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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/States_of_affairs] | [TOKENS: 512] |
Contents State of affairs (philosophy) In philosophy, a state of affairs (German: Sachverhalt), also known as a situation, is a way the actual world must be in order to make some given proposition about the actual world true; in other words, a state of affairs is a truth-maker, whereas a proposition is a truth-bearer. Whereas states of affairs either obtain or fail-to-obtain, propositions are either true or false. Some philosophers understand the term "states of affairs" in a more restricted sense as a synonym for "fact". In this sense, there are no states of affairs that do not obtain. The early Ludwig Wittgenstein and David Malet Armstrong are well known for their defence of a factualism, a position according to which the world is a world of facts and not a world of things. Overview States of affairs are complex entities: they are built up from or constituted by other entities. Atomic states of affairs are constituted by one particular and one property exemplified by this particular. For example, the state of affairs that Socrates is wise is constituted by the particular "Socrates" and the property "wise". Relational states of affairs involve several particulars and a relation connecting them. States of affairs that obtain are also referred to as facts. It is controversial which ontological status should be ascribed to states of affairs that do not obtain. States of affairs have been prominent in 20th-century ontology as various theories were proposed to describe the world as composed of states of affairs. In a sense of "state of affairs" favored by Ernest Sosa, states of affairs are situational conditions. In fact, in the Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, Sosa defines a condition to be a state of affairs, "way things are" or situation—most commonly referred to by a nominalization of a sentence. The expression "Snow's being white", which refers to the condition snow's being white, is a nominalization of the sentence "Snow is white". The truth of the proposition that "snow is white" is a nominalization of the sentence "the proposition that snow is white is true". Snow's being white is a necessary and sufficient condition for the truth of the proposition that snow is white. Conditions in this sense may be called situational. Usually, necessity and sufficiency relate conditions of the same kind. Being an animal is a necessary attributive condition for being a dog. Fido's being an animal is a necessary situational condition for Fido's being a dog. See also Notes References |
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markus_Persson#cite_note-22] | [TOKENS: 3525] |
Contents Markus Persson Markus Alexej Persson (/ˈpɪərsən/ ⓘ PEER-sən, Swedish: [ˈmǎrːkɵs ˈpæ̌ːʂɔn] ⓘ; born 1 June 1979), known by the pseudonym Notch, is a Swedish video game programmer and designer. He is the creator of Minecraft, the best-selling video game in history. He founded the video game development company Mojang Studios in 2009. Persson began developing video games at an early age. His commercial success began after he published an early version of Minecraft in 2009. Prior to the game's official retail release in 2011, it had sold over four million copies. After this point Persson stood down as the lead designer and transferred his creative authority to Jens Bergensten. In September 2014 Persson announced his intention to leave Mojang, and in November of that year the company was sold to Microsoft reportedly for US$2.5 billion, which made him a billionaire. Since 2016 several of Persson's posts on Twitter regarding feminism, race, and transgender rights have caused public controversies. He has been described as "an increasingly polarizing figure, tweeting offensive statements regarding race, the LGBTQ community, gender, and other topics." In an effort to distance itself from Persson, Microsoft removed mentions of his name from Minecraft (excluding one instance in the game's end credits) and did not invite him to the game's tenth anniversary celebration. In 2015 he co-founded a separate game studio called Rubberbrain, which was relaunched in 2024 as Bitshift Entertainment. Early life Markus Alexej Persson was born in Stockholm, Sweden, to a Finnish mother, Ritva, and a Swedish father, Birger, on 1 June 1979. He has one sister. He grew up in Edsbyn until he was seven years old, when his family moved back to Stockholm. In Edsbyn, Persson's father worked for the railroad, and his mother was a nurse. He spent much time outdoors in Edsbyn, exploring the woods with his friends. When Persson was about seven years old, his parents divorced, and he and his sister lived with their mother. His father moved to a cabin in the countryside. Persson said in an interview that they experienced food insecurity around once a month. Persson lost contact with his father for several years after the divorce. According to Persson, his father suffered from depression, bipolar disorder, alcoholism, and medication abuse, and went to jail for robberies. While his father had somewhat recovered during Persson's early life, his father relapsed, contributing to the divorce. His sister also experimented with drugs and ran away from home. He had gained interest in video games at an early age. His father was "a really big nerd", who built his own modem and taught Persson to use the family's Commodore 128. On it, Persson played bootleg games and loaded in various type-in programs from computer magazines with the help of his sister. The first game he purchased with his own money was The Bard's Tale. He began programming on his father's Commodore 128 home computer at the age of seven. He produced his first game at the age of eight, a text-based adventure game. By 1994 Persson knew he wanted to become a video game developer, but his teachers advised him to study graphic design, which he did from ages 15 to 18. Persson, although introverted, was well-liked by his peers, but after entering secondary school was a "loner" and reportedly had only one friend. He spent most of his spare time with games and programming at home. He managed to reverse-engineer the Doom engine, which he continued to take great pride in as of 2014[update]. He never finished high school, but was reportedly a good student. Career Persson started his career working as a web designer. He later found employment at Game Federation, where he met Rolf Jansson. The pair worked in their spare time to build the 2006 video game Wurm Online. The game was released through a new entity, "Mojang Specifications AB". Persson left the project in late 2007. As Persson wanted to reuse the name "Mojang", Jansson agreed to rename the company to Onetoofree AB. Between 2004 and 2009 Persson worked as a game developer for Midasplayer (later known as King). There, he worked as a programmer, mostly building browser games made in Flash. He later worked as a programmer for jAlbum. Prior to creating Minecraft, Persson developed multiple, small games. He also entered a number of game design competitions and participated in discussions on the TIGSource forums, a web forum for independent game developers. One of Persson's more notable personal projects was called RubyDung, an isometric three-dimensional base-building game like RollerCoaster Tycoon and Dwarf Fortress. While working on RubyDung, Persson experimented with a first-person view mode similar to that found in Dungeon Keeper. However, he felt the graphics were too pixelated and omitted this mode. In 2009 Persson found inspiration in Infiniminer, a block-based open-ended mining game. Infiniminer heavily influenced his future work on RubyDung, and was behind Persson's reasoning for returning the first-person mode, the "blocky" visual style and the block-building fundamentals to the game. RubyDung is the earliest known Minecraft prototype created by Persson. On 17 May 2009 Persson released the original edition (later called "Classic version") of Minecraft on the TIGSource forums. He regularly updated the game based on feedback from TIGSource users. Persson released several new versions of Minecraft throughout 2009 and 2010, going through several phases of development including Survival Test, Indev, and Infdev. On 30 June 2010 Persson released the game's Alpha version. While working on the pre-Alpha version of Minecraft, Persson continued working at jAlbum. In 2010, after the release and subsequent success of Minecraft's Alpha version, Persson moved from a full-time role to a part-time role at jAlbum. He left jAlbum later that same year. In September 2010 Persson travelled to Valve Corporation's headquarters in Bellevue, Washington, United States, where he took part in a programming exercise and met Gabe Newell. Persson was subsequently offered a job at Valve, which he turned down in order to continue work on Minecraft. On 20 December 2010 Minecraft moved into its beta phase and began expanding to other platforms, including mobile. In January 2011 Minecraft reached one million registered accounts. Six months afterwards, it reached ten million. The game has sold over four million copies by 7 November 2011. Mojang held the first Minecon from 18 to 19 November 2011 to celebrate its full release, and subsequently made it an annual event. Following this, on 11 December 2011, Persson transferred creative control of Minecraft to Jens Bergensten and began working on another game title, 0x10c, although he reportedly abandoned the project around 2013. In 2013 Mojang recorded revenues of $330 million and profits of $129 million. Persson has stated that, due to the intense media attention and public pressure, he became exhausted with running Minecraft and Mojang. In a September 2014 blog post he shared his realization that he "didn't have the connection to my fans I thought I had", that he had "become a symbol", and that he did not wish to be responsible for Mojang's increasingly large operation. In June 2014 Persson tweeted "Anyone want to buy my share of Mojang so I can move on with my life? Getting hate for trying to do the right thing is not my gig", reportedly partly as a joke. Persson controlled a 71% stake in Mojang at the time. The offer attracted significant interest from Activision Blizzard, EA, and Microsoft. Forbes later reported that Microsoft wanted to purchase the game as a "tax dodge" to turn their taxable excess liquid cash into other assets. In September 2014 Microsoft agreed to purchase Mojang for $2.5 billion, making Persson a billionaire. He then left the company after the deal was finalised in November. Since leaving Mojang, Persson has worked on several small projects. On 23 June 2014 he founded a company with Porsér called Rubberbrain AB; the company had no games by 2021, despite spending SEK 60 million. The company was relaunched as Bitshift Entertainment, LLC on 28 March 2024. Persson expressed interest in creating a new video game studio in 2020, and in developing virtual reality games. He has also since created a series of narrative-driven immersive events called ".party()", which uses extensive visual effects and has been hosted in multiple cities. At the beginning of 2025 Persson decided to create a spiritual successor to Minecraft, referred to as "Minecraft 2", in response to the results of a poll on X. However, after speaking to his team, he shortly went against this in favour of developing the other choice on his Twitter poll, a roguelike titled Levers and Chests. Games Persson's most popular creation is the survival sandbox game Minecraft, which was first publicly available on 17 May 2009 and fully released on 18 November 2011. Persson left his job as a game developer to work on Minecraft full-time until completion. In early 2011, Mojang AB sold the one millionth copy of the game, several months later their second, and several more their third. Mojang hired several new staff members for the Minecraft team, while Persson passed the lead developer role to Jens Bergensten. He stopped working on Minecraft after a deal with Microsoft to sell Mojang for $2.5 billion. This brought his net worth to US$1.5 billion. Persson and Jakob Porsér came up with the idea for Scrolls including elements from board games and collectible card games. Persson noted that he will not be actively involved in development of the game and that Porsér will be developing it. Persson revealed on his Tumblr blog on 5 August 2011 that he was being sued by a Swedish law firm representing Bethesda Softworks over the trademarked name of Scrolls, claiming that it conflicted with their The Elder Scrolls series of games. On 17 August 2011 Persson challenged Bethesda to a Quake 3 tournament to decide the outcome of the naming dispute. On 27 September 2011 Persson confirmed that the lawsuit was going to court. ZeniMax Media, owner of Bethesda Softworks, announced the lawsuit's settlement in March 2012. The settlement allowed Mojang to continue using the Scrolls trademark. In 2018, Scrolls was made available free of charge and renamed to Caller's Bane. Cliffhorse is a humorous game programmed in two hours using the Unity game engine and free assets. The game took inspiration from Skyrim's physics engine, "the more embarrassing minimum-effort Greenlight games", Goat Simulator, and Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing. The game was released to Microsoft Windows systems as an early access and honourware game on the first day of E3 2014, instructing users to donate Dogecoin to "buy" the game before downloading it. The game accumulated over 280,000 dogecoins. Following the end to his involvement with Minecraft, Persson began pre-production of an alternate reality space game set in the distant future in March 2012. On April Fools' Day Mojang launched a satirical website for Mars Effect (parody of Mass Effect), citing the lawsuit with Bethesda as an inspiration. However, the gameplay elements remained true and on 4 April, Mojang revealed 0x10c (pronounced "Ten to the C") as a space sandbox title. Persson officially halted game production in August 2013. However, C418, the composer of the game's soundtrack (as well as that of Minecraft), released an album of the work he had made for the game. In 2013, Persson made a free game called Shambles in the Unity game engine. Persson has also participated in several Ludum Dare 48-hour game making competitions. Personal life In 2011 Persson married Elin Zetterstrand, whom he had dated for four years before. Zetterstrand was a former moderator on the Minecraft forums. They had a daughter together, but by mid-2012, he began to see little of her. On 15 August 2012 he announced that he and his wife had filed for divorce. The divorce was finalised later that year. On 14 December 2011 Persson's father committed suicide with a handgun after drinking heavily. In an interview with The New Yorker, Persson said of his father: When I decided I wanted to quit my day job and work on my own games, he was the only person who supported my decision. He was proud of me and made sure I knew. When I added the monsters to Minecraft, he told me that the dark caves became too scary for him. But I think that was the only true criticism I ever heard from him. Persson later admitted that he himself suffered from depression and various highs and lows in his mood. Persson has criticised the stance of large game companies on piracy. He once stated that "piracy is not theft", viewing unauthorised downloads as potential future customers. Persson stated himself to be a member of the Pirate Party of Sweden in 2011. He is also a member of Mensa. He has donated to numerous charities, including Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders). Under his direction, Mojang spent a week