mojang Archive

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Minecraft retail disc releasing June 28 in Europe

By
Scott Baker
– Posted on May 1, 2013Posted in: News

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After being delayed to include the most recent title updates, European fans of Minecraft will get their retail edition on June 28, about three weeks after the North American release on June 4. Purchasers will also be treated to a 48-hour trial to an Xbox Live Gold account to test out the co-op.

We already know that the downloadable version is ridiculously popular, but maybe this will open the game up to people without Xbox Live in their neighborhood. Or maybe some of you just want a disc copy. Either way, it will be interesting to see the sales of this edition.

Source: VG 24/7

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Minecraft and Notch are subjects of a new book out Nov 5; film already in the works

By
Jared Miller
– Posted on April 24, 2013Posted in: News

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Fans of the world-building game Minecraft have a lot of goodies coming this year—a licensed series of books in the UK and toys from Jazwares. Minecraft continues its expansion beyond the digital world with Seven Stories Press’ English edition of Minecraft: The Unlikely Tale of Markus “Notch” Persson and the Game that Changed Everything by Daniel Goldberg and Linus Larsson. Jennifer Hawkins provides the English language translation. The novel releases November 5, and production of the film adaptation starts this year.

Freelance Swedish journalists Goldberg and Larsson tell the story of Notch’s rise to the cultural and gaming icon he is today through extensive research into Mojang and interviews with Notch. Seven Stories Press describes the book: “It is the story of unlikely success, fast money, and the power of digital technology to rattle an empire. And it is about creation, exclusion, and the feeling of not fitting in.” The authors plan to attend this year’s MineCon, the fourth annual convention dedicated to Minecraft.

Seven Stories is working directly with Mojang and the Minecraft community to include a full color photo section containing behind the scenes photos and top builder creations. For more information and suggestions on what to include, head over to the official Minecraft Facebook page.

The continued interest in Minecraft and its creators is not surprising considering Markus Persson and Jens Bergensten were recently named two of Time magazine’s 2013 list of the top 100 most influential people. Legendary developer Will Wright provides an excellent introduction to the pair, praising the game’s ability to foster creativity and learning among its community of players.

Seven Stories is taking pre-orders for the new novel at their website. As an added bonus, the first 300 people to pre-order will receive a signed edition of the book.

Sources: Seven Stories Press via Polygon; Time via Polygon

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Minecraft toys coming this holiday season

By
Ryan Thompson
– Posted on April 22, 2013Posted in: News

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Dave Tach at Polygon summarized a press release by toy manufacturer Jazwares that they will be producing a variety of Minecraft toys, including “action figures, plush, and paper craft items” to be made available this coming holiday season.  Laura Zebersky, the Executive Vice President of Global Sales for Jazwares,  asserts that “Minecraft is one of the hottest brands on the planet right now,” an assertion backed by a variety of data on Minecraft’s performance across various platforms, including its spectacular showing on XBLA.  Zebersky continues by saying that “the marketplace is primed for a line of toys…that reflect the fun and creativity of the game.”

Jazwares is responsible for creating a number of toys based on video game brands, including Sonic the Hedgehog, Plants vs. Zombies, Star Wars, and others.  It’s worth noting that this is not the first jaunt into physical Minecraft-themed products for Mojang, as Minecraft-themed Legos have been available for some time. Minecraft continues to garner success beyond the virtual world, however, and this announcement of new Minecraft-themed toys demonstrates the continued success of the brand.

Source: Jazwares via Polygon

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Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition – One billion hours played, retail version delayed

By
Steve Melton
– Posted on April 16, 2013Posted in: News

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Mojang’s mega-hit Minecraft is like an epidemic (in a positive way). People flocked to the PC game in droves. So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition is incredibly popular as well. It’s sold over 6 million copies on XBLA, and now PlayXBLA reports the players have logged over 1 billion hours in the game. A billion! That’s 41,666,666 days, 5,952,380 weeks, or 114,079 years! Crazy.

And that number will compound, but not without a bit of a delay. The retail version of Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition has been delayed until June 4. According to Xbox LIVE’s Major Nelson, the delay is to “include the very latest content”. Title Update 9 was released on April 5, and included The End, a new area in which players can take down the Ender Dragon and effectively end the game’s “story” (we put that lightly) mode. The update caused problems for Xbox LIVE Silver subscribers, who were told to disconnect from LIVE in order to avoid the save-breaking bug. A tenth title update is working through certification now, and addresses issues found by players. Presumably this is the only thing holding up the game’s retail release, and the June 4 date is simply to give plenty of time for the update to be released and discs pressed and sent to retailers.

Sources: PlayXBLA, Major Nelson via Joystiq

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Minecraft TU9 coming this Friday

By
Nathan Bowring
– Posted on April 2, 2013Posted in: News

It’s been a long time coming, but Minecraft‘s ninth update is almost here. TU9 has passed Microsoft certification and is going to drop Friday, April 5. While the update will contain a slew of new features, it is most notable for the long-awaited arrival of the The End, home of the Ender Dragon. The boss fight has been made more difficult for the Xbox 360 Edition of the game, but the adventure to The End still remains the same. If you’re not already familiar with the process, 4J has kindly created a trailer showing how to reach The End step-by-step.

Check out the full list of changes of changes after the jump.

