Nee were tapped to rewrite the script, and the film was delayed as a result. No new director was announced at that time.[46]

In January 2019, Peter Sollett was announced to write and direct the film, featuring an entirely different story from McElhenney's version. Messick, who died in 2018, will be posthumously credited as producer.[47] In April 2019, Warner Bros. scheduled the new film to be released in theaters on 4 March 2022.[48][49] In June 2019, Allison Schroeder was hired to write the script and co-write the film with Sollett.[50] In October 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic prompted Warner Bros. to adjust its release schedule, including removing the Minecraft film from its planned release date.[51]

Sollett instead directed Metal Lords, which was released exclusively on Netflix in April 2022. That same month, production on the Minecraft film was announced to be moving forward without Sollett and Schroeder, now with Jared Hess set to direct and Jason Momoa in early talks to star. The film was also confirmed to be live action.[52] Some sources also said that Chris Bowman and Hubbel Palmer would rewrite the script.[53][54] In early April 2023, it was reported that the film would release on 4 April 2025.[55][56] In May, Matt Berry entered negotiations to join the cast.[57] On 19 June 2023, it was reported that principal photography on the film would start on 7 August in New Zealand,[58] before filming was delayed in July due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike.[59] Following the conclusion of the strike in early November 2023, filming was reported to be aiming for an early 2024 start.[60] Later that month, Danielle Brooks and Sebastian Eugene Hansen joined the cast as Dawn and Henry, respectively, and filming was scheduled to begin in late December 2023.[61] In early December, Emma Myers also joined the cast.[62] In early January 2024, Jack Black was cast as Steve, teasing his casting in the film via his official Instagram account.[63]

Books

Official novels

The game has inspired several officially licensed novels set in the Minecraft universe:

  • Eliopulos, Nick (5 August 2021). Minecraft Stonesword Saga: Crack in the Code.
  • Eliopulos, Nick (17 March 2022). Minecraft Stonesword Saga: Mobs Rule.
  • Eliopulos, Nick (28 June 2022). Minecraft Stonesword Saga: New Pets on the Block.

Other books

Tabletop games

Three tabletop games have been produced as official tie-in games for Minecraft. The first two are both card games, namely Minecraft Card Game?, produced by Mattel in 2015,[70] and Uno Minecraft, produced by Mattel in 2016.[71]

Towards the end of 2019, Minecraft: Builders & Biomes, a board game version of Minecraft, was announced.[72] The game was geared towards the family market, catered for 2–4 players, and was published by Ravensburger. Players explore the Overworld, build structures, and mine resources in a quest to score the most points.[73] At the end of 2020, an expansion for the tabletop game was released, titled Minecraft: Farmer's Market Expansion, which introduced a new farm biome that enabled players to produce vegetables.[74]

Merchandise

The graph shows information from 2013 to 2018, with a general upward curve ending at 800 million sales.
Minecraft merchandise sales in millions U.S. dollars

Lego Minecraft