While A Minecraft Movie was being filmed, the producers set up a series of private servers for cast and crew to play Minecraft during the shoot. The most dedicated player by far was Jack Black, who clocked up 100 hours of playtime during filming. Originally cast as a talking pig but later promoted to the everyman player character Steve, the actor stayed up late to collect in-game lapis lazuli. “He was just completely manic, hoarding stuff in the mines,” one of the game’s developers told Variety. In his precious free hours outside of long filming days, Black might have wanted a break. But he had been enchanted by the same spell as hundreds of millions of players since the game first officially launched in 2011. Even if the film (which is released in cinemas this week) doesn’t end up pleasing critics, the game’s magic is undeniable. Once you start mining, it’s hard to stop.
Minecraft is, by a very long way, the best-selling video game of all time. As of last year it had sold 300mn copies, or 3.6 per cent of the planet’s population. It has players in every country, including Antarctica and Vatican City. Yet for both non-gamers and hardcore players, there remains something mysterious about this popularity — the game’s graphics are basic, its action rudimentary. In our age of lavish gaming blockbusters, how did this simple block-building game survive a decade of industry upheaval, a corporate buyout and the dramatic downfall of its creator to become the defining game of our times?