When Did Minecraft Come Out? – Minecraft History

When Did Minecraft Come Out – Introduction

Minecraft spans millions of blocks with different biomes, items, and mobs to discover. When thinking of how much is in Minecraft, it’s a wonder how Minecraft first started. The story of Minecraft spans over ten years with many changes and improvements happening at every turn. From the very start with the inception of Minecraft to the latest announcements for Minecraft 1.20, many have watched Minecraft grow into what it is today.

Are you one of those Minecraft players, enjoying the game after years of playing? Whether you’re an older player who has grown up alongside Minecraft or a new player to Minecraft enjoying the blocky worlds for the first time, it truly is a fun game that’s been around a long time. Minecraft has been around for so long and it’s interesting to look back on its journey. Join us as we open the book on Minecraft and discover when did Minecraft come out and what it took to get the game and Minecraft servers to where they are now!

A “Notch” of Inspiration (2009)

Before the question of when did Minecraft come out, it’s important to know how the story began. Minecraft was developed by Markus “Notch” Persson, a game developer with King Digital Entertainment. Prior to the creation of Minecraft, most times Notch would work on browser games, where he ended up learning many different programming languages. Notch would develop prototypes of games at home in his free time where he also would take part in forums such as TIGSource for independent developers. Around March 2009, Notch would leave King to join as a developer at jAlbum but continued to work on new prototypes.
 
A project that Notch worked on was a base-building game inspired by Dwarf Fortress called “RubyDung”. This project led to many ideas that likely influenced parts of Minecraft today including an attempt at first-person. In the end, this feature in RubyDung was scrapped due to poor graphics.
 
Later in April 2009, a new block-based open-ended mining game was released called Infiniminer. This game included blocky gameplay in first-person with block-building. These features would go on to heavily influence what direction Notch would take for “RubyDung”. Thereafter, Notch would go on to begin the development of an exciting new block-based building game called “Minecraft”.

When Did Minecraft Come Out? (2009)

Minecraft was first developed in May of 2009 by Notch. A test video released by Notch displayed an early version of Minecraft called “Cave game tech test”. This was the first known version of Minecraft to be recorded, but it was never released to the public.

Then during a weekend, Notch completed the base program of Minecraft and performed a private test on TigIRC on May 16th, 2009. The testing was a success and on May 17th, the very next day, Minecraft was released to the public. After releasing the game, Notch would keep a close eye on feedback on the forums, performing updates to the game in a version that would later become known as the “Classic” version. Further development would continue with Minecraft towards a full release, with many updates and different versions before the full release.

Alpha & Beta Versions of Minecraft (2010)

Alpha was the very first major update to Minecraft, occurring on June 30th, 2010. In the words of Notch, “I fixed a few bugs in /game/, and the game is now playable offline.” Along with being playable offline, Alpha included changes to sand and gravel generation and set the Y-axis to 64 for Minecraft worlds. These updates would lead to Notch deciding to set up a video game company called Mojang, alongside Jakob Porser, a co-worker from King, and Carl Manneh, the CEO of jAlbum. Work would continue on Alpha versions until version 1.2.6 when the game finally shifted to Beta.

Nearly six months later on December 20th, 2010, Beta 1.0 was released for Java Edition. This update added a whole host of new features to Minecraft including:

• Working server-side inventory
• Tooltips in inventory
• Support for capes
• Splash effects
• Throwable eggs
• Many other changes and fixes

Minecraft was taking shape and continued with regular Beta updates until version 1.8.1 on September 15th, 2011. This was the last update for Java Edition Beta before Minecraft would go to develop and release the full version of Minecraft Java Edition.

Minecraft Java Edition Full Version Released (2011)

With Minecraft in full swing with plenty of updates and additions, it was bound to be headed for a full release. On December 18th, 2010 Minecraft did just that, moving to full-release version 1.0. Almost two weeks later on December 1st, Jens “Jeb” Bergensten would take over control of Minecraft, replacing Notch as the lead designer. Several months after that, Mojang would continue to make strides to improve its game and one of those involves hiring more developers!

Enhancements to Minecraft (2012)

On February 28th, 2012, Mojang announced that they had begun hiring developers of the popular Bukkit developer API for Minecraft. This hiring was led by a goal to improve Minecraft’s support for server modifications. That development led to Mojang taking full ownership of the CraftBukkit server mod which allowed for Bukkit and Minecraft plugins. To this day, players still enjoy Minecraft plugins on servers!

Microsoft Buys Mojang & Minecraft (2014)

Minecraft was booming and on September 15th, 2014, Microsoft announced their $2.5 billion deal to purchase Mojang along with the ownership of Minecraft. Prior to that, Notch posted a tweet asking Microsoft to purchase his share of the game after receiving criticism due to the Minecraft EULA’s enforcement, rules that had been in the EULA for 3 years prior. Shortly after the tweet, Microsoft would discuss a deal with Notch for the purchase. The deal was finalized with Microsoft on November 6th, 2014, and has since led to many great developments between Mojang Studios and Microsoft!

