Minecraft is a sandbox video game developed by Mojang Studios and initially published by Mojang Studios. When Microsoft and Xbox acquired Mojang, the publisher then...
Minecraft
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Minecraft began in 2009 as a side project from Swedish programmer Markus "Notch" Persson and turned into a franchise that Microsoft paid $2.5 billion to own. Mojang Studios reported in 2023 that the original game had passed 300 million copies sold, the highest total for any video game, and the brand has since moved well beyond the sandbox with spinoff games and a live-action film starring Jack Black and Jason Momoa that cleared $950 million at the worldwide box office. A sequel, A Minecraft Movie Squared, hits theaters in July 2027, and Netflix still has an animated series in production with WildBrain.
This Minecraft franchise page covers the history of the original game, the split between Java Edition and Bedrock Edition, the lore players still argue over, and every spinoff from Minecraft: Story Mode to Minecraft Dungeons II. The film side gets its own sections, including what is confirmed so far for the 2027 sequel.
Persson released the earliest version of Minecraft in May 2009 under the working name Cave Game, and the Classic, Alpha, and Beta builds that followed built an audience on forums and YouTube long before the game was finished. Players paid for access during development, an unusual model back then, and that money helped fund Mojang, the studio Persson co-founded with Jakob Porsér and Carl Manneh.
The full 1.0 release arrived on November 18, 2011, at MineCon in Las Vegas. Persson handed creative control to Jens "Jeb" Bergensten shortly after, and Bergensten has steered the game ever since. Microsoft announced it was buying Mojang for $2.5 billion in September 2014, and Persson left the company when the deal closed that November.
Minecraft stayed multiplatform under Microsoft, which is a big part of why it never felt like an Xbox exclusive the way Halo or Gears of War do. It runs on PlayStation, Nintendo hardware, phones, and PC with the same level of support it gets on Xbox, and Microsoft has treated it more like a platform of its own than a console seller.
Minecraft Java Edition is the original PC version, available on Windows, macOS, and Linux, and it remains the home of the modding scene and most of the large community servers. Before Bedrock existed, the Xbox 360 Edition from 4J Studios brought Minecraft to consoles in 2012 with its own separate update track.
Minecraft Bedrock Edition grew out of Pocket Edition on mobile and the Windows 10 Edition, and the Better Together update in 2017 moved the console and mobile versions onto that shared codebase. Bedrock runs on Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, phones, tablets, and Windows, with crossplay between all of them and a Marketplace for paid skins, worlds, and add-ons.
The two versions still behave differently in small ways, from redstone quirks to combat timing, which is why the Java vs Bedrock argument never really dies. Microsoft started bundling both together on PC in 2022, so one purchase covers each of them.
Mojang spent most of the game's first decade on big themed updates. Village and Pillage in 2019 rebuilt villages and added pillager raids. The Nether Update in 2020 overhauled the Nether with new biomes, piglins, and netherite gear. Caves and Cliffs arrived in two parts across 2021 and reshaped world generation from the bottom of the map up to new mountain peaks.
The Wild Update in 2022 added the Deep Dark, Ancient Cities, and the Warden, still the mob most likely to send players sprinting in a panic. Trails and Tales in 2023 brought archaeology and the sniffer, and Tricky Trials in 2024 added Trial Chambers, the Breeze, and the mace.
Starting in late 2024, Mojang switched to smaller game drops released several times a year instead of one giant summer update. The Garden Awakens introduced the Creaking and the Pale Garden, Chase the Skies added the Happy Ghast in 2025, and The Copper Age followed later that year. Bedrock also picked up Vibrant Visuals in 2025, an optional graphics mode that reworks lighting, shadows, and water without needing a shader pack.
Minecraft Live, Mojang's showcase stream, now runs twice a year and is where most of these drops get revealed. The community mob vote that used to anchor the show ended in 2024 after years of complaints that the losing mobs never came back.
The Sift is the first new dimension added to Minecraft since The End, and Mojang revealed it at Minecraft Live in September 2026. Mojang described it as a vibrant place full of souls, lit in neon blue and pink, but kept the actual mechanics under wraps. The Sift debuts in Minecraft Dungeons II before reaching Java Edition and Bedrock Edition at some point in 2027.