developing Catacomb Snatch for the Humble Indie Bundle and raised US$458,248 for charity. He also donated $250,000 to the Electronic Frontier Foundation in 2012. In 2011 he gave $3 million in dividends back to Mojang employees. According to Forbes, his net worth in 2023 was around $1.2 billion. In 2014 Persson was one of the biggest taxpayers in Sweden. Around 2014, he lived in a multi-level penthouse in Östermalm, Stockholm, an area he described as "where the rich people live". In December 2014 Persson purchased a home in Trousdale Estates, a neighbourhood in Beverly Hills, California, in the United States, for $70 million, a record sales price for Beverly Hills at the time. Persson reportedly outbid Beyoncé and Jay-Z for the property. Persson began receiving criticism for political and social opinions he expressed on social media as early as 2016. November 30, 2017 In 2017, he proposed a heterosexual pride holiday, and wrote that those who opposed the idea "deserve to be shot." After facing backlash, he deleted the tweets and rescinded his statements, writing, "So yeah, it's about pride of daring to express, not about pride of being who you are. I get it now." Later in the year, he wrote that feminism is a "social disease" and called the video game developer and feminist Zoë Quinn a "cunt", although he was generally critical of the GamerGate movement. He has described intersectional feminism as a "framework for bigotry" and the use of the word mansplaining as being sexist. Also in 2017, Persson tweeted that "It's okay to be white". Later that year, he stated that he believed in the Pizzagate conspiracy theory. In 2019, he tweeted referencing QAnon, saying "Q is legit. Don't trust the media." Later in 2019, he tweeted in response to a pro-transgender internet meme that, "You are absolutely evil if you want to encourage delusion. What happened to not stigmatizing mental illness?" He then also promoted claims that people were fined for "using the wrong pronoun". However, after facing backlash, he tweeted a day afterwards that he had "no idea what [being trans is] like of course, but it's inspiring as hell when people open up and choose to actually be who they know themselves as. Not because it's a cool choice, because it's a big step. I gues [sic] that's actually cool nvm". Later that year, Microsoft removed two mentions of Persson's name in the "19w13a" snapshot of Minecraft and did not invite him to the 10-year anniversary celebration of the game. A spokesperson for Microsoft stated that his views "do not reflect those of Microsoft or Mojang". He is still mentioned in the End Poem ("a flat, infinite world created by a man called Markus").[citation needed] Awards References External links |
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[SOURCE: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c20jlj26198o] | [TOKENS: 2409] |
'Breweries using AI could put artists out of work'2 hours agoShareSaveEvie LakeNorth East and CumbriaShareSaveBBC / Bethany WhiteMean Eyed Cat and the Free Trade Inn announced a ban on AI artworkPubs in Newcastle say they are seeing more and more artwork they believe to be designed using artificial intelligence (AI) from breweries - and have refused to display it. What does the rise of AI mean for independent artists who rely on design work for income?Simon Hubbard runs The Mean Eyed Cat in Newcastle city centre and says he noticed "a spate of breweries who are just coming out with this absolutely dreadful AI slop", mainly the older and more established ones."You can just tell, it looks overly polished, overly perfect," he says. "Hands always look really weird on it."And Hubbard is not the only one.Following conversations with the Free Trade Inn, in Ouseburn, the two venues came together to announce on social media they would no longer be accepting AI art, including on bottles and pump clips, in order to try to protect local artists from losing out on work.Hubbard says it is one of the most viewed Instagram posts the pub has made."Who are you going to offend? The robots?" Hubbard laughs."People are going to be put out of work because of it."And I know AI is doing that to a lot of jobs, but you would really have thought the creative sector would always have a space for creative people and ingenuity."'Stolen artwork'Hubbard says artists such as Drew Millward helped him work through his thoughts about AI and its impact on creatives.From north-west Yorkshire, Millward has worked with breweries all over the world and has been working with Leeds-based Northern Monk for the better part of a decade."It will have an impact on our livelihoods collectively within the creative sector," he says.AI software is trained on millions of human-made images scraped from the internet, which artists argue leads to the software stealing and regurgitating their work.Millward adds while he is yet to see his own work fed back to him by AI, he has friends who have been forced to defend their work because AI has been trained using it."Call it what it is, stolen artwork," Millward says.Ashley WillertonAshley Willerton is hopeful there will still be a demand for original artDurham-based Ashley Willerton has worked as a lettering artist for about 12 years, often working with pubs including Town Wall in Newcastle and Bridge Vaults in Sunderland.While Willerton acknowledges there is a rise in the amount of AI he is seeing, he believes there will always be a demand for independent artists, no matter how much cheaper the alternative is."I feel like there's hope because of that, but there's also the aspect of hope because I've had really amazing clients to this point that have chosen me, when they could have got a much easier solution and potentially cheaper solution," he says.Willerton argues establishments which have always "cut corners" will continue to do so, but independent businesses will carry on supporting artists."It doesn't matter how good AI gets, that's not the point," Willerton says."The point is it will always lack a human touch, it might be technically better than a human can produce, but it doesn't mean it's going to be as meaningful."It's not me saying that it's definitely not going to ruin the industry, but I do have that hope that art has prevailed this long, I just don't think AI is a big enough match to win."Reece HugillReece Hugill says paying local artists helps build a community for his breweryReece Hugill owns the Newcastle-based brewery Donzoko and believes using local artists is about being part of a community."If I was to use ChatGPT for my designs rather than our designer Sean, that's taking money out of the local area into the hands of a multibillionaire," he says."That is removing value from the local community and local artists [and] into the hands of some of the richest people in the world."Hugill adds local people know about local tastes, how the people in Newcastle like to drink and what they like."A computer does not know that, as much as they pretend," he says.But for Hugill, it also raises the question of quality across a business."If you're cutting corners in how things are presented, where else are you cutting corners? Is it the ingredients, as well is it the way you pay your staff?" he asks.Future change?Since putting out the Instagram post with the Free Trade Inn, Hubbard is hopeful for change."The outreach has been pretty big and if it's made one or two breweries think or rethink what they're doing, that's a good thing," he says.And Millward thinks more businesses should be putting out similar statements of intent."It shouldn't be on the consumer to have to interrogate every single image that they see," Millward says.But he adds, "I have huge amounts of hope for the future, in as much as you can see that it's crumbling already".And it is a sentiment shared by Willerton."I have to believe that good art will prevail."Follow BBC North East on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram. Related storiesWhy the rise of AI art stirs fierce debateArtist's work copied by AI more times than Picasso'We're creatives - this is what AI has done to our jobs'Artificial intelligenceArtPubsNewcastle upon TyneDurhamBeer 'Breweries using AI could put artists out of work' Pubs in Newcastle say they are seeing more and more artwork they believe to be designed using artificial intelligence (AI) from breweries - and have refused to display it. What does the rise of AI mean for independent artists who rely on design work for income? Simon Hubbard runs The Mean Eyed Cat in Newcastle city centre and says he noticed "a spate of breweries who are just coming out with this absolutely dreadful AI slop", mainly the older and more established ones. "You can just tell, it looks overly polished, overly perfect," he says. "Hands always look really weird on it." And Hubbard is not the only one. Following conversations with the Free Trade Inn, in Ouseburn, the two venues came together to announce on social media they would no longer be accepting AI art, including on bottles and pump clips, in order to try to protect local artists from losing out on work. Hubbard says it is one of the most viewed Instagram posts the pub has made. "Who are you going to offend? The robots?" Hubbard laughs. "People are going to be put out of work because of it. "And I know AI is doing that to a lot of jobs, but you would really have thought the creative sector would always have a space for creative people and ingenuity." 'Stolen artwork' Hubbard says artists such as Drew Millward helped him work through his thoughts about AI and its impact on creatives. From north-west Yorkshire, Millward has worked with breweries all over the world and has been working with Leeds-based Northern Monk for the better part of a decade. "It will have an impact on our livelihoods collectively within the creative sector," he says. AI software is trained on millions of human-made images scraped from the internet, which artists argue leads to the software stealing and regurgitating their work. Millward adds while he is yet to see his own work fed back to him by AI, he has friends who have been forced to defend their work because AI has been trained using it. "Call it what it is, stolen artwork," Millward says. Durham-based Ashley Willerton has worked as a lettering artist for about 12 years, often working with pubs including Town Wall in Newcastle and Bridge Vaults in Sunderland. While Willerton acknowledges there is a rise in the amount of AI he is seeing, he believes there will always be a demand for independent artists, no matter how much cheaper the alternative is. "I feel like there's hope because of that, but there's also the aspect of hope because I've had really amazing clients to this point that have chosen me, when they could have got a much easier solution and potentially cheaper solution," he says. Willerton argues establishments which have always "cut corners" will continue to do so, but independent businesses will carry on supporting artists. "It doesn't matter how good AI gets, that's not the point," Willerton says. "The point is it will always lack a human touch, it might be technically better than a human can produce, but it doesn't mean it's going to be as meaningful. "It's not me saying that it's definitely not going to ruin the industry, but I do have that hope that art has prevailed this long, I just don't think AI is a big enough match to win." Reece Hugill owns the Newcastle-based brewery Donzoko and believes using local artists is about being part of a community. "If I was to use ChatGPT for my designs rather than our designer Sean, that's taking money out of the local area into the hands of a multibillionaire," he says. "That is removing value from the local community and local artists [and] into the hands of some of the richest people in the world." Hugill adds local people know about local tastes, how the people in Newcastle like to drink and what they like. "A computer does not know that, as much as they pretend," he says. But for Hugill, it also raises the question of quality across a business. "If you're cutting corners in how things are presented, where else are you cutting corners? Is it the ingredients, as well is it the way you pay your staff?" he asks. Future change? Since putting out the Instagram post with the Free Trade Inn, Hubbard is hopeful for change. "The outreach has been pretty big and if it's made one or two breweries think or rethink what they're doing, that's a good thing," he says. And Millward thinks more businesses should be putting out similar statements of intent. "It shouldn't be on the consumer to have to interrogate every single image that they see," Millward says. But he adds, "I have huge amounts of hope for the future, in as much as you can see that it's crumbling already". And it is a sentiment shared by Willerton. "I have to believe that good art will prevail." Follow BBC North East on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram. Why the rise of AI art stirs fierce debate Artist's work copied by AI more times than Picasso 'We're creatives - this is what AI has done to our jobs' Tumbler Ridge suspect's ChatGPT account banned before shooting Urgent research needed to tackle AI threats, says Google AI boss AI and coding firm's 'pride' at business award Royal medals for dedicated ambulance workers North East ambulance workers reflect on their experiences as staff are awarded long-service medals. Man's 'uplifting' sculpture wins at US festival Justin Scott says it is "absolutely amazing" to have won first place and plans to return next year. Rare watercolour of Jungle Book bear on show The National Trust says the artists who illustrated the book were inspired by trips to London Zoo. Gritter driver's 40 years of being a 'winter hero' Gary Lawson can "manoeuvre his gritter in ways others would never attempt", an award ceremony hears. How photography helped the British empire classify India A new exhibition in Delhi showcases 200 rare photographs that fixed identities in colonial India. Copyright 2026 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking. |
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellevue,_Washington] | [TOKENS: 5245] |