Many Minecraft Updates to Come

Throughout the 10+ years that Minecraft has been in the hands of gamers around the world, Minecraft has seen endless development. Early players of Minecraft may remember versions like Infdev and Classic, single-player-only versions of Minecraft. With every year that came with Minecraft, new versions would come to be released including Beta, Alpha, and Release versions. And with Minecraft’s release, for many years to come versions would release from 1.0 all the way to the upcoming Minecraft 1.21 update that will soon be released! You can learn more about Minecraft 1.21 here and how to try the update on your server.

From smaller updates like Minecraft 1.2.1 introducing the well-known Jungle biome to major updates like Minecraft 1.5 adding in an assortment of useful redstone devices, each update has brought more fun to Minecraft. We’re excited to see what comes next for Minecraft! The possibilities are endless with 1.21 just on the horizon. Not to mention the possibilities for Minecraft 1.22, Minecraft 1.23, and other future releases! What features, mobs, items, and blocks are you hoping will come to the game and Minecraft game servers in the future?

Other Minecraft Device Versions

Minecraft Pocket Edition History

• August 2011 | Minecraft: Pocket Edition would release for Xperia Play on the Andriod Market as an early alpha version. Two months later, Pocket Edition would be released on several other compatible devices.
• November 17th, 2011 | The first iOS version of Minecraft was released.
• December 10th, 2014 | The first Windows Phone versions of Minecraft were released.
• December 19th, 2016 | A full version of Minecraft Pocket Edition was released on iOS, Android, and Windows Phones. Windows Phone versions of Minecraft were discontinued a month later in January 2017.
• 2017 | Minecraft Pocket Edition was replaced by Minecraft Bedrock Edition, enabling cross-platform play between Mobile, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch Edition versions.

Minecraft Console Edition History

• Xbox | The Xbox 360 edition of Minecraft developed by 4J Studios was released on May 9th, 2012. This version included features similar to older versions of Java Edition to slowly improve this version to be closer to the PC version. The Xbox 360 edition of Minecraft was eventually discontinued to give way to the Xbox One. This led to the release of the Xbox One version of Minecraft on September 5th, 2014. This upgrade to Xbox One would bring about larger worlds and many other enhancements for Xbox-based Minecraft players.
• PlayStation | On December 17th, 2013, the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 versions of Minecraft were developed and released by 4J Studios. Then in October 2014, a PlayStation Vita version was also released. Much later on in December 2019, PlayStation 4 Edition would get an update becoming part of the Bedrock Edition, with cross-platform play with other Bedrock Edition players.
• Nintendo | The first Nintendo Minecraft edition was released on the Wii U on December 17th, 2015. Similar to Xbox and PlayStation, the Nintendo version was also created by developer 4J Studios alongside Mojang Studios. Minecraft would later make its way to the Nintendo Switch on May 11th, 2017, and on the New Nintendo 3DS on September 13th, 2017.

On September 20th, 2017 the Minecraft console versions on Xbox One, Windows 10, VR, and mobile would go on to get an update known as the Better Together Update. This update enabled cross-platform play between all of these versions. Shortly after, this is when those Minecraft console versions would be renamed to Minecraft Bedrock Edition.

The older console versions were bound to be decommissioned due to the newer consoles. That decommission did come, occurring on December 18th, 2018. On that day, the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Xbox 360, and Wii U versions would get their final update. The update would bring a variety of fixes and stability to ensure Minecraft will always run at its best on older-generation consoles. Later, these versions would become known as Legacy Console Editions of Minecraft.

Minecraft Event History

MINECRAFTCON 2010 UNOFFICIAL EVENT

During the early beginnings of Minecraft, Notch would go on to post a blog post about the Minecraftcon 2010 event. This Minecraft event was an unofficial event held by Notch’s family and some fans of the game.

MINECON Events

MINECON 2010

The very first MINECON event ever held, this event featured an unofficial organization on a Minecraft Forums thread. Fans of the game gathered together on a Minecraft Classic server to talk and play together. This event did not feature any new updates but did offer an enormous amount of fun with a variety of tournaments and competitions players could enter.

MINECON 2011

MINECON 2011 was the first official Minecraft event, held in Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, Nevada on November 17th. This event coincided with the official release of Minecraft. During the event, members of the Minecraft community provided keynote speeches, held building contests, breakout classes for different Minecraft topics, costume contests, exhibits, meet-and-greets for worldwide Minecraft personalities, and purchasable merchandise. Additionally, attendees received an exclusive MINECON 2011 cape depicting a creeper.

MINECON 2012

The second official MINECON event, MINECON 2012 was held at Disneyland Paris from November 24th to the 25th. A large attendance of 4,500 people came to see the event and received an exclusive MINECON 2012 cape displaying a pickaxe. During the event, the Redstone Update was announced along with some features that would enhance redstone and bring many new redstone devices to the game.

