Minecraft, an incredibly successful sandbox game about building practically anything with cube-shaped blocks and objects, has passed the 8 million milestone for sales of its PC version.
Markus Persson, more commonly known as ‘Notch’, announced the news through his Twitter account a little earlier today:
The PC version of Minecraft just passed 8 million sales! My face is making grinning sounds, so I assume it’s grinning!
— Markus Persson (@notch) November 12, 2012
The indie smash hit, created under Notch’s own video game company Mojang, has helped attract more attention in independent development over the last few years. Focussing almost solely on creation and user generated content, the game has built a huge following of players willing to devote hours and hours towards creating a masterpiece made out of textured 3D blocks.
It’s had an unorthodox development cycle though. PC owners could access Minecraft as early as 2009 when it was released in alpha, later downloading it as a beta towards the end of 2010. However, it wasn’t until November 2011 that the game was officially launched as a commercial product. Although sales have continued to grow since then, the game had undoubtedly already become a smash-hit among gamers and the wider Internet community.
You can get a feel for game by watching the official trailer below:
Minecraft continues to be updated even after its commercial release, although Notch himself has stepped away from the title in order to work on other projects.
The game is also available for the Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Arcade, as well as in a slightly more primitive form for Android and iOS devices. If the sales for these platforms were combined with the 8 million on PC, the total would no doubt be even higher.
Way to go Minecraft; your success is well deserved.
Image Credit: pciet
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