Contents Bellevue, Washington Bellevue (/ˈbɛlvjuː/ BEL-vew) is a city in the Eastside region of King County, Washington, United States, located across Lake Washington from Seattle. It is the third-largest city in the Seattle metropolitan area, and the fifth-largest city in Washington. It has variously been characterized as a satellite city, a suburb, a boomburb, or an edge city. The population was 151,854 at the 2020 census. The city's name is derived from the French term belle vue ("beautiful view"). Bellevue is home to some of the world's largest technology companies. Before and after the 2008 recession, its downtown area has been undergoing rapid change with many high-rise projects being constructed. Downtown Bellevue is currently the second-largest city center in Washington state, with 1,300 businesses, 45,000 employees, and 10,200 residents. In a 2018 estimate, the city's median household income was among the top five cities in the state of Washington. In 2008, Bellevue was number one in CNNMoney's list of the best places to live and launch a business, and in 2010 was again ranked as the fourth-best place to live in America. In 2014, Bellevue was ranked as the second-best place to live by USA Today. More than 145 companies have been located in Bellevue; companies currently headquartered there include PACCAR Inc, T-Mobile US, and Valve. The technology company Amazon was founded in Bellevue by Jeff Bezos. History The Duwamish, whose main settlements were located in present-day Renton and Seattle, maintained a small outpost settlement called Satskal (SAH-tsah-kahl) along the Mercer Slough, south of present-day downtown Bellevue. It was from this village that an attack on the settlers of Elliott Bay was staged. The Duwamish also had a village near Factoria called 'pah-pah-DEEL'. Bellevue was first settled by European Americans in 1869 by William Meydenbauer and Aaron Mercer, who claimed homestead tracts several miles apart. Both moved away within a few years, and permanent residents did not arrive until 1879. By 1882, a community, consisting mostly of logging homesteaders, had established itself. Once the land had been logged, it was gradually cleared, largely by Japanese immigrant labor in the early 20th century, to support small-scale farming on leased land plots. By the early part of the 20th century, Bellevue had acquired a reputation as a weekend getaway destination for Seattle residents, who would arrive by ferry at Meydenbauer Bay and spend the day at nearby Wildwood Park. After the ferry landing was moved to Medina, however, tourism to Bellevue waned. To counter this decline, the Bellevue Strawberry Festival was conceived of in 1925, and by the 1930s it had grown to attract as many as 15,000 visitors. At the time, Bellevue was still a small town with around 2,000 residents. Prior to the opening of the Lake Washington Floating Bridge in 1940, Bellevue was mostly rural farmland area with little development. Although it was small, developers were pushing to change that; in the 1920s, James S. Ditty predicted that it would become a city with a population of 200,000. He envisioned plans that included the bridging of Lake Washington and an area filled with golf courses and airports. His map with these visions was published in 1928. Once the Murrow Memorial Bridge opened, access from Seattle improved, and the area began to evolve into a bedroom community. In 1942, the Bellevue Strawberry Festival was cancelled. The primary reason was that some 90 percent of the agricultural workforce in the area was of Japanese ancestry, and all of these farmers and their families had been forcibly interned in camps following the start of World War II. The fair would not be revived for another 45 years. Following the expulsion of the ethnic Japanese farming community, a large quantity of farmland became available for development. This made way for the initial development of the Bellevue downtown area. Bellevue incorporated as a third-class city on the March 31, 1953. Following the 1963 opening of a second bridge across the lake, the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge, the city began to grow more rapidly. The Crossroads community was annexed in 1964. Lake Hills was annexed in 1969. By the 1970 census, Bellevue had become the fourth most populous city in the state of Washington, behind only Seattle, Spokane, and Tacoma. Bellevue remains one of the largest cities in the state, with several high-rise structures in its core and a burgeoning business community. The city experienced a building boom during the mid-2000s, with the building of developments such as Lincoln Square and the Bravern. Bellevue Square is located in downtown Bellevue and is now one of the largest shopping centers in the region. Opened in 1946, the mall has undergone several significant phases of expansion since the 1980s.[citation needed] The city's plans include the Bel-Red Corridor Project, a large-scale planning effort to encourage the redevelopment of 900 acres (3.6 km2) in the large Bel-Red section of the city bordering the adjacent city of Redmond. The plan is similar to the redevelopment of the downtown core with superblocks of mixed-use projects from private developers.[citation needed] These include the Spring District, a mixed-use residential and commercial neighborhood which was developed on 36 acres (15 ha) of industrial land around a future light rail station. The 2 Line of Link light rail was opened from South Bellevue station to Redmond Technology station in April 2024, extension to Downtown Redmond opened in May 2025. The 2 Line is scheduled to be extended to Seattle in early 2026 over Lake Washington to join the 1 Line at Chinatown/ International District to Lynnwood City Center. Geography Bellevue lies between Lake Washington to the west and the smaller Lake Sammamish to the east. Much of Bellevue is drained by the Kelsey Creek watershed, whose source is located in the Larsen Lake and Phantom Lake green belt and whose outlet is near where Interstate 90 meets Lake Washington's eastern shore. The city is bisected by Interstate 405 running north–south, and the southern portion is crossed from west to east by Interstate 90. The State Route 520 freeway roughly delineates the upper reaches of Bellevue. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 37.505 square miles (97.14 km2), of which 33.468 square miles (86.68 km2) is land and 4.037 square miles (10.46 km2) is water. The city's name is derived from a French term for "beautiful view". Under favorable weather conditions, scenic vistas of the Olympic Mountains and Cascade Mountains can be viewed from hilltops (and strategically positioned high-rise buildings) within the incorporated city. South of I-90, the city continues up Cougar Mountain, at the top of which is an unincorporated King County location called Hilltop. To the west of Cougar Mountain, Bellevue includes the Coal Creek, Somerset, and Factoria neighborhoods. Bellevue is bordered by the cities of Kirkland to the north and Redmond to the northeast along the Overlake and Crossroads neighborhoods. Across the short East Channel Bridge, I-90 connects Bellevue to Mercer Island to the southwest. Issaquah is to the east, down I-90 at the south end of Lake Sammamish. The city is bordered to the west by many affluent suburbs such as Medina, Clyde Hill, Hunts Point and Yarrow Point. The south end of Bellevue is bordered by the relatively recently incorporated city of Newcastle, and the city of Renton. Neighborhoods within Bellevue include Bridle Trails, Cougar Mountain/Lakemont, Crossroads, Downtown, Eastgate/Factoria, Lake Hills, Newport, Northeast Bellevue, Northwest Bellevue, Somerset, West Bellevue, West Lake Sammamish, Wilburton/BelRed, and Woodridge. Like much of the Puget Sound lowland, Bellevue has a mild oceanic climate (Cfb). It also has frequent rain showers from October to May, with precipitation levels typically being over 2 inches (51 mm). On average, the hottest month is July, while January is the coldest. Bellevue gets an average of 32.02 inches (813 mm) of rain per year, based on data from 1981 to 2013. However, the city published an analysis of rainfall stating that 2016 saw an unusually high 47.14 inches (1,197 mm) of rainfall, and that rainfall in 2014–2016 was trending unusually high. The wet season of 2017, defined as the period from October through April, saw a similar rainfall of 47.26 inches (1,200 mm). Economy Bellevue is an economic hub of the Seattle region's Eastside and home to the headquarters of various sizes, including the U.S. operations for many international firms. Since 2005, the city has become a hub for software engineering and other technology development centers. These include PACCAR Inc, T-Mobile US, Eddie Bauer, SAP Concur, and Symetra. Bellevue hosts a number of satellite offices for large technology companies such as eBay, Meta, ByteDance, Oracle, Salesforce, Google, and Microsoft; Microsoft was at one point headquartered in Bellevue but has since moved to the neighboring community of Redmond, Washington. Celebrated video game companies Valve, Bungie, Sucker Punch Productions, and The Pokémon Company International are also based here. In 2019, Amazon and Facebook announced plans to open large engineering centers in Bellevue with plans to add several thousand employees. In 2018, Google also opened a major engineering facility in downtown Bellevue. As of 2020[update], there are several high-rise office buildings in Downtown Bellevue that are under construction or in active planning and design phases, including Bellevue 600, part of a major Amazon campus. Several high-rise residential buildings are also planned in downtown, spurred in part by future light rail service, on former retail and low-rise commercial lots. As of 2024[update], Amazon has 12,000 employees in Bellevue and has reduced its workforce in Seattle. By the late 2010s, Microsoft had become the largest employer in Bellevue, where it had several offices to supplement its headquarters campus in Redmond. The company's workforce in the city peaked at 9,300 in 2021 and later declined as it consolidated offices at its headquarters and vacated its leased offices pace in Downtown Bellevue and Eastgate. Other technology companies, including ByteDance and The Pokémon Company International, have since expanded their office leases in Downtown Bellevue. From 2021 to 2025, approximately 3.9 million square feet (360,000 m2) of office space was added in Bellevue to accommodate the growing demand that had shifted from Seattle. One of the major factors is the Seattle head tax, which charges employers based on their number of employees. According to the city's 2024 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, the largest employers in the city are: The city has numerous thriving commercial districts, with four major shopping centers: Bellevue Square in the downtown area, Factoria Mall to the south, Crossroads Mall to the east, and the Overlake Shopping District in the north. Demographics As of 2018, one in three Bellevue residents was born outside the United States, most likely due to the prevalence of multinational technology companies in the city. Around 23% of Bellevue's well-educated workforce are in engineering or science-related industries. About half of its residents identify as a person of color or ethnic minority. According to a 2018 estimate, the median income for a household in the city was $113,698. In a 2020 survey of Centers for Disease Control data, Bellevue was ranked first among small U.S. cities with the highest percentage of physically active adults, with 86 percent reporting that they exercise. In 2006, Bellevue was rated one of the 25 safest cities in America, based on the per-capita incidence of violent crime. As of the 2020 census, there were 151,854 people, 60,953 households, and 39,419 families residing in the city. The population density was 4,538.2 inhabitants per square mile (1,752.2/km2). There were 64,688 housing units. The racial makeup of the city was 44.7% White, 2.6% African American, 0.4% Native American, 40.6% Asian, 0.2% Pacific Islander, 3.4% from some other races and 8.1% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race were 7.3% of the population.[citation needed] 20.0% of residents were under the age of 18, 4.9% were under 5 years of age, and 14.6% were 65 and older.[citation needed] As of the 2010 census, there were 122,363 people, 50,355 households, and 32,145 families residing in the city. The population density was 3,827.7 inhabitants per square mile (1,477.9/km2). There were 55,551 housing units at an average density of 1,737.6 per square mile (670.9/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 62.6% White, 2.2% African American, 0.4% Native American, 27.6% Asian, 0.2% Pacific Islander, 3.1% from other races, and 3.9% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race were 7.0% of the population. There were 50,355 households, of which 30.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 52.9% were married couples living together, 7.6% had a female householder with no husband present, 3.3% had a male householder with no wife present, and 36.2% were non-families. 28.1% of all households were made up of individuals, and 8.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.41 and the average family size was 2.97. The median age in the city was 38.5 years. 21.2% of residents were under the age of 18; 7.6% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 30.8% were from 25 to 44; 26.5% were from 45 to 64; and 13.9% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 50.1% male and 49.9% female. Arts and culture Bellevue is the site of the annual Bellevue Arts and Crafts Fair (originally Pacific Northwest Arts and Crafts Fair), held since 1947 during the last weekend in July. The biennial Bellevue Sculpture Exhibition draws thousands of visitors to the Downtown Park to view up to 46 three-dimensional artworks from artists around the country. In celebration of its strawberry farming history, Bellevue holds an annual Strawberry Festival on the fourth weekend in June at Crossroads Park. The festival initially began in 1925, and continued to 1942 when many Bellevue's strawberry farmers were incarcerated as part of the Japanese Internment. In 1987 the festival was resumed as a one evening event, and in 2003 it was expanded back to a multi-day festival. Bellevue is host to the Northwest Ukrainian International Festival, founded in 2017 and one of the largest Ukrainian culture festivals in the United States. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, the Grand Kyiv Ballet has been based at the International Ballet Academy in Bellevue. The Bellevue Arts Museum first opened in 1975, then moved to Bellevue Square in 1983. In 2001, the museum moved into its own building, designed by Steven Holl. The museum subsequently ran into financial difficulties and was closed to the public in 2003. After a lengthy fundraising campaign, a remodel, and a new mission to become a national center for the fine art of craft and design, the museum reopened on June 18, 2005, with an exhibition of teapots. The Bellevue Arts Museum closed in September 2024 due to a lack of funding following the COVID-19 pandemic, which cancelled many of its events. It went into receivership and is planned to be either sold or merged with another organization. The Rosalie Whyel Museum of Doll Art, now closed, contained one of the largest doll collections in the world – more than a thousand dolls – displayed on two floors of a Victorian-style building, which is now the site of the KidsQuest Children's Museum. Near Interstate 405 is Meydenbauer Center, a convention center that brings corporate meetings and charity events to the downtown area. Meydenbauer also includes a 410-seat theater which attracts operas, ballets, and orchestral performances. The city government has planned to build a performing arts center, tentatively named the Tateuchi Center (named for philanthropist Ina Tateuchi), since the 1980s. It would include a 2,000-seat concert hall, offices, and creative spaces at a site in Downtown Bellevue. The $200 million project is partially funded with private donations and grants from the city and county governments. Since the 2010s, Bellevue has become a hub for Chinese cuisine, especially regional cuisines, with the opening of restaurants in downtown and the eastern neighborhoods of the city. T&T Supermarket, a Canadian chain that focuses on Chinese grocery goods, opened their first U.S. location in Factoria in 2024. Since the 1970s, the city has taken an active role in ensuring that its commercial development does not overwhelm its natural land and water resources. Today, the Bellevue Parks and Community Services Department manages more than 2,500 acres (10 km2) of parks and open spaces, including the Downtown Park and the Bellevue Botanical Garden, as well as several playgrounds, beach parks, and trails. More than 5,500 Bellevue residents participate in volunteer activities through this department annually. Bellevue was home to the American Basketball Association team, the Bellevue Blackhawks. The Blackhawks in 2005, despite being ranked 13th in the league, made it to the championship game in front of 15,000 fans in Little Rock, Arkansas. The team has been inactive since 2006. The city has a small baseball stadium, Bannerwood Park, that has a listed capacity of 700 spectators. The Seattle Redhawks of the Western Athletic Conference, an NCAA Division I baseball team, have played their home games in Bellevue since 2010. Government and politics Bellevue has a council-manager form of government with seven non-partisan council members elected at large for staggered four-year terms. The City Council selects a Mayor from among its members (not by popular vote), who serves as council chair for two years but has no veto power. As of 2026[update], the mayor is Mo Malakoutian and the deputy mayor is Dave Hamilton. The mayor administrates council meetings, helps set the issues on the council's meeting agendas, and serves as the city's most visible spokesperson. Operational authority is held by the city manager, who administers the city's day-to-day activities. The city manager is also elected by the seven members of the council instead of by popular vote. Politically, the city leans strongly Democratic,[citation needed] much like the Seattle/King County area as a whole.