Minecraft: Using Social Media to Create a Successful Game
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Case Code: BSTR440 Case Length: 15 Pages Period: 2009-2013 Pub Date: 2013 Teaching Note: Available |
Price: Rs.300 Organization: Mojang AB Industry: Games Countries: Sweden, US, Global Themes: Business Strategy |
Abstract Case Intro 1 Case Intro 2 Excerpts
Introduction
In February 2013, MojangAB (Mojang), an independent Swedish game development company, released its highly popular game, Minecraft, for the Raspberry Pi . The Minecraft: Pi Edition, which was available for free on Mojang's dedicated blog, was expected to be used by people to learn programming. Mojang had released the API of the version, which enabled anyone to open and alter the game's coding. The release of the new version added to the increasing usage of Minecraft as an educational tool. Minecraft, to be played on PCs,was developed by independent game developer, Markus Persson (Persson), also known as "Notch", when he was between jobs. The game play involved exploring a limitless game world, gathering resources in the form of blocks, and using them for making tools and building structuresin the game world.
Persson began selling the game online, when it was still in the process of development. Since the game did not mention any rules or game goals clearly, early players of the game reached out to each other through social media websites to understand the game and share play tactics. Persson also participated in the online discussion forums and took in player feedback.
Persson released the game even while it was being developed not only to raise funds, but also to make players feel that they had a say in how the game turned out. Apart from the addictive game play, industry observers felt that Minecraft's popularity had grown because of Persson's strategy of making players feel important, making them take up the onus of driving the game's adoption among their social circles.
Over a period of time, the astounding creativity that Minecraft spawned in players, resulting in the creation of elaborate structures in the game world, fueled the game's popularity. Analysts pointed out that players shared whatever they created on Minecraft through social media and video and photo sharing websites, prompting their social peers to try out the game.
By the time the game was released in November 2011, around four million copies of Minecraft had already been sold. Seeing the rising sales of Minecraft, industry observers termed it the most successful independent game of all time. In orderto manage the sales and development of Minecraft, Persson set up Mojang in collaboration with Jakob Porser (Porser) and Carl Manneh (Manneh). Minecraft, which was originally released for PCs, was later released for Xbox 360 and mobiles as well....
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