That order is new for Mojang, since earlier dimension-level changes like the Nether Update landed directly in the base game. At the same show, Bergensten ruled out an update to The End, which a lot of players had been hoping for, and Mojang confirmed Minecraft would launch on Nintendo Switch 2 on October 27, 2026.
Minecraft has never had a written story in the base game, and that gap is exactly why Minecraft lore questions get searched so often. The closest thing to an official narrative is the End Poem, the scrolling conversation that plays after defeating the Ender Dragon. Irish writer Julian Gough wrote it in 2011, and in 2022 he released it into the public domain, saying he had never signed a contract handing the rights to Mojang.
Herobrine is the myth that refuses to die, a white-eyed figure supposedly haunting single player worlds as the ghost of Notch's brother. It started as a 2010 creepypasta and was never in the game, but Mojang has listed "Removed Herobrine" in patch notes as a running joke for years, which has only kept the legend alive.
The Wild Update added real environmental storytelling. Ancient Cities sit deep underground, sculk spreads through ruins built around a structure that looks a lot like a portal frame, and the Warden guards all of it. That setup has fueled years of theories about an ancient civilization trying to reach another dimension, and with the Sift arriving in 2027, those theories are going to get a second wind.
Steve has been the default player character since the beginning, and Alex joined him as a second default skin in 2014. Late in 2022, Mojang added seven more default characters, Sunny, Kai, Zuri, Efe, Makena, Ari, and Noor, so new players now spawn as one of nine.
Steve joined Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as a DLC fighter in October 2020, with Alex, Zombie, and Enderman available as alternate costumes. On the big screen, Jack Black plays Steve in A Minecraft Movie, and Alex shows up in the film's post-credits scene, voiced by Kate McKinnon and physically portrayed by Alice May Connolly. Kirsten Dunst takes over the role for A Minecraft Movie Squared.
Minecraft: Story Mode was an episodic adventure from Telltale Games, made with Mojang and released starting in October 2015. Players control Jesse, voiced by Patton Oswalt or Catherine Taber depending on the chosen look, who sets out to find the legendary Order of the Stone after the Wither Storm starts tearing through the Overworld. Season Two followed in 2017.
Story Mode arrived on Netflix in 2018 as an interactive series that let viewers make choices with a remote. Telltale's collapse that same year doomed the game, which was pulled from digital storefronts in 2019, and Netflix removed its version in December 2022. For a spinoff that introduced a lot of younger players to Telltale's style of storytelling, it disappeared quietly.
Minecraft Earth was an augmented reality mobile game announced during Minecraft's 10th anniversary in May 2019. It let players build and collect on top of real world maps, in the same vein as Pokémon Go. The COVID-19 pandemic undercut a game designed around walking around outside, and Mojang shut it down on June 30, 2021.
Minecraft Dungeons is a dungeon crawler from Mojang Studios and Double Eleven, released in May 2020. It swaps mining and crafting for loot, enchantments, and Diablo-style combat, with co-op for up to four players. The story follows a group of heroes trying to stop the Arch-Illager, an outcast corrupted by the Orb of Dominance.
Mojang supported Minecraft Dungeons with six DLC packs, Jungle Awakens, Creeping Winter, Howling Peaks, Flames of the Nether, Hidden Depths, and Echoing Void, along with free seasonal content. Development ended in September 2023, by which point the game had passed 25 million players.
Minecraft Legends is an action strategy game from Mojang and Blackbird Interactive, released on April 18, 2023. Players rally golems and even the Overworld's usual enemies, like creepers and zombies, to push back a piglin invasion from the Nether, guided by three spirits called the Hosts, Foresight, Action, and Knowledge. It also shipped with competitive PvP. Mojang announced the end of new content for Legends on January 10, 2024, alongside the Snow vs Snouts Lost Legend.
Minecraft Dungeons II launched on September 29, 2026, on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch 2, and it hit Xbox Game Pass on day one. Mojang and Double Eleven returned for the sequel, which trades the first game's separate levels for an open world, adds a jump button, and keeps local and online co-op front and center.