[citation needed] Of the 61,742 residents who cast ballots in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, 66.11% voted for Hillary Clinton, compared to 24.58% for Donald Trump.[failed verification] Education The vast majority of the city is served by the Bellevue School District. There are four main public high schools – Bellevue High School, Interlake High School, Newport High School, and Sammamish High School – as well as two choice lottery high schools, International School and Big Picture School. Newsweek's 2015 ranking of U.S. public high schools placed Interlake at #359 and Newport at #391, with both schools noted for equitably helping low-income students meet average scores on standardized tests. Portions of Bellevue also lie within the boundaries of Lake Washington School District, Renton School District and Issaquah School District. At the higher education level the city is home to Bellevue College, part of the Washington Community and Technical Colleges system. Bellevue is home to Open Window School, an independent school serving gifted students from kindergarten through eighth grade. The Jewish Day School of Metropolitan Seattle is located in Bellevue, serving students from Pre-Kindergarten to Grade 8. At the elementary level, Bellevue is home to several Montessori schools,[citation needed] the Eastside's only Waldorf education at Three Cedars School, as well as Bellevue Christian School. The Seattle Japanese School, a Japanese weekend supplementary school, holds its classes in Bellevue. Infrastructure Bellevue lies on Interstate 405, the main bypass route for north–south traffic east of Seattle, between its junctions with east–west freeways Interstate 90 and State Route 520. The freeways are connected to Seattle via floating bridges over Lake Washington. Downtown Bellevue has wide streets with few mid-block connections and an incomplete sidewalk network; it has been labeled as "pedestrian unfriendly" and hostile to cycling. The city government adopted plans to improve pedestrian and bicycle connections in 2009 and built the first downtown bicycle lane (including some protected sections) in 2018. The city had 42,000 on-street parking spaces in a 2013 inventory; plans to introduce fees for on-street parking spaces in some neighborhoods were announced in 2025. Bellevue is the main Eastside hub for both the local transit authority, King County Metro, and Sound Transit, the regional transit system. The Bellevue Transit Center, which serves both Metro and Sound buses, is located in the heart of the downtown business district and is connected to Interstate 405 by NE 6th St. and a direct-access Texas T HOV ramp. Local buses run into Kirkland, Redmond, Issaquah, Renton, and the University District; regional buses go to Bothell, Lynnwood, Everett, Seattle, Renton, Kent and Auburn, among other cities. An electric microtransit shuttle service operated by Circuit, Inc. began operating in August 2023; the app-based service is funded by the city's hotel room tax and fare-free for passengers. The 2 Line of Sound Transit's Link light rail system is planned to run from Seattle through Mercer Island and Bellevue before ending in Redmond. The $3.7 billion project was approved by voters in 2008 as part of the Sound Transit 2 ballot measure. It began construction in 2016 and was scheduled to begin service in 2023, but was later delayed to 2024 due to construction issues. The first section, from South Bellevue station to Redmond Technology station in Overlake, opened on April 27, 2024. The Bellevue City Council lobbied Sound Transit, the regional transit authority, to construct its light rail line underground through Bellevue's rapidly growing downtown. The city government promised to devote between $104 million and $150 million toward a potential tunnel in the form of cash, services, free access to rights-of-way and one-time tax revenues that result from the East Link project. In November 2011, the city council signed an agreement with Sound Transit. Tunnel construction started in early 2016 while the remainder of downtown Bellevue construction began in mid-2017. Bellevue was also served by a railroad, a Burlington Northern branch line known as the Woodinville Subdivision, which included the historic Wilburton Trestle. The line is now disused, though part of the track bed at Wilburton Station will be reused by Sound Transit's light-rail construction. Construction of Eastrail, a rail trail on the abandoned Woodinville Subdivision right of way through Bellevue, is planned to be completed in 2023. Some sections of the railroad in Bellevue were demolished in 2008 to make way for the expansion of I-405 and will require the construction of additional structures to supplement the existing right of way. The city once had an operating airfield named Bellevue Airfield, which shut down in 1983. Notable people Sister cities Bellevue has the following sister cities: See also References External links |
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayback_Machine] | [TOKENS: 4924] |
Contents Wayback Machine The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by the Internet Archive, an American nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, California. Launched for public access in 2001, the service allows users to go "back in time" to see how websites looked in the past. Founders Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat developed the Wayback Machine to provide "universal access to all knowledge" by preserving archived copies of defunct web pages. The name is a reference to the fictional time-traveling device of the same name from the animated cartoon The Bullwinkle Show from the 1960s. In a segment of the cartoon entitled "Peabody's Improbable History", the characters Mister Peabody and Sherman use the "Wayback Machine" to travel back in time to witness and participate in famous historical events. The Wayback Machine's earliest archives go back at least to 1995, and by the end of 2009, more than 38.2 billion webpages had been saved. As of October 2025[update], the Wayback Machine has archived more than 1 trillion web pages and well over 99 petabytes of data. History The Internet Archive has been archiving cached web pages since at least 1995. One of the earliest known pages was archived on May 8, 1995. Internet Archive founders Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat launched the Wayback Machine in San Francisco, California, in October 2001, primarily to address the problem of web content vanishing whenever it gets changed or when a website is shut down. The service enables users to see archived versions of web pages across time, which the archive calls a "three-dimensional index". Kahle and Gilliat created the machine hoping to archive the entire Internet and provide "universal access to all knowledge". From 1996 to 2001, the information was kept on digital tape, with Kahle occasionally allowing researchers and scientists to tap into the "clunky" database. When the archive reached its fifth anniversary in 2001, it was unveiled and opened to the public in a ceremony at the University of California, Berkeley. By the time the Wayback Machine launched, it already contained over 10 billion archived pages. The data is stored on the Internet Archive's large cluster of Linux nodes. It revisits and archives new versions of websites on occasion (see technical details below). Sites can also be captured manually by entering a website's URL into the search box, provided that the website allows the Wayback Machine to "crawl" it and save the data. The Internet Archive migrated its customized storage architecture to Sun Open Storage in 2009, and hosts a new data centre in a Sun Modular Datacenter on Sun Microsystems' California campus. A new, improved version of the Wayback Machine, with an updated interface and a fresher index of archived content, was made available for public testing in 2011, where captures appear in a calendar layout with circles whose width visualizes the number of crawls each day, but no marking of duplicates with asterisks or an advanced search page. A top toolbar was added to facilitate navigating between captures. A bar chart visualizes the frequency of captures per month over the years. Features like "Changes", "Summary", and a graphical site map were added subsequently. In October 2013, Wayback Machine introduced the "Save Page Now" feature, which allows any Internet user to archive the contents of a URL, and quickly generates a permanent link unlike the preceding liveweb feature. On October 30, 2020, the Wayback Machine began fact-checking content. As of January 2022, domains of ad servers are disabled from capturing. In May 2021, for Internet Archive's 25th anniversary, the Wayback Machine introduced the "Wayforward Machine", which allows users to "travel to the Internet in 2046, where knowledge is under siege". Trouble with archiving projects resulted in an 87 percent drop in page captures among news publications from May to October 2025. By February 2026, a number of news organizations, such as The Guardian and the New York Times, had started blocking the Wayback Machine due to concerns over AI scraping of captures. Technical information The Wayback Machine's software has been developed to "crawl" the Web and download all publicly accessible information and data files on webpages, the Gopher hierarchy, the Netnews (Usenet) bulletin board system, and software. The information collected by these 'crawlers' does not include all the content available on the Internet since much of the data is restricted by the publisher or stored in databases that are not accessible. To overcome inconsistencies in partially cached websites, Archive-It.org was developed in 2005 by the Internet Archive as a means of allowing institutions and content creators to voluntarily harvest and preserve collections of digital content and create digital archives. Crawls are contributed from various sources, some imported from third parties and others generated internally by the Archive. For example, content comes from crawls contributed by the Sloan Foundation and Alexa, crawls run by the Internet Archive on behalf of NARA and the Internet Memory Foundation, webpages archived by Archive Team, and mirrors of Common Crawl. The "Worldwide Web Crawls" have been running since 2010 and capture the global Web. In September 2020, the Internet Archive announced a partnership with Cloudflare – an American content delivery network service provider – to automatically index websites served via its "Always Online" services. Documents and resources are stored with time stamp URLs such as 20260221082643. Pages' individual resources, such as images, style sheets and scripts, as well as outgoing hyperlinks, are linked to with the time stamp of the currently viewed page, so they are redirected automatically to their individual captures that are the closest in time. The frequency of snapshot captures varies per website. Websites in the "Worldwide Web Crawls" are included in a "crawl list", with the site archived once per crawl. A crawl can take months or even years to complete, depending on size. For example, "Wide Crawl Number 13" started on January 9, 2015, and was completed on July 11, 2016. However, there may be multiple crawls ongoing at any one time, and a site might be included in more than one crawl list, so how often a site is crawled varies widely. Starting in October 2019, users were limited to 15 archival requests and retrievals per minute. As technology has developed over the years, the storage capacity of the Wayback Machine has grown. In 2003, after only two years of public access, the Wayback Machine was growing at a rate of 12 terabytes per month. The data is stored on PetaBox rack systems custom designed by Internet Archive staff. The first 100 TB rack became fully operational in June 2004, although it soon became clear that they would need much more storage than that. As of 2009[update], the Wayback Machine contained approximately three petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of 100 terabytes each month. In March that year, it was said on the Wayback Machine forum that "the Beta of the new Wayback Machine has a more complete and up-to-date index of all crawled materials into 2010, and will continue to be updated regularly. The index driving the classic Wayback Machine only has a little bit of material past 2008, and no further index updates are planned, as it will be phased out this year." Also in 2011, the Internet Archive installed their sixth pair of PetaBox racks which increased the Wayback Machine's storage capacity by 700 terabytes. In January 2013, Internet Archive announced a milestone of 240 billion URLs. In December 2014, the Wayback Machine contained 435 billion web pages—almost nine petabytes of data, and was growing at about 20 terabytes a week. In July 2016, the Wayback Machine reportedly contained around 15 petabytes of data. In October 2016, it was announced that the way web pages are counted would be changed, resulting in the decrease of the archived pages counts shown. Embedded objects such as pictures, videos, style sheets, JavaScripts are no longer counted as a "web page", whereas HTML, PDF, and plain text documents remain counted. In September 2018, the Wayback Machine contained over 25 petabytes of data. As of December 2020, the Wayback Machine contained over 70 petabytes of data. In 2025, Wayback Machine reached 1 trillion webpages archived, with a series of events being scheduled throughout October to celebrate it. The Wayback Machine service offers three public APIs, SavePageNow, Availability, and CDX. SavePageNow can be used to archive web pages. Availability API for checking the archive availability status for a web page, checking whether an archive for the web page exists or not. CDX API is for complex querying, filtering, and analysis of captured data. Historically, the Wayback Machine has respected the robots exclusion standard (robots.txt) in determining if a website would be crawled – or if already crawled, if its archives would be publicly viewable. Website owners had the option to opt out of Wayback Machine through the use of robots.txt. It applied robots.txt rules retroactively; if a site blocked the Internet Archive, any previously archived pages from the domain were immediately rendered unavailable as well. In addition, the Internet Archive stated that "Sometimes, a website owner will contact us directly and ask us to stop crawling or archiving a site. We comply with these requests." In addition, the website says: "The Internet Archive is not interested in preserving or offering access to Web sites or other internet documents of persons who do not want their materials in the collection." On April 17, 