MINECRAFT

Minecraft

Media industry: How the media industries’ processes of production, distribution and circulation affect media forms and platforms.

Media audience: How media forms target, reach and address audiences, how audiences interpret and respond to them and how members of audiences become producers themselves. 

Digitally convergent media: Video games consoles are an excellent example of a digitally convergent device, you can not only play games but access social media, surf the internet, stream films and TV content and upload content into cloud based servers. Cross-media content helps maximise profits and also improve reach to new customers.

Production: This refers to all phases of designing, developing and making the media product;.

Distribution: This refers to all processes linked to delivering the media product to audiences both through tangible (disc) and digital (Cloud based) media.

Consumption: Explores the way in which the media text is used by audiences for pleasure but also explores the rise of user generated content across several platforms.

Minecraft info-  

- Created on 17th May 2009 and released in 2011

- Created by Mojang, Marcus pearson

- Minecraft is what's called a sandbox game, where the player creates the game themselves by manipulating the world within it (like kids playing in the sand). There are no specific steps or goals, so everyone playing the game is having a different experience.

- Minecraft was sold for $2.5 billion and is now owned by Microsoft 

- Minecraft is the second most successful video game of all time behind Tetris.

- It was created and designed by Markus Persson,
a game programmer, who also developed and published the game through his company Mojang. A full version of the game went on release in November 2011.

- To date, well over 121 million copies have been sold across all platforms, including over 27 million PC copies, making it the biggest selling PC game of all time.  

- In November 2011, prior to the game’s official release, Minecraft had over 16 million registered users and 4 million purchases.

- Due to its popularity, Minecraft was released across multiple platforms becoming a commercially viable franchise with increased interactivity. In particular, Minecraft: Pocket Edition was released on Sony Xperia Play, available on Sony Xperia smartphones. Minecraft also become available on Android and iOS devices shortly after.

ORIGINS -

•Having been inspired by similar games such as Dwarf Fortress, a single- player construction and management game; his goal was to produce a Role Playing Game variation.

•Minecraft is a Sandbox game, created and developed by Swedish based Mojang Studios. The game has been described as a virtual world of Lego that involves following simple instructions in order to play it

•Minecraft’s Swedish creator, Markus “Notch” Persson started creating the game in May of 2009 having been inspired by similar games such as Dwarf Fortress, a single- player construction and management game; his goal was to produce a Role Playing Game variation.

The success of the games market.

–The UK’s   US$4 billion;

–China,   US$24.4 billion

–America’s   US$23.6 billion.

A recent report by the UKIE1 suggests that the global games market is now worth in excess of US$100 billion.    

In comparison to traditional media like film, radio, print and television, video games are much younger, exponentially growing since the 1970s

MINECRAFT PARODIES - 

- increases popularity 

- free marketing 

- appeals to a different audience 

- Without the commercial backing of a mainstream publisher, and no money spent on advertising revenue, the game relied on word of mouth between gamers and featured on sites such as the Penny Arcade web comic to generate interest amongst gamers.

 -By January 2011, the beta-version of the game had passed over one million purchases in just only a month, and by April 2011 Persson estimated that US$33 million of revenue had been made

- Mine craft inspired videos gained significant popularity on YouTube generating viral hype and talk ability.

TASK 2 RECORD HOW THE GAME “ SYNERGY WITH LEGO WAS HELPFUL IN TARGETING YOUNGER AUDIENCES.

The game was carefully marketed to audiences as identified above, as an online version of Lego and in doing so aligned itself with one of the most iconic ‘learning construction education products’ in history.  

Lego already sells minecraft building sets and lego sets, so in turn minecraft and lego work together to bounce target audiences between their businesses, so by the synergy being created their merchandise is exposed to a larger target audience.

Benefits of minecraft in Education - 

- coding 

-  creative problem solving 

- increases hand eye coordination 

- engineering 

- teamwork                                                         

Distribution: Versions of the game can
be purchased over the internet using such outlets
the Playstation Network or Xbox Live Arcade. Recent additions include the Nintendo platform which was excluded from the initial Minecraft releases; available to download from December 2015 with physical copies from June 2016 and most recently for Nintendo Switch (May 2017) and Nintendo 3DS (download
only from September 2017). The Minecraft:
Story Mode -

Types of game genres - 

1. Action  2. Arcade 

3. Adventure  4. Fighting

5. Racing  6. Shooter  7. Sandbox 

Media Industries: Minecraft’s specialised and institutionalised nature of media production, distribution and circulation:

It is worth considering how a simple PC Java game has become a globally successful phenomenon across all consoles and hand-held devices

 2017 Minecraft is now a multi- platform game which is not only just for PC gamers but those who own smartphones, Microsoft consoles (Xbox); Playstation 3, 4 and PS Vita; and more recently Nintendo consoles (Wii U) and hand-held devices (Nintendo Switch and Nintendo New 3DS, New 2DS XL and New 3DS XL)

Developments in production

2010 Minecraft was developed as a multiplayer game using JAVA code..

Gamers were able to contribute to the development of the program eliminating bugs and facilitating multiplayer capability

In September of 2013, Microsoft bought all rights to Minecraft from Mojang for $2.5 billion dollars.

The relationship of recent technological change and media production, distribution and circulation. 

