Minecraft might celebrate launch with MinecraftCon 2011

Minecraft's makers are considering holding a fan convention in Las Vegas to celebrate the dig 'em up's official launch on 11/11/11.

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The official launch of hugely successful indie dig 'em up Minecraft on November 11 may be celebrated with a fan convention in Las Vegas, according to creator Markus 'Notch' Persson. The crowning glory would be members of developer Mojang pushing the release version out live on stage, just like reality television stars turning on the Christmas lights in Scunthorpe.

"There'd be contests (costume, speed building, whatever else), Q&A sessions, parties and awesome food and such," Persson explained. "It'd probably cost about 90 dollars per person, excluding hotel room and travel costs, although it's possible we might be able to set up bulk deals with some hotel," he speculated.

"We could even have an unofficial [The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim] play session at the con," he wrote over on Twitter. "I know I won't have the patience to wait until I get home." Minecraft is set to launch on the same day as Bethesda's RPG, ever-so-slightly-possibly so Persson doesn't feel guilty about vanishing off into Tamriel for several months.

MinecraftCon 2011 all depends on whether there's enough people willing to go, so vote to register your interest or lack thereof.

MinecraftCon 2010 was spontaneously arranged with only a week's notice in August, reportedly drawing over fifty fans to Bellevue, Washington. If MinecraftCon 2011 do go ahead, one can imagine it'll be a mite more spectacular.

The official launch of Minecraft won't mean a sudden rush of new features and changes, though. Persson has said that the launch version "won't be very different at all from what the game was like a week ago, and we'll keep adding features after the release as well, so it's really more of a milestone when we finally get rid of the Beta label, and some kind of goal for us to work towards."

From The Chatty
  • reply
    May 11, 2011 9:30 AM

    Alice O'Connor posted a new article, Minecraft might celebrate launch with MinecraftCon 2011.

    Minecraft's makers are considering holding a fan convention in Las Vegas to celebrate the dig 'em up's official launch on 11/11/11.

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      May 11, 2011 9:37 AM

      "Why do you always re-use the same handful of Minecraft screenshots?" you ask. Because we can.

      Get out of my head!

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      May 11, 2011 9:39 AM

      $90 LOL

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      May 11, 2011 9:42 AM

      Fuck no I'm going to be playing Skyrim.

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      May 11, 2011 9:53 AM

      [deleted]

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        May 11, 2011 10:33 AM

        Does he really believe people want a minecraftcon or does he just want more money/popularity? Either way people won't be playing minecraft as much until long after skyrim if that,

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          May 11, 2011 10:41 AM

          There's no way 90 buck a person is going to generate any profit when you consider the cost of hosting a conference.

          I think he's genuinely trying to do something nice for his customers, but the idea seems way too last minute for my tastes. 6 months isn't long enough to plan for (or maybe even book) a decent sized conference.

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            May 11, 2011 11:01 AM

            I think he wants a vacation in Vegas, and he honestly thinks that taking his whole company and centering it on the final release date is a good idea.

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      May 11, 2011 10:07 AM

      Notch's own poll shows people don't really want to go:

      http://notch.tumblr.com/post/5388689217/minecraftcon-2011-in-vegas

      (click on "View results" on the poll)

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        May 11, 2011 10:24 AM

        Well... travelling to Vegas for something like Blizzcon or PAX would be one thing... this is just one single game. If it was in Boston (near me) i'd definitely be there. Travelling to Vegas for the release of a single game... is a pretty big deal. I bet it would be a good time though.

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        May 11, 2011 11:05 AM

        You sure? Currently he has $765k worth of 'yes, absolutely'. Plus over $1 million 'maybe.' Thought we had a struggling economy?

      • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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        May 11, 2011 11:48 AM

        I doubt he could accommodate even 10,000 people. He'll sell out the tickets easily.

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      May 11, 2011 10:31 AM

      Don't disrespect Scunthorpe, it may be shit, but it's uh- shit.

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