Minecraft: Using Social Media to Create a Successful Game

Minecraft: Using Social Media to Create a Successful Game
Case Code: BSTR440
Case Length: 15 Pages
Period: 2009-2013
Pub Date: 2013
Teaching Note: Available
Price: Rs.300
Organization: Mojang AB
Industry: Games
Countries: Sweden, US, Global
Themes: Business Strategy
Minecraft: Using Social Media to Create a Successful Game
Abstract Case Intro 1 Case Intro 2 Excerpts

The Early Stages

Persson had learnt programming when he was just a child and used to attempt creating new computer games. After completing his secondary education in Sweden, he became a web programmer at a company. At that time, the IT sector in Sweden was booming, which prompted Persson to leave the job after two years and look for greener pastures. Unfortunately for him, the Dot-Com Burst happened, resulting in his remaining unemployed for a period of two years.In 2003,Perssoncreated a sandbox game called ‘Wurm Online' in collaboration with another independent game developer, Rolf Jansson.

Its gameplay was in a way similar to Minecraft and involved players conducting underground mining activities, taking measures to populate the land, and creating alternate worlds. However, in April 2007, he stoppeddeveloping the game as he felt that it was not going in the right direction.

In the mid-2000s, Persson joined the game development company Midas, which was later rechristened as King.com. He worked for around four and a half years at the company, which primarily developed flash-based puzzle and shooting games. While working there, he created around 25-30 games, with one game developed every 2-3 months.

In May 2009, when Persson was prevented from creating games in his spare time during office hours, he resigned from his job. He utilized his free time working on developing a game called Minecraft that he envisioned would be "simple yet dynamic". The game,which ran on Java ,was developed for personal computers (PCs), and had features from some other popular games such as Infiniminer, Dwarf Fortress, and Dungeon Keeper...

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