Minecraft has become a worldwide phenomenon since its launch in 2011, it has sold more than 70 million copies to date and is ranked as one of the best-selling video games of all time. It recently caught the attention of Microsoft who bought Mojang, the company behind Minecraft, for a hefty sum of $2.5 billion last November.
Today, Microsoft announced that Minecraft will be launching on Xbox One in China by the end of the year and they have huge plans to promote the brand there. Whilst Minecraft as a brand in China hasn’t been massive it has certainly been growing in popularity. The PC version has been moderately popular there but official sales have been hindered by piracy in the country, on the other hand the mobile version has been doing quite well with the game ranking in the top 10 grossing games for 2015 and the top 20 games for install base. That is really something for a Western brand in China.
Microsoft is hoping that the Xbox One version will help solidify the brand in China and encourage more gamers to purchase consoles in the country. So far console sales have been disappointing with Niko Partners estimating that the total install base for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One will reach 550,000 by the end of the year.
Feedback from Chinese users has been fairly positive so far but in a country where PC and Mobile rules the market it’s unclear just how much of an impact the game will have on console sales.
What are your thoughts? Do you think the Xbox One version of Minecraft will promote additional console sales like it has done in other markets?
