Minecraft has now crossed two milestones selling more than 13 million copies of PC version and over 10 million units of Xbox 360 version. These figures were announced by its designer Markus 'Notch' Persson.
"The original version of Minecraft has now passed 13 million copies sold. Official statement: whoa,' he tweeted, "And now @Kappische tells me 10 million on XBox is official too!... WHAT IS GOING ON," another message added.
The PC version of the open-ended game was released on November 2011 after being released for alpha testing in 2009. As of now the statistics page of Minecraft shows 13,007,954 gamers have bought the game. 10,901 gamers are said to have purchased the game in the last 24 hours.
The Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition has reportedly climbed 10 million sales. The Xbox 360 Edition has features like split-screen and online multiplayer and was released on 9 May, 2012.
Prices Slashed
In celebration of reaching these two milestones, Microsoft has announced that it will be cutting down the prices of the Minecraft downloadable contents (DLC). Patrons can now buy the DLCs for half the price from 14 December. These prices are discounted globally for Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition. The DLCs included are:
- Skin Pack 1
- Skin Pack 2
- Skin Pack 3
- Skin Pack 4
- Skin Pack 5
- Battle & Beasts Skin Pack
- Festive Skin Pack
- Plastic Texture Pack
- Battle & Beasts 2 Skin Pack
- Natural Texture Pack
- Fantasy Texture Pack
PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 ports Teased
4J Studios, the developer has reportedly teased PlayStation ports of Minecraft. The studio tweeted saying: "Some very nice new Minecraft toys arrived today!"
The pictures show two new toys of Minecraft sitting atop flat-screen monitors. The background images on these two monitors are likely to be of either PlayStation 3 or PlayStation 4 ports of the title, Examiner reported.
4J Studios had earlier stated that the development of PlayStation 3 port of the game was almost over and is working on additional bug fixes. It also ran the game on PlayStation 4 and it will be based on Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition.
Minecraft Pocket Edition Update to 0.8.0
A new update, 0.8.0 was made available for Minecraft's Android versions. This update for Minecraft Pocket Edition will bring in newer textures improving the draw distances and also adds new blocks.
Below is the list of new features included in the update to the Pocket addition (Android Police):
- Minecarts, rails, and powered rails!
- The view distance has been massively increased. Check the options menu for more!
- New textures and colours taken directly from the PC version
- New blocks: carpets, more wood types, hay bales, iron bars, and more
- New crops and food types, including beetroot, carrots, potatoes and pumpkins. Now you can cook new soups, pies, and more!
- A bunch of new items for Creative and Survival, including clocks and compasses
- More blocks and items to use in Creative Mode: including jungle wood, ice, bedrock, shears, dyes, and tall grass
- New AI: mobs are now more intelligent and you can even breed your own animals
- A new Creative Mode inventory with tabs
- New functionality and tweaks to existing blocks and items. Bonemeal lets you grow new cool stuff!
- Improved lighting and fog effects
- Loads of bugs fixed, and possibly some added.
Minecraft's rise in the gaming industry has been sensational, even though the game has no flashy graphics nor any goals, Cinema Blend calls it a pop culture phenomenon. The game has been an inspiration for games like Terraria and 7 Days To Die that are based on open-world exploration and building.
Apart from these, the studio is also developing the Title Update 14 (TU14) for Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition, which might release at some point in the future.