Due to the original nature of the game, most players simply logged in to play Minecraft and didn’t need a physical copy of the game.

When the Xbox and PlayStation versions were created there was often a chance to offer digital versions of the same game across the Windows 10 operating system

Users were often encouraged to download the game through the cloud servers rather than a physical copy of the game which would incur more of a cost for the institution.

Physical copies of the game were released 6 months after the cloud versions t encourage online purchase and reduce the risk of piracy

The significance of patterns of ownership and control, including conglomerate ownership, vertical integration and diversification. 

Why Microsoft purchased – Minecraft for 2.5£Bn?

–Given the nature of the parent company and the loyal fan base of PC gamers, it was in the company’s interest to invest US$2.5 billion to purchase Mojang for long term revenue.

–Microsoft have since developed the product using more complex coding C++

–This has enabled multi platform access (mentioned previously)

–They have launched newer more traditional programs such as Minecraft Story board

–Minecraft
in November 2014 of that year, plans to work on a virtual reality version of Minecraft in Partnership with Oculus 

Oculus and Minecraft - 

     - Minecraft is the best 3D game ever sold 

     - Immersive, life like 

     - Forefront of technology 

     - People more active 

     -  Cross platform 

     - Released 2016 

The significance of economic factors, including commercial and not-for-profit public funding, to media industries and their products. 

Mine crafts commercial success - 

–Budgets for games vary and Minecraft is a good example of a game that was made and developed using readily available open source software within the gaming community; creating the original Minecraft using Java gave it the advantage of being cross-platform: it will run on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.

–other mainstream games that require entire teams of programmers, artists and engineers to make video games that have budgets equal or exceeding that of mainstream films.  AN example of this includes CALL OF DUTY

Minecraft’s not for profit funding of projects - 

–Minecraft has also been linked to non-profit projects such as the UNs Block by Block project, which encourages communities around the world to redesign their neighbourhoods using Minecraft.

–An educational version has also been developed, MinecraftEdu (2012), which has several applications to help teach subject and develop a culture of computer programming amongst digital natives.

How audiences are grouped and categorised by media industries, including by age, gender and social class, as well as by lifestyle and taste. 

Mine craft has universal appeal. It is useful to explore how such a game can appeal to different ages, genders and audiences from different social and cultural backgrounds.

The variety of different modes is certainly a contributing factor to the game’s success, but also the way in which audiences can control and shape their own worlds and create new identities through mods and altering textures, maps and craft kits.

Media Industries: Minecraft Audience categorisation?

AGE

under 15 (147 votes [20.59%])  

15-21 (312 votes [43.70%])

22-30 (150 votes [21.01%])

31-40 (58 votes [8.12%])

41-50 (23 votes [3.22%]) 

51-60 (5 votes [0.70%])

61-70 (1 votes [0.14%])

71-80 (1 votes [0.14%])

81+ (17 votes [2.38%])

Minecraft Realms

The relationship of recent technological change and media production, distribution and circulation.

2013

The introduction of Minecraft Realms (2013) has tried to give the producers more control over the distribution and circulation of the game since some pro-am consumers were creating their own virtual spaces and hacks across illegitimate servers, such as https://www.wizardhax.com/ play/ as one example.

Realms is intended for use by small  groups of friends or as a family server

- pay for services 
- secure server 
- cross platform 

Minecraft story mode. 

Developments in production

2015 – 2017  Microsoft offers

Minecraft: Story Mode is an episodic point-and-click graphic adventure video game

- based on a story 
- missions and tasks to complete 
- not a sandbox game 

How media producers target, attract, reach, address and potentially construct audiences. 

Minecraft and subsequent versions and variations of the game offers familiar pleasures to existing fans (narrative features, open world gameplay etc.) along with new elements to target a wider audience (e.g. Story Mode).

The creation of Minecraft Realms was a well-considered way to attract and encourage audiences to use the game on dedicated servers

How audiences respond to Minecraft. 

The interrelationship between media technologies and patterns of consumption and response.

YouTube, Facebook and online fan communities has enabled Minecraft’s audience to have an active voice in its ongoing production through detailed feedback and commentary on modifications and beta tests. There are several niche forums that should also be investigated across the internet.

Minecraft Youtubers - 

- Stampy 

9 million subscribers 
6.8 billion total views 
minecraft vids 

- Sky does minecraft 

11.6 million subscribers 
3.7 billion total views 
Everyday vlogs 
Role plays and hide and seek 

- Preston playz 

8.1 million subscribers 
3 billion views in total 
posts videos which are sometimes minecraft related. 


Minecraft online forums and youtube channels have been created by people to explain the games, hacks, present their best work and this promotes the game for free 

 







How audiences interact with the media and can be actively involved in media production. 

The establishment of Minecraft Marketplace is a great example of the industry listening to their audiences (fans) and allowing

 the trade of different maps, textures and ‘add ons’ in a legitimate setting.  - Look up Minecraft Market Place and discuss the opportunities for users to make money from their use of Minecraft

The nature of the game has also allowed audiences to learn new skills, such as programming.

Minecraft Marketplace is a way to browse and purchase community made content from within the game. Content purchases in the Marketplace are made using a currency called Minecraft Coins, which is purchased in the game store.