Minecraft is really a sandbox independent video game title initially put together by Swedish developer Markus Persson aka “Notch” and later established and issued by the Swedish company Mojang. The inventive and building aspects of Minecraft empower individuals to generate buildings out of textured cubes within the 3D procedurally created world. Some other activities within the video game include quest discovery, resource collecting, crafting, and battle. An array of gameplay modes are offered, which include survival modes where the gamer is required to obtain resources to make the world and preserve health, a creative mode where by gamers possess unlimited resources to make with and also capability to fly, and in adventure mode where players play customized maps produced by other players. The PC edition of the video game is renowned for its third-party mods, which bring in a range of new items, characters and missions for the game.

The alpha edition was openly unveiled for Personal computer on May 17, 2009, after progressive improvements, the entire edition was launched on November 18, 2011. A edition for Android was launched a month sooner on October 7, and a iOS edition was introduced on November 17, 2011. The video 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; for the PlayStation 4 on September 4, 2014; on the Xbox One the following day; as well as on the PlayStation Vita on October 14, 2014. On December 10, 2014, a Windows Phone edition was released. All editions of Minecraft receive periodic upgrades, with the console editions getting co-developed by 4J Studios.

Minecraft picked up five awards in the 2011 Game Developers Conference. Of the Game Developers Choice Awards, it picked up the Innovation Award, Best Downloadable Game Award, and Best Debut Game Award; With the Independent Games Festival, it earned the Audience Award and the Seumas McNally Grand Prize. In 2012, Minecraft was provided a Golden Joystick Award inside the category Best Downloadable Game. By June 2015, more than 70 million copies were sold, together with 20 million between the Xbox 360 and Xbox One and 20 million on Personal computer, allowing it to be the best-selling Personal computer video game up to now plus the third best-selling video game ever. On September 15, 2014, Microsoft stated an agreement to acquire Mojang and the ownership of the Minecraft intellectual property for US$2.5 billion; the acquisition was completed on November 6, 2014.