MINECON 2013

MINECON 2013 was the third official MINECON event, held in Orlando, Florida from November 2nd to the 3rd. This MINECON was more of a gathering to celebrate Minecraft and some of the developers in the community including panels for mod developers like Direwofl20, Pahimar, LexManos, cpw, and more. Attendants of this event received an exclusive MINECON 2013 cape depicting a piston.

MINECON 2015

The MINECON 2015 event was the fourth official MINECON event. This event was held in London, UK from July 4th to the 5th. Originally, this event had been planned to be held somewhere in Europe in 2014 but was eventually delayed until Spring 2015. In the event, Mojang Studios would announce and showcase features of the upcoming Combat Update. Along with that, attendants at the event would be given a MINECON 2015 cape that depicts an Iron Golem.

MINECON 2016

MINECON 2016 was the fifth and last regular MINECON, occurring in Anaheim, California from September 24th to the 25th. The event announced information on the Exploration Update and showcased features that were upcoming with this update. Attendants to the event also received an exclusive MINECON 2016 cape displaying an Enderman.

MINECON EARTH EVENTS

MINECON EARTH 2017

In 2017, Mojang Studios shifted the focus of their events to be held more online. This led to MINECON Earth 2017, an online live stream event that was held on November 18th. During a 90-minute live stream, MINECON would announce the Update Aquatic and features coming to this update. The first Minecraft mob vote also occurred alongside the update, where the community voted for the Phantom to be added in the next update.

MINECON EARTH 2018

Similar to MINECON EARTH 2017, MINECRAFT EARTH 2018 was an event held online on September 29th. This event featured an announcement for the Village & Pillage update and its features. The community was also given a chance to vote for the next biome, with the Taiga biome winning the vote.

MINECON Live Events

MINECON LIVE 2019

Following the success of MINECON Earth’s live stream events, MINECON Live acted as a continuation also being an online event. MINECON Live was held on September 28th and included an announcement for the Nether Update and upcoming features with this update. Another biome community vote was also held, where the Mountains biome won and was eventually added to the Caves & Cliffs update. For a limited time, a free MINECON Live Founder’s Cape (a yellow version of the 2011 creeper cape) was available in the Minecraft Marketplace to help promote the character creator feature on Bedrock Edition.

MINECRAFT LIVE EVENTS

MINECRAFT LIVE 2020

MINECRAFT Live 2020 was another continuation of online Minecraft events. Being held on October 3rd, MINECRAFT Live 2020 brought with it announcements for the Caves & Cliffs update and its features coming to the game. The second-ever Mojang Minecraft mob vote was also held, where the glow Squid pulled out on top coming to the first part of the Caves & Cliffs update.

MINECRAFT LIVE 2021

MINECRAFT Live ended up being a huge success, especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic. This resulted in MINECRAFT Live 2021, which was held on October 16th. The event included an announcement for the Wild Update and some features coming to Minecraft. Keeping the trend of the last MINECRAFT Live, the third-ever Minecraft mob vote was held. After the voting, it was determined that the Allay won and would be coming to Minecraft and dedicated Minecraft servers in the next update.

MINECRAFT LIVE 2022

MINECRAFT Live 2022 was the third MINECRAFT Live event to occur, being held on October 15th. With the event, information regarding several new features coming to Minecraft 1.20 was announced including the Camel mob. In addition to the announcements, information regarding Minecraft Dungeons and Minecraft Legends was also released. The fourth-ever Minecraft mob vote was held before the event and near the end, Mojang Studios would announce that the Sniffer won. You can learn more about MINECRAFT Live 2022 here!

Minecraft LIVE 2023

2023 had seen a monumental swing in Minecraft for the community. As the mob vote went live, Mojang shared exciting details about the next Minecraft update, 1.21. Key features like the Breeze mob, hints at trials, and the automated crafting table. In addition, the mob vote featured the Penguin, Armadillo, and Crab. After a fierce battle from the community in an attempt to get all three mobs, Mojang unfortunately declared only a single winner: the Armadillo. With this new upcoming mob and its scute, we learned you’d be able to customize wolf armor and thus it lead into the introduction of new wolf variants and wolf armor coming to 1.21!

Minecraft Festival Event

Minecraft Festival was an event originally planned for September 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this event has been delayed four times now. It has been stated that the event will not occur in 2022 and it appears the event may be pushed back indefinitely.

Discover Minecraft’s History on Your Own Server

Minecraft truly is an inspiring game that has lasted for over a decade and we can only hope that Minecraft continues to grow and live on for many more years to come! Whether you’re a new Minecraft player or you’ve been playing since the start, Minecraft holds quite a history to explore.
 
From its inception with Notch, Microsoft purchasing Mojang, and its growth onto many different platforms including Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, and PC, it’s been a wondrous journey. Along with that, Minecraft 1.21 is just around the corner with snapshots already available for players to enjoy. Now that you know when did Minecraft come out and the history of Minecraft, bring your friends along and experience the adventure together on a Minecraft server!
 
Rent a Minecraft server today!

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