Minecraft Essay

Minecraft

Minecraft is sandbox game that has taken the world be storm quickly becoming one of the most iconic games of this generation. A reason for Minecraft’s huge success is the fact the game never ends so it traps its audiences with the thought of ‘I will just do this extra little bit’. Minecraft was created by Swedish game designer Markus "Notch" Persson who later joined Mojang who then fully developed and published the game and helped handle the drastic rise in players and would have been virtually impossible for Persson to keep up with the demand for the game. As well as this due to the fact you can do whatever you desire on the game people really have gone above and beyond and created all different scenarios e.g. the game of thrones set, cities, etc. that have gone viral creating a lot of marketing for the game without Minecraft having to a penny which is usually one of the most expensive aspects when creating a new game and trying to attract potential customers.

As well as this Minecraft has continued to grow as they have featured different game modes, so the players can change modes to stay interested in the game. Going back to the earlier point about Minecraft’s marketing techniques and is probably the biggest reason for the success, is that they do not spend millions of pounds to advertise on TV or on Facebook but in actual fact they just encourage and teach the users to stream their uses of the game and promote it on different social media platforms especially You tube and Twitch which have really promoted the game.

As well as this they have added a multiplayer feature that allows players to play together which creates a social side to the game and connects players from across the globe which is a very powerful tool and allows kids to ‘hang around’ with their friends ‘virtually’. This allows friends to talk to each other and allows their imagination to run free and can create these ideal worlds.

Another reason Minecraft can target such a broad and wide audience is the fact that over the years they have developed the game, so it can be played across many platforms, as it was originally just on the PC not you can play it PlayStation, Xbox and tablets allowing the size of potential customers to increase. Due to the fact the majority of young people have at least one of these platforms Minecraft can target their product at the majority of children and the kids will be able to relate and are more than likely to try the product, this has been seen in sales of Minecraft as the demographic shows that the majority of sales are people under 18. Consequently, with the main consumers of the game being under 18 it is more than likely their parents are buying it for them and will be able to spend more money to treat their kids they would buying something for themselves.

Minecraft have capitalised on the success of the game and have released a lot of merchandise to do with the game and has also been a huge success as kids are desperate to have Minecraft tops, pyjamas, bedsheets and towels. This shows the unbelievable popularity of the game, as well as this, every year across the globe with the location moving to different countries every time, this show the vast audience that the game has, a convention dedicated to the game called ‘Minecon’ takes place.

Personally, I think that the real reason behind Minecraft substantial success is the innovative, different and original marketing technique that has never been seen before and is very appropriate to this day and age where society so heavily relies on technology and tries to become the next technology-based millionaire as we read and see about all the time. Also, with the fact Minecraft plays on the imagination of its users this is more evident than ever allowing people to express themselves and either play to survive or build in the free world.