It is also the first place players can set foot in the Sift, a year before the dimension reaches the main game. Reception landed in mixed to positive territory, with Metacritic counting a 76 across 26 critic reviews, 62 percent of them positive and the rest mixed. Critics praised the build variety, while repetition, simple design, a lackluster endgame, and the open world all came up in the complaints. Mojang has two DLC packs planned.
Minecraft Blast is a mobile puzzle game in development at Mojang with King, the studio behind Candy Crush Saga. It does not have a release date yet.
A Minecraft Movie hit theaters on April 4, 2025, directed by Jared Hess of Napoleon Dynamite fame. Jack Black plays Steve, a miner who has spent years living in the Overworld, and Jason Momoa plays Garrett "The Garbage Man" Garrison, a washed up former gaming champion. Emma Myers, Danielle Brooks, and Sebastian Hansen round out the group pulled through a portal into the Overworld, with Jennifer Coolidge as a vice principal back home and Rachel House voicing Malgosha, the piglin ruler of the Nether. Kate McKinnon voices Alex in the post-credits scene.
Critics were mixed, but audiences turned it into an event. Black's "chicken jockey" line became a viral theater moment, with crowds yelling along and throwing popcorn, and a few screenings got rowdy enough that police showed up. The film finished with more than $950 million worldwide, second only to The Super Mario Bros. Movie among video game adaptations at the time.
Warner Bros. and Legendary announced the sequel in October 2025 with a July 23, 2027, release date. The Simpsons Movie sequel was originally set for that same day before moving to September 3, 2027, to avoid going head to head with Minecraft. The title, A Minecraft Movie Squared, was revealed by the cast at Minecraft Live on May 30, 2026.
Jared Hess is back to direct, and Chris Galletta returns to co-write the script with him. Jack Black, Jason Momoa, and Danielle Brooks are returning, and Kirsten Dunst joined the cast in March 2026 as Alex, taking over from Kate McKinnon and Alice May Connolly, who brought the character to the first film's post-credits scene. Dunst's casting makes Alex part of the main cast for the first time. Filming started in New Zealand in May 2026. Plot details are still locked down, though following up that post-credits scene with a full casting points to Alex having a central role.
Netflix and Mojang announced a CG-animated Minecraft series in 2024 as part of the game's 15th anniversary. WildBrain, the studio behind Sonic Prime and Ninjago: Dragons Rising, is producing it, and the show tells an original story with new characters instead of adapting Steve and Alex.
The series went quiet long enough to spark cancellation rumors in 2026, especially after it was left out of Netflix's Annecy showcase. Bergensten shut those rumors down in August 2026, confirming production is still underway, but Netflix has not announced a release date, so the movie sequel is likely to beat it to the screen.
Minecraft is a sandbox video game developed by Mojang Studios and initially published by Mojang Studios. When Microsoft and Xbox acquired Mojang, the publisher then...
Markus "Notch" Persson created Minecraft and released the first version in 2009. Mojang Studios released the full game in 2011, and Jens "Jeb" Bergensten has led development since Persson stepped back.
Microsoft owns Minecraft. It bought Mojang Studios for $2.5 billion in 2014, and Minecraft is still released on PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, mobile, and PC alongside Xbox.
Minecraft Java Edition is the original PC version and the home of most mods and large servers. Minecraft Bedrock Edition runs on Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, mobile, and Windows with crossplay between all of them.
The Sift is a new dimension Mojang revealed at Minecraft Live in September 2026. It debuts in Minecraft Dungeons II and comes to Minecraft Java Edition and Bedrock Edition in 2027.
Yes, Minecraft Dungeons II launched on Xbox Game Pass on day one, September 29, 2026.
A Minecraft Movie Squared releases in theaters on July 23, 2027, with Jared Hess returning to direct.
Kirsten Dunst plays Alex in A Minecraft Movie Squared, joining returning stars Jack Black, Jason Momoa, and Danielle Brooks.
No, the Minecraft animated series from Netflix and WildBrain is still in production as of August 2026, but it does not have a release date yet.
No, Herobrine was never in Minecraft. The character started as a 2010 creepypasta, and Mojang lists "Removed Herobrine" in patch notes as a running joke.