2017, reports surfaced of sites that had gone defunct and became parked domains that were using robots.txt to exclude themselves from search engines, resulting in them being inadvertently excluded from the Wayback Machine. Following this, the Internet Archive changed the policy to require an explicit exclusion request to remove sites from the Wayback Machine. Wayback's retroactive exclusion policy is based in part upon Recommendations for Managing Removal Requests and Preserving Archival Integrity, known as The Oakland Archive Policy, published by the School of Information Management and Systems at University of California, Berkeley in 2002, which gives a website owner the right to block access to the site's archives. Wayback has complied with this policy to help avoid expensive litigation. The Wayback retroactive exclusion policy began to relax in 2017, when it stopped honoring robots on U.S. government and military web sites for both crawling and displaying web pages. As of April 2017, Wayback is ignoring robots.txt more broadly, not just for U.S. government websites. Uses From its public launch in 2001, the Wayback Machine has been studied by scholars both for the ways it stores and collects data and for the actual pages contained in its archive. As of 2013, scholars had written about 350 articles on the Wayback Machine, mostly from the information technology, library science, and social science fields. Social science scholars have used the Wayback Machine to analyze how the development of websites from the mid-1990s to the present has affected the growth of companies. When the Wayback Machine archives a page, it usually includes most of the hyperlinks, keeping those links active when they just as easily could have been broken by the Internet's instability. Researchers in India studied the effectiveness of the Wayback Machine's ability to save hyperlinks in online scholarly publications and found that it saved slightly more than half of them. "Journalists use the Wayback Machine to view dead websites, dated news reports, and changes to website contents. Its content has been used to hold politicians accountable and expose battlefield lies." In 2014, an archived social media page of Igor Girkin, a separatist rebel leader in Ukraine, showed him boasting about his troops having shot down a suspected Ukrainian military airplane before it became known that the plane actually was a civilian Malaysian Airlines jet (Malaysia Airlines Flight 17), after which he deleted the post and blamed Ukraine's military for downing the plane. In 2017, the March for Science originated from a discussion on Reddit that indicated someone had visited Archive.org and discovered that all references to climate change had been deleted from the White House website. In response, a user commented, "There needs to be a Scientists' March on Washington". The site is used heavily for verification, providing access to references and content creation by Wikipedia editors. When new URLs are added to Wikipedia, the Internet Archive has been archiving them. In September 2020, a partnership was announced with Cloudflare to automatically archive websites served via its "Always Online" service, which will also allow it to direct users to its copy of the site if it cannot reach the original host. In 2014, there was a six-month lag time between when a website was crawled and when it became available for viewing in the Wayback Machine. As of 2024, the lag time is 3 to 10 hours. The Wayback Machine offers only limited search facilities. Its "Site Search" feature allows users to find a site based on words describing the site, rather than words found on the web pages themselves. The Wayback Machine does not include every web page ever made due to the various limitations of web crawling. The Wayback Machine cannot completely archive web pages that contain interactive features such as Flash platforms and forms written in JavaScript and progressive web applications, because those functions require interaction with the host website. This means that, since approximately July 9, 2013, the Wayback Machine has been unable to display YouTube comments when saving videos' watch pages, as, according to the Archive Team, comments are no longer "loaded within the page itself." The Wayback Machine's web crawler has difficulty extracting anything not coded in HTML or one of its variants, which can often result in broken hyperlinks and missing images. Due to this, the web crawler cannot archive "orphan pages" that are not linked to by other pages. The Wayback Machine's crawler only follows a predetermined number of hyperlinks based on a preset depth limit, so it cannot archive every hyperlink on every page. In a 2009 case, Netbula, LLC v. Chordiant Software Inc., defendant Chordiant filed a motion to compel Netbula to disable the robots.txt file on its website that was causing the Wayback Machine to retroactively remove access to previous versions of pages it had archived from Netbula's site, pages that Chordiant believed would support its case. Netbula objected to the motion on the ground that defendants were asking to alter Netbula's website and that they should have subpoenaed Internet Archive for the pages directly. An employee of Internet Archive filed a sworn statement supporting Chordiant's motion, however, stating that it could not produce the web pages by any other means "without considerable burden, expense and disruption to its operations." Magistrate Judge Howard Lloyd in the Northern District of California, San Jose Division, rejected Netbula's arguments and ordered them to disable the robots.txt blockage temporarily in order to allow Chordiant to retrieve the archived pages that they sought. In an October 2004 case, Telewizja Polska USA, Inc. v. Echostar Satellite, No. 02 C 3293, 65 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 673 (N.D. Ill. October 15, 2004), a litigant attempted to use the Wayback Machine archives as a source of admissible evidence, perhaps for the first time. Telewizja Polska is the provider of TVP Polonia and EchoStar operates the Dish Network. Prior to the trial proceedings, EchoStar indicated that it intended to offer Wayback Machine snapshots as proof of the past content of Telewizja Polska's website. Telewizja Polska brought a motion in limine to suppress the snapshots on the grounds of hearsay and unauthenticated source, but Magistrate Judge Arlander Keys rejected Telewizja Polska's assertion of hearsay and denied TVP's motion in limine to exclude the evidence at trial. At the trial, however, District Court Judge Ronald Guzman, the trial judge, overruled Magistrate Keys' findings, and held that neither the affidavit of the Internet Archive employee nor the underlying pages (i.e., the Telewizja Polska website) were admissible as evidence. Judge Guzman reasoned that the employee's affidavit contained both hearsay and inconclusive supporting statements, and the purported web page, printouts were not self-authenticating. The United States Patent and Trademark Office and the European Patent Office will accept date stamps from the Internet Archive as evidence of when a given Web page was accessible to the public. These dates are used to determine if a Web page is available as prior art for instance in examining a patent application. There are technical limitations to archiving a website, and as a consequence, opposing parties in litigation can misuse the results provided by website archives. This problem can be exacerbated by the practice of submitting screenshots of web pages in complaints, answers, or expert witness reports when the underlying links are not exposed and therefore, can contain errors. For example, archives such as the Wayback Machine do not fill out forms and therefore, do not include the contents of non-RESTful e-commerce databases in their archives. Legal status In Europe, the Wayback Machine could be interpreted as violating copyright laws. Only the content creator can decide where their content is published or duplicated so the Archive would have to delete pages from its system upon request of the creator. The exclusion policies for the Wayback Machine may be found in the FAQ section of the site. Some cases have been brought against the Internet Archive specifically for its Wayback Machine archiving efforts. Archived content legal issues In late 2002, the Internet Archive removed various sites that were critical of Scientology from the Wayback Machine. An error message stated that this was in response to a "request by the site owner". Later, it was clarified that lawyers from the Church of Scientology had demanded the removal and that the site owners did not want their material removed. In 2003, Harding Earley Follmer & Frailey defended a client from a trademark dispute using the Archive's Wayback Machine. The attorneys were able to demonstrate that the claims made by the plaintiff were invalid, based on the content of their website from several years prior. The plaintiff, Healthcare Advocates, then amended their complaint to include the Internet Archive, accusing the organization of copyright infringement as well as violations of the DMCA and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Healthcare Advocates claimed that, since they had installed a robots.txt file on their website, even if after the initial lawsuit was filed, the Archive should have removed all previous copies of the plaintiff website from the Wayback Machine; however, some material continued to be publicly visible on Wayback. The lawsuit was settled out of court after Wayback fixed the problem. Activist Suzanne Shell filed suit in December 2005, demanding Internet Archive pay her US$100,000 for archiving her website profane-justice.org between 1999 and 2004. Internet Archive filed a declaratory judgment action in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California on January 20, 2006, seeking a judicial determination that Internet Archive did not violate Shell's copyright. Shell responded and brought a countersuit against Internet Archive for archiving her site, which she alleges is in violation of her terms of service. On February 13, 2007, a judge for the United States District Court for the District of Colorado dismissed all counterclaims except breach of contract. The Internet Archive did not move to dismiss the copyright infringement claims that Shell asserted arose out of its copying activities, which would also go forward. On April 25, 2007, Internet Archive and Suzanne Shell jointly announced the settlement of their lawsuit. The Internet Archive said it "...has no interest in including materials in the Wayback Machine of persons who do not wish to have their Web content archived. We recognize that Ms. Shell has a valid and enforceable copyright in her Web site and we regret that the inclusion of her Web site in the Wayback Machine resulted in this litigation." Shell said, "I respect the historical value of Internet Archive's goal. I never intended to interfere with that goal nor cause it any harm." Between 2013 and 2016, Daniel Davydiuk, a pornographic actor, tried to remove archived images of himself from the Wayback Machine's archive, first by sending multiple DMCA requests to the archive, and then by appealing to the Federal Court of Canada. The images were removed from the website in 2017. In 2018, archives of stalkerware application FlexiSpy's website were removed from the Wayback Machine. The company claimed to have contacted the Internet Archive, presumably to remove the archives of its website. Censorship and other threats Archive.org is blocked in China. The Internet Archive was blocked in its entirety in Russia in 2015–16, ostensibly for hosting a Jihad outreach video. Since 2016, the website has been back, available in its entirety, although in 2016 Russian commercial lobbyists were suing the Internet Archive to ban it on copyright grounds. In March 2015, it was published that security researchers became aware of the threat posed by the service's unintentional hosting of malicious binaries from archived sites. Alison Macrina, director of the Library Freedom Project, notes that "while librarians deeply value individual privacy, we also strongly oppose censorship". There is at least one case in which an article was removed from the archive shortly after it had been removed from its original website. A Daily Beast reporter had written an article that outed several gay Olympian athletes in 2016 after the reporter had made a fake profile posing as a gay man on a dating app. The Daily Beast removed the article after it was met with widespread furor; not long after, the Internet Archive soon did as well, and stated that they did so for no other reason than to protect the safety of the outed athletes. Other threats include natural disasters, destruction (both remote and physical), manipulation of the archive's contents, problematic copyright laws, and surveillance of the site's users. Alexander Rose, executive director of the Long Now Foundation, suspects that in the long term of multiple generations "next to nothing" will survive in a useful way, stating, "If we have continuity in our technological civilization, I suspect a lot of the bare data will remain findable and searchable. But I suspect almost nothing of the format in which it was delivered will be recognizable" because sites "with deep back-ends of content-management systems like Drupal and Ruby and Django" are harder to archive. In 2016, in an article reflecting on the preservation of human knowledge, The Atlantic has commented that the Internet Archive, which describes itself to be built for the long-term, "is working furiously to capture data before it disappears without any long-term infrastructure to speak of." In September 2024, the Internet Archive suffered a data breach that exposed 31 million records containing personal information, including email addresses and hashed passwords. On October 9, 2024, the site went down due to a distributed denial-of-service attack. On October 14, the site returned online, but it remained in read-only mode until November 4, during which time "Save Page Now" was disabled, replaced with a "Temporarily Unavailable" banner. In November 2025, the Internet Archive displayed a "temporarily offline" message that directed people to social media for updates following a massive internet-wide disruption involving Cloudflare on November 18, 2025. See also References External links |
