bit-gamer.net

Minecraft gets release date

Published on 8th April 2011 by David Hing

Hopeless Minecraft addicts addicts rejoice! The game you've bought will finally be released.

Indie sensation Minecraft is set to finally shed its beta tag and get an official release on 11 November this year.

According to the game's creator, Markus Notch, the full version will not be radically different from the beta, and Mojang (the game's developer) will continue to add features as it does now.

'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,' said Notch on his blog. 'The plan is to be open with this and try to get people to cheer us on as much as possible.'

Minecraft has been on sale since it was in its alpha stage, albeit a very stable one. Notch is a big proponent of the idea of open development. 'I'd definitely want to release future games in the same way,' said Notch on a recent Reddit comment thread. 'Developing in the dark is scary and probably wrong.'

Minecraft development studio Mojang has also been working on a weather system recently. When patch 1.5 is released, Notch states there will be periodic snow and rain in relevant areas, which will make the sky darker and hide the sun, moon and stars.

To date, Minecraft has sold around 1.8million copies and has already raked in around €23 million (about £20million).

Feel free to discuss this news, or to confess your Minecraft addiction, in the forums.

28 Comments

Discuss in the forums Reply

chrisb2e9 8th April 2011, 13:42

I lost my current addiction. Fell into lava one too many times while carrying diamonds.
I find that the game needs a bit more substance at the moment. I'm sure that I will get back into it later.

And still waiting on some kind of underwater breathing device.

will_123 8th April 2011, 13:47

Totally agree i lost my addiction. We set up our own server and had an active community but when me and the other admin lost interest a couple of months down the line. It just went downhill.

Jipa 8th April 2011, 13:47

I guess one way of developing games is not to launch them before people have already bored of the game.

Wat.

yakyb 8th April 2011, 14:00

Puzzle mode should provide enough replayability

its like Portal but with minecraft

TWeaK 8th April 2011, 14:06

I've been out of it for the last month or so too, but this isn't the first time and I'm sure it won't be the last. I've been tempted to start a new world recently too in order to find some wolves, and with the Easter holidays I just might..

I'm definitely looking forward to NPC villages and the like, even if it comes as an expansion after release. I'd also like to see the mod community produce a few more game modes - I've always thought that the game itself should be pure, with modders coming in and developing games like 'build a fort and defend it from opponents'.

memeroot 8th April 2011, 14:24

kids moved to gary's mod

d1ck0 8th April 2011, 15:01

I just carnt stop playing this game !!! , the open development model has turned out to be financially beneficial to notch !.

I agree with chrisb2e9 , there should be scuba gear in game , possibly derived from rubber trees and working the iron ? :D

BRAWL 8th April 2011, 16:15

Quote:

I guess one way of developing games is not to launch them before people have already bored of the game.

Wat.

Can't tell if trolling... or just very stupid.

Minecraft is still selling heavily chap. It will do for some time because the main basis is of creativity and gameplay. I for one never really get tired of making a Fort with pillbox's TNT traps in no man's land, a giant "THE GAME" sign mid fortress... then declaring war on the rest of my server in a PVP showdown and watch all their stuff crumble and cave... *evil laughter*

Minecraft will keep me as amused as Open Transport Tycoon for many years I reckon.

Jipa 8th April 2011, 16:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by BRAWL
Can't tell if trolling... or just very stupid.

Seriously? :(

It's just an observation based on ever minecrafter I know.

Jipa 8th April 2011, 16:45

argh fail post

rehk 8th April 2011, 16:58

On the same day as Skyrim?

I couldn't give a rat's arse anyway, I never caught onto what was so great about Minecraft. To me, it just seemed to be Dwarf Fortress but in 3D and much worse.

stefan442 8th April 2011, 17:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by rehk
On the same day as Skyrim?

I couldn't give a rat's arse anyway, I never caught onto what was so great about Minecraft. To me, it just seemed to be Dwarf Fortress but in 3D and much worse.

The more it gets like Dwarf Fortress the better. Notch did model it on dwarf fortress by the way...

Quote:

Originally Posted by BRAWL

Minecraft will keep me as amused as Open Transport Tycoon for many years I reckon.