Continue reading “Minecraft TU9 coming this Friday” »

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Assassin’s Creed and Borderlands skins coming to Minecraft in Skin Pack 4

By
Josh Holloway
– Posted on March 7, 2013Posted in: News

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The record-breaking Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition continues to be wildly popular, and soon players will have even more customization options for their characters with the upcoming Skin Pack 4. The DLC release will feature skins from various game series, including Dragon Age, Assassin’s Creed, and Borderlands. So far, the list of announced skins for Skin Pack 4 includes:

  • Three Assassin’s Creed skins
  • Four Dragon Age skins
  • Four Borderlands skins
  • Barry Steakfries, featured in various Halfbrick games
  • The Sensei from Fruit Ninja
  • Creeper dressed in a suit
  • Crash test dummy

Based on the size of previous packs, you can expect to see all of these plus another 20 to 30 more. These new skins will be added to the dozens already available to players from Skin Packs 1, 2, and 3 as well as the Festive Skin Pack.

There’s no official word on release date or price for Skin Pack 4 yet, but history suggests it will likely come in at 160 MSP.

Sources: Assassin’s Creed on Facebook, OXM, PlayXBLA

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Minecraft Title Update 9 screenshots and new avatar items

By
Nathan Bowring
– Posted on February 27, 2013Posted in: News

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The End is near…in Minecraft, that is. 4J Studios has been hard at work on the game’s ninth title update, which will feature a long list of changes and fixes. No addition is bigger than that of The End, a new dimension that is home to the deadly Ender Dragon. Official Xbox Magazine has received some details on how the game’s final boss will differ from the PC version. For starters, the dragon’s healing crystals are now enclosed by iron bars, making them a lot harder to take out with arrows. The dragon also has a new attack in which it spits up purple acid. The boss fight is designed to be harder on XBLA than PC, so be sure to bring some spare armor and plenty of pork chops.

minecraft tu9 preview

Not all new features will be huge, as evidenced by a cluster of screenshots tweeted by 4J. There’s a lot of changes hidden within these screens, but here’s what we spotted: wood plank varieties, item frames, stackable buckets, wooden buttons, smelting nether brick, a potion menu in creative mode and a new gravel texture. There’s obviously a lot to look forward to in the next update, with more to be announced as the release draws nearer. Speaking of which, TU9 currently does not have a launch date but is not expected to drop this month.

If you can’t stand the wait, maybe some new Minecraft-themed avatar items will make it more bearable. Eleven new items have been added to the Minecraft collection, including new heads, shirts and props based on creatures both friendly and foul. Head inside to take a look at all of the new items and check out PlayXBLA for more information.

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Minecraft documentary makers pirated their own film

By
Nick Santangelo
– Posted on January 15, 2013Posted in: News

Hollywood doesn’t like pirates. The movie industry continues to use the full firepower of its impressively financed and outfitted armada to sink skull and crossbones banner-flying sites sailing through the dark waters of the internet; sites which it claimed as recently as January of last year to be responsible for costing the U.S. economy $200–250 billion per year and for killing 750,000 American jobs.

Though the Government Accountability Office has since reported those numbers to be bogus, no one can deny that internet pirates are plundering at least some of the movie business’ potential earnings. That’s why the Motion Picture Association of America was hopeful in November over the prospect of President Obama’s re-election helping it make progress in its war on pirates.

But Portland, Oregon — home to Minecraft: The Story of Mojang documentary maker 2 Player Productions — is most certainly not Hollywood. Still, one approach studio founders Pawl Owens, Paul Levering and Asif Siddiky have taken to promoting their film about original Minecraft creator Mojang is unorthodox to say the least.

They pirated it.

Continue reading “Minecraft documentary makers pirated their own film” »

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Mojang: Minecraft sold more on XBLA than PC in 2012

By
Matt Liparota
– Posted on January 14, 2013Posted in: News

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Call it a case of the student surpassing the teacher – Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition sold more copies in 2012 than its older, beefier PC counterpart, developer Mojang announced last week. According to a post over at EuroGamer, the XBLA edition of the world-building adventure goliath sold 5,002,370 copies last year, compared to 4,177,843 sold on PC; not bad, considering the game’s been out for less than a year on XBLA.

That news caps what can easily be called a phenomenal first year (well, eight months) for Minecraft on XBLA. The game sold a staggering two million copies within the first month of release, and went on to hit five million served just before the end of the year (and becoming the best-selling XBLA title of all time). The game also made history by becoming the first XBLA title to knock Call of Duty from the top spot on the Xbox LIVE Activity Charts. And that momentum shows no signs of slowing down, with 4J and Mojang constantly refining the game and adding new (to XBLA) features with various title updates, including the upcoming Title Update 8 (which will add a lot to the game even if it won’t be as big as originally anticipated).

If you aren’t one of the millions of XBLA Minecraft adopters to date, the game is available for 1600 MSP (with add-ons and skin packs available for varying prices). Those on the fence can take a look at two differing opinions on the game right here at XBLAFans: Our original positive review and an editorial from a staffer who just doesn’t “get” Minecraft.

Source: EuroGamer

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Weekly Roundup: January 13 – Shoguns, Skullgirls and Special Forces

By
Brandin Tyrrel
– Posted on January 13, 2013Posted in: Feature List, Features, Weekly Roundup

Weekly Roundup compiles all the biggest news stories, reviews and features from the week into one handy post on the weekends.

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It was a busy week for two of 2012′s biggest XBLA games: The Walking Dead and Minecraft. Minecraft saw its The End content delayed out of its next title update to some unknown future point. Meanwhile, we learned that The Walking Dead has sold a lot of episodes, that it may allow players to carry over saves to the next season and that gamers who bought a faulty Xbox 360 retail version of season one will be given a free XBLA copy. If you’re still looking for more XBLA coverage, be sure to keep an eye on the site every weeknight this week as we detail the biggest games coming to Xbox Live Arcade in 2013. What games are you looking forward to this year? Let us know in the comments below.

Here’s our week in review:

Continue reading “Weekly Roundup: January 13 – Shoguns, Skullgirls and Special Forces” »

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