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Contents Minecraft Minecraft is a sandbox game developed and published by Mojang Studios. Following its initial public alpha release in 2009, it was formally released in 2011 for personal computers. The game has since been ported to numerous platforms, including mobile devices and various video game consoles. In Minecraft, players explore a procedurally generated world with virtually infinite terrain made up of voxels (cubes). They can discover and extract raw materials, craft tools and items, build structures, fight hostile mobs, and cooperate with or compete against other players in multiplayer. The game's large community offers a wide variety of user-generated content, such as modifications, servers, player skins, texture packs, and custom maps, which add new game mechanics and possibilities. Originally created by Markus "Notch" Persson using the Java programming language, Jens "Jeb" Bergensten was handed control over the game's development following its full release. In 2014, Mojang and the Minecraft intellectual property were purchased by Microsoft for US$2.5 billion; Xbox Game Studios hold the publishing rights for the Bedrock Edition, the unified cross-platform version which evolved from the Pocket Edition codebase[i] and replaced the legacy console versions. Bedrock is updated concurrently with Mojang's original Java Edition, although with numerous, generally small, differences. Minecraft is the best-selling video game in history with over 350 million copies sold. It has received critical acclaim, winning several awards and being cited as one of the greatest video games of all time. Social media, parodies, adaptations, merchandise, and the annual Minecon conventions have played prominent roles in popularizing it. The wider Minecraft franchise includes several spin-off games, such as Minecraft: Story Mode, Minecraft Dungeons, and Minecraft Legends. A film adaptation, titled A Minecraft Movie, was released in 2025 and became the second highest-grossing video game film of all time. Gameplay Minecraft is a 3D sandbox video game that has no required goals to accomplish, giving players a large amount of freedom in choosing how to play the game. The game features an optional achievement system. Gameplay is in the first-person perspective by default, but players have the option of third-person perspectives. The game world is composed of rough 3D objects—mainly cubes, referred to as blocks—representing various materials, such as dirt, stone, ores, tree trunks, water, and lava. The core gameplay revolves around picking up and placing these objects. These blocks are arranged in a voxel grid, while players can move freely around the world. Players can break, or mine, blocks and then place them elsewhere, enabling them to build things. Very few blocks are affected by gravity, instead maintaining their voxel position in the air. Players can also craft a wide variety of items, such as armor, which mitigates damage from attacks; weapons (such as swords or bows and arrows), which allow monsters and animals to be killed more easily; and tools (such as pickaxes or shovels), which break certain types of blocks more quickly. Some items have multiple tiers depending on the material used to craft them, with higher-tier items being more effective and durable. They may also freely craft helpful blocks—such as furnaces which can cook food and smelt ores, and torches that produce light—or exchange items with villagers (NPC) through trading emeralds for different goods and vice versa. The game has an inventory system, allowing players to carry a limited number of items. The in-game time system follows a day and night cycle, with one full cycle lasting for 20 real-time minutes. The game also contains a material called redstone, which can be used to make primitive mechanical devices, electrical circuits, and logic gates, allowing for the construction of many complex systems. New players are given a randomly selected default character skin out of nine possibilities, including Steve or Alex, but are able to create and upload their own skins. Players encounter various mobs (short for mobile entities) including animals, villagers, and hostile creatures. Passive mobs, such as cows, pigs, and chickens, spawn during the daytime and can be hunted for food and crafting materials, while hostile mobs—including large spiders, witches, skeletons, and zombies—spawn during nighttime or in dark places such as caves. Some hostile mobs, such as zombies and skeletons, burn under the sun if they have no headgear and are not standing in water. Other creatures unique to Minecraft include the creeper (an exploding creature that sneaks up on the player) and the enderman (a creature with the ability to teleport as well as pick up and place blocks). There are also variants of mobs that spawn in different conditions; for example, zombies have husk and drowned variants that spawn in deserts and oceans, respectively. The Minecraft environment is procedurally generated as players explore it using a map seed that is randomly chosen at the time of world creation (or manually specified by the player). Divided into biomes representing different environments with unique resources and structures, worlds are designed to be effectively infinite in traditional gameplay, though technical limits on the player have existed throughout development, both intentionally and not. Implementation of horizontally infinite generation initially resulted in a glitch termed the "Far Lands" at over 12 million blocks away from the world center, where terrain generated as wall-like, fissured patterns. The Far Lands and associated glitches were considered the effective edge of the world until they were resolved, with the current horizontal limit instead being a special impassable barrier called the world border, located 30 million blocks away. Vertical space is comparatively limited, with an unbreakable bedrock layer at the bottom and a building limit several hundred blocks into the sky. Minecraft features three independent dimensions accessible through portals and providing alternate game environments. The Overworld is the starting dimension and represents the real world, with a terrestrial surface setting including plains, mountains, forests, oceans, caves, and small sources of lava. The Nether is a hell-like underworld dimension accessed via an obsidian portal and composed mainly of lava. Mobs that populate the Nether include shrieking, fireball-shooting ghasts, alongside anthropomorphic pigs called piglins and their zombified counterparts. Piglins in particular have a bartering system, where players can give them gold ingots and receive items in return. Structures known as Nether Fortresses generate in the Nether, containing mobs such as wither skeletons and blazes, which can drop blaze rods needed to access the End dimension. The player can also choose to build an optional boss mob known as the Wither, using skulls obtained from wither skeletons and soul sand. The End can be reached through an end portal, consisting of twelve end portal frames. End portals are found in underground structures in the Overworld known as strongholds. To find strongholds, players must craft eyes of ender using an ender pearl and blaze powder. Eyes of ender can then be thrown, traveling in the direction of the stronghold. Once the player reaches the stronghold, they can place eyes of ender into each portal frame to activate the end portal. The dimension consists of islands floating in a dark, bottomless void. A boss enemy called the Ender Dragon guards the largest, central island. Killing the dragon opens access to an exit portal, which, when entered, cues the game's ending credits and the End Poem, a roughly 1,500-word work written by Irish novelist Julian Gough, which takes about nine minutes to scroll past, is the game's only narrative text, and the only text of significant length directed at the player.: 10–12 At the conclusion of the credits, the player is teleported back to their respawn point and may continue the game indefinitely. In Survival mode, players have to gather natural resources such as wood and stone found in the environment in order to craft certain blocks and items. Depending on the difficulty, monsters spawn in darker areas outside a certain radius of the character, requiring players to build a shelter in order to survive at night. The mode also has a health bar which is depleted by attacks from mobs, falls, drowning, falling into lava, suffocation, starvation, and other events. Players also have a hunger bar, which must be periodically refilled by eating food in-game unless the player is playing on peaceful difficulty. If the hunger bar is empty, the player starves. Health replenishes when players have a full hunger bar or continuously on peaceful. Upon losing all health, players die. The items in the players' inventories are dropped unless the game is reconfigured not to do so. Players then re-spawn at their spawn point, which by default is where players first spawn in the game and can be changed by sleeping in a bed or using a respawn anchor. Dropped items can be recovered if players can reach them before they despawn after 5 minutes. Players may acquire experience points (commonly referred to as "xp" or "exp") by killing mobs and other players, mining, smelting ores, animal breeding, and cooking food. Experience can then be spent on enchanting tools, armor and weapons. Enchanted items are generally more powerful, last longer, or have other special effects. The game features two more game modes based on Survival, known as Hardcore mode and Adventure mode. Hardcore mode plays identically to Survival mode, but with the game's difficulty setting locked to "Hard" and with permadeath, forcing them to delete the world or explore it as a spectator after dying. Adventure mode was added to the game in a post-launch update, and prevents the player from directly modifying the game's world. It was designed primarily for use in custom maps, allowing map designers to let players experience it as intended. In Creative mode, players have access to an infinite number of all resources and items in the game through the inventory menu and can place or mine them instantly. Players can toggle the ability to fly freely around the game world at will, and their characters usually do not take any damage nor are affected by hunger. The game mode helps players focus on building and creating projects of any size without disturbance. Multiplayer in Minecraft enables multiple players to interact and communicate with each other on a single world. It is available through direct game-to-game multiplayer, local area network (LAN) play, local split screen (console-only), and servers (player-hosted and business-hosted). Players can run their own server by making a realm, using a host provider, hosting one themselves or connect directly to another player's game via Xbox Live, PlayStation Network or Nintendo Switch Online. Single-player worlds have LAN support, allowing players to join a world on locally interconnected computers without a server setup. Minecraft multiplayer servers are guided by server operators, who have access to server commands such as setting the time of day and teleporting players. Operators can also set up restrictions concerning which usernames or IP addresses are allowed or disallowed to enter the server. Multiplayer servers have a wide range of activities, with some servers having their own unique rules and customs. The largest and most popular server is Hypixel, which has been visited by over 14 million unique players. Player versus player combat (PvP) can be enabled to allow fighting between players. In 2013, Mojang announced Minecraft Realms, a server hosting service intended to enable players to run server multiplayer games easily and safely without having to set up their own. Unlike a standard server, only invited players can join Realms servers, and these servers do not use server addresses. Minecraft: Java Edition Realms server owners can invite up to twenty people to play on their server, with up to ten players online at a time. Minecraft Realms server owners can invite up to 3,000 people to play on their server, with up to ten players online at one time. The Minecraft: Java Edition Realms servers do not support user-made plugins, but players can play custom Minecraft maps. Minecraft Bedrock Realms servers support user-made add-ons, resource packs, behavior packs, and custom Minecraft maps. At Electronic Entertainment Expo 2016, support for cross-platform play between Windows 10, iOS, and Android platforms was added through Realms starting in June 2016, with Xbox One and Nintendo Switch support to come later in 2017, and support for virtual reality devices. On 31 July 2017, Mojang released the beta version of the update allowing cross-platform play. Nintendo Switch support for Realms was released in July 2018. The modding community consists of fans, users and third-party programmers. Using a variety of application program interfaces that have arisen over time, they have produced a wide variety of downloadable content for Minecraft, such as modifications, texture packs and custom maps. Modifications of the Minecraft code, called mods, add a variety of gameplay changes, ranging from new blocks, items, and mobs to entire arrays of mechanisms. The modding community is responsible for a substantial supply of mods from ones that enhance gameplay, such as mini-maps, waypoints, and durability counters, to ones that add to the game elements from other video games and media. While a variety of mod frameworks were independently developed by reverse engineering the code, Mojang has also enhanced vanilla Minecraft with official frameworks for modification, allowing the production of community-created resource packs, which alter certain game elements including textures and sounds. Players can also create their own "maps" (custom world save files) that often contain specific rules, challenges, puzzles and quests, and share them for others to play. Mojang added an adventure mode in August 2012 and "command blocks" in October 2012, which were created specially for custom maps in Java Edition. Data packs, introduced in version 1.13 of the Java Edition, allow further customization, including the ability to add new achievements, dimensions, functions, loot tables, predicates, recipes, structures, tags, and world generation. The Xbox 360 Edition supported downloadable content, which was available to purchase via the Xbox Games Store; these content packs usually contained additional character skins. It later received support for texture packs in its twelfth title update while introducing "mash-up packs", which combined texture packs with skin packs and changes to the game's sounds, music and user interface. The first mash-up pack (and by extension, the first texture pack) for the Xbox 360 Edition was released on 4 September 2013, and was themed after the Mass Effect franchise. Unlike Java Edition, however, the Xbox 360 Edition did not support player-made mods or custom maps. A cross-promotional resource pack based on the Super Mario franchise by Nintendo was released exclusively for the Wii U Edition worldwide on 17 May 2016, and later bundled free with the Nintendo Switch Edition at launch. Another based on Fallout was released on consoles that December, and for Windows and Mobile in April 2017. In April 2018, malware was discovered in several downloadable user-made Minecraft skins for use with the Java Edition of the game. Avast stated that nearly 50,000 accounts were infected, and when activated, the malware would attempt to reformat the user's hard drive. Mojang promptly patched the issue, and released a statement stating that "the code would not be run or read by the game itself", and would run only when the image containing the skin itself was opened. In June 2017, Mojang released the "1.1 Discovery Update" to the Pocket Edition of the game, which later became the Bedrock Edition. The update introduced the "Marketplace", a catalogue of purchasable user-generated content intended to give Minecraft creators "another way to make a living from the game". Various skins, maps, texture packs and add-ons from different creators can be bought with "Minecoins", a digital currency that is purchased with real money. Additionally, users can access specific content with a subscription service titled "Marketplace Pass". Alongside content from independent creators, the Marketplace also houses items published by Mojang and Microsoft themselves, as well as official collaborations between Minecraft and other intellectual properties. By 2022, the Marketplace had over 1.7 billion content downloads, generating over $500 million in revenue. Development Before creating Minecraft, Markus "Notch" Persson was a game developer at King, where he worked until March 2009. At King, he primarily developed browser games and learned several programming languages. During his free time, he prototyped his own games, often drawing inspiration from other titles, and was an active