I still play that as well, tried installing some better texture packs the other day. Such an epic game. ;)

All these high end games come out and im happy to play minecraft, dwarf fortress, Open transport tycoon and cs1.6 :D

kzinti1 8th April 2011, 18:45

Haven't paid any attention to it. The name implies that it's another dungeon crawler. What's it about?
"'The plan is to be open with this and try to get people to cheer us on as much as possible.'" Cheer them on about what?

jamesislush 8th April 2011, 18:52

11th of November is Official Skyrim day.
I couldn't care if this game came with 10 naked women lubed up to the max; nothing is keeping me from Skyrim!

Kiytan 8th April 2011, 23:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by jamesislush
11th of November is Official Skyrim day.
I couldn't care if this game came with 10 naked women lubed up to the max; nothing is keeping me from Skyrim!

Basically yeah.

ObeyTheCreed 9th April 2011, 01:55

I've been playing this game for about a month now and i've never found a more addicting game ever, i've always thought sandbox games where fun, and indeed Assassin's Creed is freaking epic, but this game takes the genre to a new level. With all the mods and other things you can add to the game, there is a never-ending source of entertainment not seen in a long time.

Hovis 9th April 2011, 15:03

I'm glad I own Minecraft, because it's accessible as a download from anywhere and it'll run on a turkey sandwich, so if my main PC melts down a fuel rod or whatever I can still actually play a real game and don't have to resort to switching on the Xbox. But let's not kid ourselves it's amazing. Nearly everybody I know picked up a copy, and sure, it was cheap and it provided generally 12 hours plus of fun, great fun in fact, but it's not going to change the world. Good game, well done to the devs, good effort, let's all move on with our lives until we need another fix of building something.

Podge4 9th April 2011, 17:49

Theres a game just come onto Xbox Live called FortressCraft, Chapter 1 and it looks mighty similar to Minecraft.

Ending Credits 9th April 2011, 17:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by jamesislush
11th of November is Official Skyrim day.
I couldn't care if this game came with 10 naked women lubed up to the max; nothing is keeping me from Skyrim!

I can see the parrallels there, massive hype beforehand but when you get down to play it's all over far too quickly. :D

Viskey404 9th April 2011, 23:26

I absolutely adore this game its so addictive, Notch deserves my money.

srx08 10th April 2011, 15:15

Am I the only person in this world that thinks this game is overrated? When I was a kid I used to play lego all the time, but I just don't see the appeal of this game. I played this for a few hours and didn't see the appeal. I also feel like using my 2600k and crossfire 6970s to play this game is a waste. Overall, the obsession with this horrible looking, indy game is making me sick. Reminds me of farmville and WoW obsessions.

DanaG 10th April 2011, 18:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hovis
I'm glad I own Minecraft, because it's accessible as a download from anywhere and it'll run on a turkey sandwich

I've even run the thing on Pentium M with 915GM. In fact, that thing thoroughly trounced an Atom with GMA950 -- the Pentium M got between 5 and 20 FPS, and the Atom rarely (perhaps never) reached even 1 FPS.

I had to run the Pentium M in Linux, since the Windows drivers (XP drivers under Win7) only support OpenGL 0.0 (that is, none at all).

Dogbert666 10th April 2011, 19:30

Going up against Skyrim is brave to say the least.. It's also going to be around the same time as both Modern Warfare 3 and Uncharted 2, which will both pull a lot of sales. Needless to say it will be a tough time for a game to stand out.

metarinka 10th April 2011, 21:15

Is the game free to play in the beta? or charge only?

BRAWL 10th April 2011, 21:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dogbert666
Going up against Skyrim is brave to say the least.. It's also going to be around the same time as both Modern Warfare 3 and Uncharted 2, which will both pull a lot of sales. Needless to say it will be a tough time for a game to stand out.

lol... considering 23 Million Euro's have been generated in BETA alone. I don't think they need to give that much of a crap ;)

slothy89 11th April 2011, 01:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by metarinka
Is the game free to play in the beta? or charge only?

You can play the free, albeit very old "Creative" mode in a browser.

But to be able to play the downloadable, updateable, modifyable client, you need to buy it.

15 Euro if I'm correct

Xir 11th April 2011, 08:08

I've played the....demo?...beta?
Last month's free version anyway.

I fail to see what the hype is about...at all.
Bored out of my wits within an hour.

Probably did something wrong or didn't "get it", you can't all be fools. :D

yakyb 11th April 2011, 15:28

the demo doesnt really reflect what the 'Full' Version is about any more

there is a lot of Survival horror about in the full game as well as massive creativity.