Minecraft

Minecraft was nominated for the 2013 Kids' Choice Awards for Favorite App, but lost to Temple Run.[273] It was nominated for the 2014 Kids' Choice Awards for Favorite Video Game, but lost to Just Dance 2014.[274] The game later won the award for the Most Addicting Game at the 2015 Kids' Choice Awards.[275] In addition, the Java Edition was nominated for "Favorite Video Game" at the 2018 Kids' Choice Awards,[276][277] while the game itself won the "Still Playing" award at the 2019 Golden Joystick Awards.[278]

Legacy

In September 2019, The Guardian classified Minecraft as the best video game of (the first two decades of) the 21st century,[279] and in November 2019
Polygon called the game the "most important game of the decade" in its 2010s "decade in review".[280]

Social media sites such as YouTube, Facebook, and Reddit played a significant role in popularising Minecraft.[281] Research conducted by the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School of Communication showed that one-third of Minecraft players learned about the game via Internet videos.[282] In 2010, Minecraft-related videos began to gain influence on YouTube, often made by commentators. The videos usually contain screen-capture footage of the game and voice-overs.[175] Common coverage in the videos includes creations made by players, walkthroughs of various tasks, and parodies of works in popular culture. By May 2012, over four million Minecraft-related YouTube videos had been uploaded.[283] Some popular commentators have received employment at Machinima, a gaming video company that owns a highly watched entertainment channel on YouTube.[175] The Yogscast is a British company that regularly produces Minecraft videos; their YouTube channel has attained billions of views, and their panel at MineCon 2011 had the highest attendance.[175][284] Other well known YouTube personnel include Jordan Maron, who has created many Minecraft parodies, including "Minecraft Style", a parody of the internationally successful single "Gangnam Style" by South Korean rapper Psy.[285]

Herobrine is a major community icon of Minecraft, who first appeared as a single image on 4chan's /v/ board. According to rumors, Herobrine appears in players' worlds and builds strange constructions.[286] However, Mojang has confirmed that Herobrine has never existed in Minecraft, and there are no plans to add Herobrine.[287]

Minecraft has been referenced by other video games, such as Torchlight II, Borderlands 2, Choplifter HD, Super Meat Boy, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, The Binding of Isaac, The Stanley Parable, and FTL: Faster Than Light.[288][289] It was also referenced by electronic music artist deadmau5 in his performances.[290] A simulation of the game was featured in Lady Gaga's "G.U.Y." music video.[291] The game is also referenced heavily in "Informative Murder Porn", the second episode of the seventeenth season of the animated television series South Park.[292] "Luca$", the seventeenth episode of the 25th season of the animated sitcom The Simpsons was inspired by Minecraft.[293]

Clones

After the release of Minecraft, some video games were released with various similarities with Minecraft, and some were called "clones" of the game. Examples include Ace of Spades, CastleMiner, CraftWorld, FortressCraft, Terraria, and Total Miner.[294] David Frampton, designer of The Blockheads, reported that one failure of his 2D game was the "low resolution pixel art" that too closely resembled the art in Minecraft which resulted in "some resistance" from fans.[295] A homebrew adaptation of the alpha version of Minecraft for the Nintendo DS, titled DScraft, has been released; it has been noted for its similarity to the original game considering the technical limitations of the system.[296]

In response to Microsoft's acquisition of Mojang and their Minecraft IP, various developers announced further clone titles developed specifically for Nintendo's consoles, as they were the only major platforms to not officially receive Minecraft at the time.[297] These clone titles include UCraft (Nexis Games),[298] Cube Life: Island Survival (Cypronia),[299] Discovery (Noowanda),[300] Battleminer (Wobbly Tooth Games),[301] Cube Creator 3D (Big John Games),[302] and Stone Shire (Finger Gun Games).[303] Despite this the fears were unfounded with official Minecraft releases on Nintendo consoles eventually resuming.[304][168][14] Persson made a similar game, Minicraft, for a Ludum Dare competition in 2011.

Films

A documentary about the development of Mojang and Minecraft was released in December 2012. Titled Minecraft: The Story of Mojang, the film was produced by 2 Player Productions.[305] In 2014, an attempt to crowdfund a fan film through Kickstarter was shut down after Persson refused to let the filmmakers use the license.[306][307]

In 2012, Mojang received offers from Hollywood producers who wanted to produce Minecraft-related TV shows; however, Mojang stated that they would only engage in such projects when "the right idea comes along".[283] By February 2014, Persson revealed that Mojang was in talks with Warner Bros. Pictures regarding a Minecraft film[308][309] and, by that October, it was "in its early days of development".[310][311] The film was scheduled for release on 24 May 2019, and was going to be directed by Shawn Levy and written by Jason Fuchs.[312][313] Levy later dropped out and was replaced by Rob McElhenney.[314][315] In August 2018, McElhenney left the film and Fuchs was replaced with Aaron and Adam Nee resulting in its release date getting delayed.[316] In January 2019, Peter Sollett was announced to write and direct the film.[317] The film is expected to be released to theater on 4 March 2022.[318]

Novels

The game has inspired several officially licensed novels:

Merchandise