participant on the TIGSource forums for independent developers. One such project was "RubyDung", a base-building game inspired by Dwarf Fortress, but with an isometric, three-dimensional perspective similar to RollerCoaster Tycoon. Among the features in RubyDung that he explored was a first-person view similar to Dungeon Keeper, though he ultimately discarded this idea, feeling the graphics were too pixelated at the time. Around March 2009, Persson left King and joined jAlbum, while continuing to work on his prototypes. Infiniminer, a block-based open-ended mining game first released in April 2009, inspired Persson's vision for RubyDung's future direction. Infiniminer heavily influenced the visual style of gameplay, including bringing back the first-person mode, the "blocky" visual style and the block-building fundamentals. However, unlike Infiniminer, Persson wanted Minecraft to have RPG elements. The first public alpha build of Minecraft was released on 17 May 2009 on TIGSource. Over the years, Persson regularly released test builds that added new features, including tools, mobs, and entire new dimensions. In 2011, partly due to the game's rising popularity, Persson decided to release a full 1.0 version—a second part of the "Adventure Update"—on 18 November 2011. Shortly after, Persson stepped down from development, handing the project's lead to Jens "Jeb" Bergensten. On 15 September 2014, Microsoft, the developer behind the Microsoft Windows operating system and Xbox video game console, announced a $2.5 billion acquisition of Mojang, which included the Minecraft intellectual property. Persson had suggested the deal on Twitter, asking a corporation to buy his stake in the game after receiving criticism for enforcing terms in the game's end-user license agreement (EULA), which had been in place for the past three years. According to Persson, Mojang CEO Carl Manneh received a call from a Microsoft executive shortly after the tweet, asking if Persson was serious about a deal. Mojang was also approached by other companies including Activision Blizzard and Electronic Arts. The deal with Microsoft was arbitrated on 6 November 2014 and led to Persson becoming one of Forbes' "World's Billionaires". After 2014, Minecraft's primary versions received usually annual major updates—free to players who have purchased the game— each primarily centered around a specific theme. For instance, version 1.13, the Update Aquatic, focused on ocean-related features, while version 1.16, the Nether Update, introduced significant changes to the Nether dimension. However, in late 2024, Mojang announced a shift in their update strategy; rather than releasing large updates annually, they opted for a more frequent release schedule with smaller, incremental updates, stating, "We know that you want new Minecraft content more often." The Bedrock Edition has also received regular updates, now matching the themes of the Java Edition updates. Other versions of the game, such as various console editions and the Pocket Edition, were either merged into Bedrock or discontinued and have not received further updates. On 7 May 2019, coinciding with Minecraft's 10th anniversary, a JavaScript recreation of an old 2009 Java Edition build named Minecraft Classic was made available to play online for free. On 16 April 2020, a Bedrock Edition-exclusive beta version of Minecraft, called Minecraft RTX, was released by Nvidia. It introduced physically-based rendering, real-time path tracing, and DLSS for RTX-enabled GPUs. The public release was made available on 8 December 2020. Path tracing can only be enabled in supported worlds, which can be downloaded for free via the in-game Minecraft Marketplace, with a texture pack from Nvidia's website, or with compatible third-party texture packs. It cannot be enabled by default with any texture pack on any world. Initially, Minecraft RTX was affected by many bugs, display errors, and instability issues. On 22 March 2025, a new visual mode called Vibrant Visuals, an optional graphical overhaul similar to Minecraft RTX, was announced. It promises modern rendering features—such as dynamic shadows, screen space reflections, volumetric fog, and bloom—without the need of RTX-capable hardware. Vibrant Visuals was released as a part of the Chase the Skies update on 17 June 2025 for Bedrock Edition and is planned to release on Java Edition at a later date. Development began for the original edition of Minecraft—then known as Cave Game, and now known as the Java Edition—in May 2009,[k] and ended on 13 May, when Persson released a test video on YouTube of an early version of the game, dubbed the "Cave game tech test" or the "Cave game tech demo". The game was named Minecraft: Order of the Stone the next day, after a suggestion made by a player. "Order of the Stone" came from the webcomic The Order of the Stick, and "Minecraft" was chosen "because it's a good name". The title was later shortened to just Minecraft, omitting the subtitle. Persson completed the game's base programming over a weekend in May 2009, and private testing began on TigIRC on 16 May. The first public release followed on 17 May 2009 as a developmental version shared on the TIGSource forums. Based on feedback from forum users, Persson continued updating the game. This initial public build later became known as Classic. Further developmental phases—dubbed Survival Test, Indev, and Infdev—were released throughout 2009 and 2010. The first major update, known as Alpha, was released on 30 June 2010. At the time, Persson was still working a day job at jAlbum but later resigned to focus on Minecraft full-time as sales of the alpha version surged. Updates were distributed automatically, introducing new blocks, items, mobs, and changes to game mechanics such as water flow. With revenue generated from the game, Persson founded Mojang, a video game studio, alongside former colleagues Jakob Porser and Carl Manneh. On 11 December 2010, Persson announced that Minecraft would enter its beta phase on 20 December. He assured players that bug fixes and all pre-release updates would remain free. As development progressed, Mojang expanded, hiring additional employees to work on the project. The game officially exited beta and launched in full on 18 November 2011. On 1 December 2011, Jens "Jeb" Bergensten took full creative control over Minecraft, replacing Persson as lead designer. On 28 February 2012, Mojang announced the hiring of the developers behind Bukkit, a popular developer API for Minecraft servers, to improve Minecraft's support of server modifications. This move included Mojang taking apparent ownership of the CraftBukkit server mod, though this apparent acquisition later became controversial, and its legitimacy was questioned due to CraftBukkit's open-source nature and licensing under the GNU General Public License and Lesser General Public License. In August 2011, Minecraft: Pocket Edition was released as an early alpha for the Xperia Play via the Android Market, later expanding to other Android devices on 8 October 2011. The iOS version followed on 17 November 2011. A port was made available for Windows Phones shortly after Microsoft acquired Mojang. Unlike Java Edition, Pocket Edition initially focused on Minecraft's creative building and basic survival elements but lacked many features of the PC version. Bergensten confirmed on Twitter that the Pocket Edition was written in C++ rather than Java, as iOS does not support Java. On 10 December 2014, a port of Pocket Edition was released for Windows Phone 8.1. In July 2015, a port of the Pocket Edition to Windows 10 was released as the Windows 10 Edition, with full crossplay to other Pocket versions. In January 2017, Microsoft announced that it would no longer maintain the Windows Phone versions of Pocket Edition. On 20 September 2017, with the "Better Together Update", the Pocket Edition was ported to the Xbox One, and was renamed to the Bedrock Edition. The console versions of Minecraft debuted with the Xbox 360 edition, developed by 4J Studios and released on 9 May 2012. Announced as part of the Xbox Live Arcade NEXT promotion, this version introduced a redesigned crafting system, a new control interface, in-game tutorials, split-screen multiplayer, and online play via Xbox Live. Unlike the PC version, its worlds were finite, bordered by invisible walls. Initially, the Xbox 360 version resembled outdated PC versions but received updates to bring it closer to Java Edition before eventually being discontinued. The Xbox One version launched on 5 September 2014, featuring larger worlds and support for more players. Minecraft expanded to PlayStation platforms with PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 editions released on 17 December 2013 and 4 September 2014, respectively. Originally planned as a PS4 launch title, it was delayed before its eventual release. A PlayStation Vita version followed in October 2014. Like the Xbox versions, the PlayStation editions were developed by 4J Studios. Nintendo platforms received Minecraft: Wii U Edition on 17 December 2015, with a physical release in North America on 17 June 2016 and in Europe on 30 June. The Nintendo Switch version launched via the eShop on 11 May 2017. During a Nintendo Direct presentation on 13 September 2017, Nintendo announced that Minecraft: New Nintendo 3DS Edition, based on the Pocket Edition, would be available for download immediately after the livestream, and a physical copy available on a later date. The game is compatible only with the New Nintendo 3DS or New Nintendo 2DS XL systems and does not work with the original 3DS or 2DS systems. On 20 September 2017, the Better Together Update introduced Bedrock Edition across Xbox One, Windows 10, VR, and mobile platforms, enabling cross-play between these versions. Bedrock Edition later expanded to Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4, with the latter receiving the update in December 2019, allowing cross-platform play for users with a free Xbox Live account. The Bedrock Edition released a native version for PlayStation 5 on 22 October 2024, while the Xbox Series X/S version launched on 17 June 2025. On 18 December 2018, the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Xbox 360, and Wii U versions of Minecraft received their final update and would later become known as "Legacy Console Editions". On 15 January 2019, the New Nintendo 3DS version of Minecraft received its final update, effectively becoming discontinued as well. An educational version of Minecraft, designed for use in schools, launched on 1 November 2016. It is available on Android, ChromeOS, iPadOS, iOS, MacOS, and Windows. On 20 August 2018, Mojang announced that it would bring Education Edition to iPadOS in Autumn 2018. It was released to the App Store on 6 September 2018. On 27 March 2019, it was announced that it would be operated by JD.com in China. On 26 June 2020, a public beta for the Education Edition was made available to Google Play Store compatible Chromebooks. The full game was released to the Google Play Store for Chromebooks on 7 August 2020. On 20 May 2016, China Edition (also known as My World) was announced as a localized edition for China, where it was released under a licensing agreement between NetEase and Mojang. The PC edition was released for public testing on 8 August 2017. The iOS version was released on 15 September 2017, and the Android version was released on 12 October 2017. The PC edition is based on the original Java Edition, while the iOS and Android mobile versions are based on the Bedrock Edition. The edition is free-to-play and had over 700 million registered accounts by September 2023. This version of Bedrock Edition is exclusive to Microsoft's Windows 10 and Windows 11 operating systems. The beta release for Windows 10 launched on the Windows Store on 29 July 2015. After nearly a year and a half in beta, Microsoft fully released the version on 19 December 2016. Called the "Ender Update", this release implemented new features to this version of Minecraft like world templates and add-on packs. On 7 June 2022, the Java and Bedrock Editions of Minecraft were merged into a single bundle for purchase on Windows; those who owned one version would automatically gain access to the other version. Both game versions would otherwise remain separate. Around 2011, prior to Minecraft's full release, Mojang collaborated with The Lego Group to create a Lego brick-based Minecraft game called Brickcraft. This would have modified the base Minecraft game to use Lego bricks, which meant adapting the basic 1×1 block to account for larger pieces typically used in Lego sets. Persson worked on an early version called "Project Rex Kwon Do", named after the character of the same name from the film Napoleon Dynamite. Although Lego approved the project and Mojang assigned two developers for six months, it was canceled due to the Lego Group's demands, according to Mojang's Daniel Kaplan. Lego considered buying Mojang to complete the game, but when Microsoft offered over $2 billion for the company, Lego stepped back, unsure of Minecraft's potential. On 26 June 2025, a build of Brickcraft dated 28 June 2012 was published on a community archive website Omniarchive. Initially, Markus Persson planned to support the Oculus Rift with a Minecraft port. However, after Facebook acquired Oculus in 2013, he abruptly canceled the plans, stating, "Facebook creeps me out." In 2016, a community-made mod, Minecraft VR, added VR support for Java Edition, followed by Vivecraft for HTC Vive. Later that year, Microsoft introduced official Oculus Rift support for Windows 10 Edition, leading to the discontinuation of the Minecraft VR mod due to trademark complaints. Vivecraft was endorsed by Minecraft VR contributors for its Rift support. Also available is a Gear VR version, titled Minecraft: Gear VR Edition. Windows Mixed Reality support was added in 2017. On 7 September 2020, Mojang Studios announced that the PlayStation 4 Bedrock version would receive PlayStation VR support later that month. In September 2024, the Minecraft team announced they would no longer support PlayStation VR, which received its final update in March 2025. Music and sound design Minecraft's music and sound effects were produced by German musician Daniel Rosenfeld, better known as C418. To create the sound effects for the game, Rosenfeld made extensive use of Foley techniques. On learning the processes for the game, he remarked, "Foley's an interesting thing, and I had to learn its subtleties. Early on, I wasn't that knowledgeable about it. It's a whole trial-and-error process. You just make a sound and eventually you go, 'Oh my God, that's it! Get the microphone!' There's no set way of doing anything at all." He reminisced on creating the in-game sound for grass blocks, stating "It turns out that to make grass sounds you don't actually walk on grass and record it, because grass sounds like nothing. What you want to do is get a VHS, break it apart, and just lightly touch the tape." According to Rosenfeld, his favorite sound to design for the game was the hisses of spiders. He elaborates, "I like the spiders. Recording that was a whole day of me researching what a spider sounds like. Turns out, there are spiders that make little screeching sounds, so I think I got this recording of a fire hose, put it in a sampler, and just pitched it around until it sounded like a weird spider was talking to you." Many of the sound design decisions by Rosenfeld were done accidentally or spontaneously. The creeper notably lacks any specific noises apart from a loud fuse-like sound when about to explode; Rosenfeld later recalled "That was just a complete accident by Markus and me [sic]. We just put in a placeholder sound of burning a matchstick. It seemed to work hilariously well, so we kept it." On other sounds, such as those of the zombie, Rosenfeld remarked, "I actually never wanted the zombies so scary. I intentionally made them sound comical. It's nice to hear that they work so well [...]