Play Nice: Indie Gaming Hit ‘Minecraft’ Final Version Lands November 11
Indie video game smash Minecraft will receive a full, final release on November 11, 2011, despite having made over $33 million and selling more than 1.8 million copies while unfinished and still in development. However, depending on your perspective, sadly or happily little will change for gaming fans.
“It’s a bit tricky to really do a release for Minecraft as we keep updating it all the time,” says creator Markus Persson on his “The World of Notch” blog. “For one, the version we deem as the ‘full 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. The plan is to be open with this and try to get people to cheer us on as much as possible, but to be open with the fact that the game won’t change much at the actual release day.”
In the meantime, fans can enjoy a v1.5 update, which adds weather effects including snow, rain and ice, and enhanced support for achievements, statistics and other lasting rewards. Persson’s game development company Mojang is also presently beavering away on a digital card and board game hybrid called Scrolls, with a private alpha test for fans scheduled for later this year.