impact on economic factors: *Microsoft have more money to adverting the game. can sell to larger range of markets like Sony players, Xbox and others. can fund
Explain the impact of economic factors on video game production, distribution and consumption That Minecraft had.
Minecraft in its early stages saved large amounts of money due to the game not using much marketing i order to generate sales. Like most independent or `indie` games it relied on word of mouth through its niche audience of moders to sell the game on PCs. due to Mojang not having a massive budget, the game was sold exclusively to PCs and would not reach consoles such as Xbox and PlayStations till mid 2012. this was all changed in 2014 however when conglomerate Microsoft, owner of AAA games companies like Bethesda and Bungie, decided to purchase Mojang and Microsoft for $2.5billion. This Gave Minecraft the budget and resources of a AAA game and allowed them to market the game to a wider audience. This is the case with many AAA games as having backing from a large developer like Microsoft means they have more resources for things such as marketing, allowing them to attract players from all demographics. this will also benefit the game when it comes to things like events to promote them, for example, Minecon. the event has been hosted every year since 2010 and with funding from Microsoft, allowed Mojang to host it all over the world. This will increase game consumption massively the events will increase global knowledge of the game. more than would be possible through word of mouth.
Rewrite
In the modern age of video games development their are two main types, AAA and 'indie. AAA games are published by massive companies like Bethesda, Activison and Electronic Arts and tend to have large budgets. due to this the games can afford lengthy 20-50 hour long stories with more realistic graphics and mechanics as well as hiring A-list actors to play characters in the games, such as Idris Elba in NBA 2K20 or Matthew Perry in the Fallout franchise. Whilst indie games will tend to come from either small companies or small development teams with very little budgets, often leading to developers funding the games out of their own pockets or crowd funding. Due to the lower budget of these games they will tend to last much shorter run times as well as have more artistic graphics as realistic graphics will be too expensive. Another major difference with the two types of games is their marketing and sales. As AAA games usually caused in the range of £100 to produce, they must drum up enough excitement for the game in order to make a profit on it and mainly will do this through massive cinematic trailers and events. Whereas indie games, being funded through crowd funding, do not require the same range of sales to make a profit and subsequently don't rely on much marketing.
this all changed when Minecraft was released. Being officially released in 2009 by Markus Persson and his small studio mojang on PC, the game seemed to show all the traits of an indie title while stylised blocky graphics, a lack of any major story and little to no known marketing. The game was built around the idea of creative and with its two original modes, creative or survival, allowed players to try their luck and seeing what challenge the game had to offer, or let their imaginations create whatever they desired. The game used a coding language called java and because of this, allowed the moding community to experiment with several different additions to Minecraft with mods like the Aether really emphasising the creative freedoms the game provided. Due to the game having a very limited budget it relied on sales through word of mouth between its niche modder audience to generate sales. However due to the games popularity and universal appeal it was soon being played and streamed by massive influencers like captain sparkle and Stampylonghead on the website YouTube. At the time this was unheard of as a way of marketing and showed just how profitable it could be as Minecraft's sales soared in popularity within its first year. Minecraft didn't stop their with their first Minecon, a Minecraft festival, being held in the summer of 2010 attracting fans of all ages. This changed the landscape of video games as originally massive events like this were reserved for AAA games and being development company and showed just how popular this small indie game truly was.
Finally in 2014, Minecraft and Mojang studios were bought by massive media conglomerate Microsoft for $2.5 billion. This was monumental in the gaming world as it meant that not only had Minecraft lost its status as an indie title, but had become apart of one of the 3 major games companies in the world and was arguably now their biggest game. Microsoft set about making changes as by increasing the games cross platform availability. the game had only recently made the jump to consoles the previous year and Microsoft introduced the PS4 and Xbox one editions later that year. this massively altered the games distribution as now the game was available to millions of current gen console players and sales began to rise eventually reaching 176 million by 2020 becoming the highest selling game of all time, a far cry from the 4 million copies the game had sold by 2011. Microsoft also began to introduce synergy with other brands such as Lego to increase sales, they released skin in game of popular movie and video game characters like from star wars and fallout. They also planned and released a virtual reality version of the game, something which creator notch was firmly against due to the VR company oculus being owned by Facebook. It is every much evident to see just how different the game has been operated during its time as independent and AAA as originally the game seemed smaller with creator Notch caring more about making the game he wanted than making as much money as possible. Whilst under Microsoft its clear the use of synergy with Lego and main character Steve's impending introducing into video game phenomenon Super Smash Bros that Microsoft are more concerned with maximising profits.
Some promising work here, Ethan. You are clearly beginning to understand how the changing economic context of Minecraft has influenced production, distribution and context. However, what I would have liked to have seen within your work is more depth. One way to do this is to illustrate your knowledge by incorporating key facts and statistics within your work for example, Microsoft acquired Mojang Studios, the ‘indie’ developer of Minecraft, for $2.5 billion in 2014 and by 2020, 200 million copies have been sold. In addition, more specific examples of cross media infiltration would further help improve the quality of your response. For example, minecon, Warner Bros film and the development of the Minecraft Marketplace which is all linked with the backing of a multi-national company. Finally, another way to illustrate your understanding of the changing economic context of Minecraft is through discussing the skin packs as well as how the partnership with Occulus expanded the reach of the game to VR. Previously under Mojang, this was virtually impossible due to the creative restriction of Persson. After Microsoft acquisition, they were able to expand this new and exciting market. (3)
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