Minecraft turns five this year, but with the continued support of developer Mojang, the game is going strong. New content is added to the game constantly, and gamers continue to return to the sandbox adventure. With the game now available on most modern platforms, including the Xbox and the PS4, just about anyone can get in on the fun Minecraft has to offer.
Strong Xbox Sales
In 2015, Minecraft reached 70 million copies sold across all platforms. The Xbox One and Xbox 360 together accounted for 20 million of those copies, matching the sales on Macs and PCs combined.
Now on Wii U
Mojang has left Nintendo in the cold for some time now. Wii and Wii U have both been out for some time now, and neither console had access to Mojang’s popular title for the longest time. This past December, Mojang finally released Minecraft for the Wii U. The console hasn’t had much success and is currently on its deathbed, but Minecraft’s arrival is better late than never.
Minecraft Gear VR Edition
Virtual reality is still new to the market, but that hasn’t kept Mojang from using it to bring Minecraft to a new audience. This week Minecraft released for the Samsung Gear VR. The new release, called Minecraft: Gear VR Edition, shares many features with the pocket edition of the game. A version for the Oculus Rift is still in development, and will contain many features from the Xbox versions of the game.
Many Ways to Play
As the game has aged players have found new and creative ways to play the game. With the use of the super flat world feature in the game, players decide what each layer of blocks in the game will be. With the layers, decided players then create challenges they must complete in their new flat world. The challenges, known as flat challenges, vary from digging down to bedrock, to defeating the bosses within the game. These tasks are made more challenging due to limited resources.
Nowhere but Up
Things don’t appear to be slowing down for the Mojang hit. Microsoft purchased Mojang in 2014 for $2.5 billion, and instead of working towards limiting the game to Xbox platforms, Microsoft has expanded the game to other platforms. Stores are starting to fill up with Minecraft books and toys, as the game continues to grow. There has even been a spinoff game that introduces story elements into the series. As Minecraft mania continues to grow, the possibilities for the series are endless.
