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Minecraft for Xbox 360 hits 5 million copies sold
by John Keefer, Jan 03, 2013 7:15am PSTMinecraft for Xbox 360 continues to rack up the number of copies sold since its release in May, surpassing the 5 million mark on the last day of 2012. Those numbers were fueled by a 453,000-unit bump on Christmas Day alone.
Daniel Kaplan of Mojang Specifications tweeted the milestone only days after Markus "Notch" Persson revealed the Christmas Day figures. The new numbers show the continued popularity of the game, which became profitable after its first hour on the shelf, and sold 1 million copies within the first five days of its launch on May 9. The game continually gives Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 stiff competition on Xbox Live.
The game is almost a direct port of the PC version, which officially launched in November 2011 and has sold more than 8 million copies. The mobile version hit 5 million copies sold earlier in December.
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Minecraft for Xbox 360 continues to rack up the sales numbers since its release in May, surpassing the 5 million mark on the last day of 2012. Those numbers were fueled by a 453,000-sales bump on Christmas Day alone.
Minecraft for Xbox 360 continues to rack up the sales numbers since its release in May, surpassing the 5 million mark on the last day of 2012. Those numbers were fueled by a 453,000-sales bump on Christmas Day alone. : Shacknews
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b) Some people had an image in their mind of what they wanted the game to do or where they wanted development to go with it, and it didn't meet their expectations. This is sort of in the same category of getting mad at Valve for working on CS:GO instead of Episode 3. Part of this is a side effect of their sales model - selling a game that for years was unfinished by design and cutting people a price break in return. To some degree you were also buying the "potential" of the game as well as the alpha/beta of the game itself.
c) A game as rediculously popular as Minecraft is going to bring out the obsessive crazies, much in the same way something like 9/11 will bring out the conspiracy nuts. When you pour water on a pavement it finds every crack and crevace. When millions of people buy your game you're going to find the real crazies. I once saw a JPEG someone made criticizing the number of vacation days Notch took once the game became successful. People don't even keep up with the president's vacation schedule that closely.
d) Some people take issue with how the game purposely goes against some game development directions. Whereas most popular games try to push the graphics envelope, Minecraft looks retro and "blocky" on purpose, even to a larger extent than it needs to (you could make a game that's largely cube-based without making everything an SNES pixellated homage). Whereas most games try to tell a story and have a clear goal in mind, Minecraft - although there is an adventure mode and some logistical things like food and health/armor, plus the mobs to survive against - doesn't really have a point. You make the game whatever you want it to be. And in an age where arrows tell you where to go and tutorials explain the game, Minecraft doesn't tell you shit and just hopes you can figure out how to punch a tree.
e) Some people simply take issue with the success Mojang's had with the game or are jealous. Some of it is because Mojang is so ridiculously wealthy these days - their new office makes Google look quaint. Some of it is because a lot of people think "fuck why didn't I think of that?". Some take umbrage with the idea that Game X which they're big fans of but no one else was and the developer went under is unpopular whereas this game where you build bridges and avoid exploding green people is crazy popular (they're sort of like game hipsters).
f) Some people just don't like the game. Nothing wrong with that other than the natural human tendency to not say "well I don't like it but to each their own" and instead say "I hate this game and everyone who disagrees with me is wrong and stupid and if you like it I hate you because you're part of the problem" (though maybe not in those words)
g) And finally some number of people don't own a gaming PC or don't game on the PC and so they're playing the watered down Xbox or mobile phone version and so they don't understand what the big deal is because they're only getting a fraction of the experience. Like I mentioned above, Xbox Live users got to watch a free documentary on all the things their Xbox's version of the game can't do.
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