." Rosenfeld remarked that the sound engine was "terrible" to work with, remembering "If you had two song files at once, it [the game engine] would actually crash. There were so many more weird glitches like that the guys never really fixed because they were too busy with the actual game and not the sound engine." The background music in Minecraft consists of instrumental ambient music. To compose the music of Minecraft, Rosenfeld used the package from Ableton Live, along with several additional plug-ins. Speaking on them, Rosenfeld said "They can be pretty much everything from an effect to an entire orchestra. Additionally, I've got some synthesizers that are attached to the computer. Like a Moog Voyager, Dave Smith Prophet 08 and a Virus TI." On 4 March 2011, Rosenfeld released a soundtrack titled Minecraft – Volume Alpha; it includes most of the tracks featured in Minecraft, as well as other music not featured in the game. Kirk Hamilton of Kotaku chose the music in Minecraft as one of the best video game soundtracks of 2011. On 9 November 2013, Rosenfeld released the second official soundtrack, titled Minecraft – Volume Beta, which included the music that was added in a 2013 "Music Update" for the game. A physical release of Volume Alpha, consisting of CDs, black vinyl, and limited-edition transparent green vinyl LPs, was issued by indie electronic label Ghostly International on 21 August 2015. On 14 August 2020, Ghostly released Volume Beta on CD and vinyl, with alternate color LPs and lenticular cover pressings released in limited quantities. The final update Rosenfeld worked on was 2018's 1.13 Update Aquatic. His music remained the only music in the game until 2020's "Nether Update", introducing pieces from Lena Raine. Since then, other composers have made contributions, including Kumi Tanioka, Samuel Åberg, Aaron Cherof, and Amos Roddy, with Raine remaining as the new primary composer. Ownership of all music besides Rosenfeld's independently released albums has been retained by Microsoft, with their label publishing all of the other artists' releases. Gareth Coker also composed some of the music for the game's mini games from the Legacy Console editions. Rosenfeld had stated his intent to create a third album of music for the game in a 2015 interview with Fact, and confirmed its existence in a 2017 tweet, stating that his work on the record as of then had tallied up to be longer than the previous two albums combined, which in total clocks in at over 3 hours and 18 minutes. However, due to licensing issues with Microsoft, the third volume has since not seen release. On 8 January 2021, Rosenfeld was asked in an interview with Anthony Fantano whether or not there was still a third volume of his music intended for release. Rosenfeld responded, saying, "I have something—I consider it finished—but things have become complicated, especially as Minecraft is now a big property, so I don't know." Reception Minecraft has received critical acclaim, with praise for the creative freedom it grants players in-game, as well as the ease of enabling emergent gameplay. Critics have expressed enjoyment in Minecraft's complex crafting system, commenting that it is an important aspect of the game's open-ended gameplay. Most publications were impressed by the game's "blocky" graphics, with IGN describing them as "instantly memorable". Reviewers also liked the game's adventure elements, noting that the game creates a good balance between exploring and building. The game's multiplayer feature has been generally received favorably, with IGN commenting that "adventuring is always better with friends". Jaz McDougall of PC Gamer said Minecraft is "intuitively interesting and contagiously fun, with an unparalleled scope for creativity and memorable experiences". It has been regarded as having introduced millions of children to the digital world, insofar as its basic game mechanics are logically analogous to computer commands. IGN was disappointed about the troublesome steps needed to set up multiplayer servers, calling it a "hassle". Critics also said that visual glitches occur periodically. Despite its release out of beta in 2011, GameSpot said the game had an "unfinished feel", adding that some game elements seem "incomplete or thrown together in haste". A review of the alpha version, by Scott Munro of the Daily Record, called it "already something special" and urged readers to buy it. Jim Rossignol of Rock Paper Shotgun also recommended the alpha of the game, calling it "a kind of generative 8-bit Lego Stalker". On 17 September 2010, gaming webcomic Penny Arcade began a series of comics and news posts about the addictiveness of the game. The Xbox 360 version was generally received positively by critics, but did not receive as much praise as the PC version. Although reviewers were disappointed by the lack of features such as mod support and content from the PC version, they acclaimed the port's addition of a tutorial and in-game tips and crafting recipes, saying that they make the game more user-friendly. The Xbox One Edition was one of the best received ports, being praised for its relatively large worlds. The PlayStation 3 Edition also received generally favorable reviews, being compared to the Xbox 360 Edition and praised for its well-adapted controls. The PlayStation 4 edition was the best received port to date, being praised for having 36 times larger worlds than the PlayStation 3 edition and described as nearly identical to the Xbox One edition. The PlayStation Vita Edition received generally positive reviews from critics but was noted for its technical limitations. The Wii U version received generally positive reviews from critics but was noted for a lack of GamePad integration. The 3DS version received mixed reviews, being criticized for its high price, technical issues, and lack of cross-platform play. The Nintendo Switch Edition received fairly positive reviews from critics, being praised, like other modern ports, for its relatively larger worlds. Minecraft: Pocket Edition initially received mixed reviews from critics. Although reviewers appreciated the game's intuitive controls, they were disappointed by the lack of content. The inability to collect resources and craft items, as well as the limited types of blocks and lack of hostile mobs, were especially criticized. After updates added more content, Pocket Edition started receiving more positive reviews. Reviewers complimented the controls and the graphics, but still noted a lack of content. Minecraft surpassed over a million purchases less than a month after entering its beta phase in early 2011. At the same time, the game had no publisher backing and has never been commercially advertised except through word of mouth, and various unpaid references in popular media such as the Penny Arcade webcomic. By April 2011, Persson estimated that Minecraft had made €23 million (US$33 million) in revenue, with 800,000 sales of the alpha version of the game, and over 1 million sales of the beta version. In November 2011, prior to the game's full release, Minecraft beta surpassed 16 million registered users and 4 million purchases. By March 2012, Minecraft had become the 6th best-selling PC game of all time. As of 10 October 2014[update], the game had sold 17 million copies on PC, becoming the best-selling PC game of all time. On 25 February 2014, the game reached 100 million registered users. By May 2019, 180 million copies had been sold across all platforms, making it the single best-selling video game of all time. The free-to-play Minecraft China version had over 700 million registered accounts by September 2023. By 2023, the game had sold over 300 million copies. As of April 2025, Minecraft has sold over 350 million copies. The Xbox 360 version of Minecraft became profitable within the first day of the game's release in 2012, when the game broke the Xbox Live sales records with 400,000 players online. Within a week of being on the Xbox Live Marketplace, Minecraft sold a million copies. GameSpot announced in December 2012 that Minecraft sold over 4.48 million copies since the game debuted on Xbox Live Arcade in May 2012. In 2012, Minecraft was the most purchased title on Xbox Live Arcade; it was also the fourth most played title on Xbox Live based on average unique users per day. As of 4 April 2014[update], the Xbox 360 version has sold 12 million copies. In addition, Minecraft: Pocket Edition has reached a figure of 21 million in sales. The PlayStation 3 Edition sold one million copies in five weeks. The release of the game's PlayStation Vita version boosted Minecraft sales by 79%, outselling both PS3 and PS4 debut releases and becoming the largest Minecraft launch on a PlayStation console. The PS Vita version sold 100,000 digital copies in Japan within the first two months of release, according to an announcement by SCE Japan Asia. By January 2015, 500,000 digital copies of Minecraft were sold in Japan across all PlayStation platforms, with a surge in primary school children purchasing the PS Vita version. As of 2022, the Vita version has sold over 1.65 million physical copies in Japan, making it the best-selling Vita game in the country. Minecraft helped improve Microsoft's total first-party revenue by $63 million for the 2015 second quarter. The game, including all of its versions, had over 112 million monthly active players by September 2019. On its 11th anniversary in May 2020, the company announced that Minecraft had reached over 200 million copies sold across platforms with over 126 million monthly active players. By April 2021, the number of active monthly users had climbed to 140 million. In July 2010, PC Gamer listed Minecraft as the fourth-best game to play at work. In December of that year, Good Game selected Minecraft as their choice for Best Downloadable Game of 2010, Gamasutra named it the eighth best game of the year as well as the eighth best indie game of the year, and Rock, Paper, Shotgun named it the "game of the year". Indie DB awarded the game the 2010 Indie of the Year award as chosen by voters, in addition to two out of five Editor's Choice awards for Most Innovative and Best Singleplayer Indie. It was also awarded Game of the Year by PC Gamer UK. The game was nominated for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize, Technical Excellence, and Excellence in Design awards at the March 2011 Independent Games Festival and won the Grand Prize and the community-voted Audience Award. At Game Developers Choice Awards 2011, Minecraft won awards in the categories for Best Debut Game, Best Downloadable Game and Innovation Award, winning every award for which it was nominated. It also won GameCity's video game arts award. On 5 May 2011, Minecraft was selected as one of the 80 games that would be displayed at the Smithsonian American Art Museum as part of The Art of Video Games exhibit that opened on 16 March 2012. At the 2011 Spike Video Game Awards, Minecraft won the award for Best Independent Game and was nominated in the Best PC Game category. In 2012, at the British Academy Video Games Awards, Minecraft was nominated in the GAME Award of 2011 category and Persson received The Special Award. In 2012, Minecraft XBLA was awarded a Golden Joystick Award in the Best Downloadable Game category, and a TIGA Games Industry Award in the Best Arcade Game category. In 2013, it was nominated as the family game of the year at the British Academy Video Games Awards. During the 16th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated the Xbox 360 version of Minecraft for "Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year". Minecraft Console Edition won the award for TIGA Game Of The Year in 2014. In 2015, the game placed 6th on USgamer's The 15 Best Games Since 2000 list. In 2016, Minecraft placed 6th on Time's The 50 Best Video Games of All Time list. Minecraft was nominated for the 2013 Kids' Choice Awards for Favorite App, but lost to Temple Run. It was nominated for the 2014 Kids' Choice Awards for Favorite Video Game, but lost to Just Dance 2014. The game later won the award for the Most Addicting Game at the 2015 Kids' Choice Awards. In addition, the Java Edition was nominated for "Favorite Video Game" at the 2018 Kids' Choice Awards, while the game itself won the "Still Playing" award at the 2019 Golden Joystick Awards, as well as the "Favorite Video Game" award at the 2020 Kids' Choice Awards. Minecraft also won "Stream Game of the Year" at inaugural Streamer Awards in 2021. The game later garnered a Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Award nomination for Favorite Video Game in 2021, and won the same category in 2022 and 2023. At the Golden Joystick Awards 2025, it won the Still Playing Award - PC and Console. Minecraft has been subject to several notable controversies. In June 2014, Mojang announced that it would begin enforcing the portion of Minecraft's end-user license agreement (EULA) which prohibits servers from giving in-game advantages to players in exchange for donations or payments. Spokesperson Owen Hill stated that servers could still require players to pay a fee to access the server and could sell in-game cosmetic items. The change was supported by Persson, citing emails he received from parents of children who had spent hundreds of dollars on servers. The Minecraft community and server owners protested, arguing that the EULA's terms were more broad than Mojang was claiming, that the crackdown would force smaller servers to shut down for financial reasons, and that Mojang was suppressing competition for its own Minecraft Realms subscription service. The controversy contributed to Notch's decision to sell Mojang. In 2020, Mojang announced an eventual change to the Java Edition to require a login from a Microsoft account rather than a Mojang account, the latter of which would be sunsetted. This also required Java Edition players to create Xbox network Gamertags. Mojang defended the move to Microsoft accounts by saying that improved security could be offered, including two-factor authentication, blocking cyberbullies in chat, and improved parental controls. The community responded with intense backlash, citing various technical difficulties encountered in the process and how account migration would be mandatory, even for those who do not play on servers. As of 10 March 2022, Microsoft required that all players migrate in order to maintain access the Java Edition of Minecraft. Mojang announced a deadline of 19 September 2023 for account migration, after which all legacy Mojang accounts became inaccessible and unable to be migrated. In June 2022, Mojang added a player-reporting feature in Java Edition. Players could report other players on multiplayer servers for sending messages prohibited by the Xbox Live Code of Conduct; report categories included profane language,[l] substance abuse, hate speech, threats of violence, and nudity. If a player was found to be in violation of Xbox Community Standards, they would be banned from all servers for a specific period of time or permanently. The update containing the report feature (1.19.1) was released on 27 July 2022. Mojang received substantial backlash and protest from community members, one of the most common complaints being that banned players would be forbidden from joining any server, even private ones. Others took issue to what they saw as Microsoft increasing control over its player base and exercising censorship, leading some to start a hashtag #saveminecraft and dub the version "1.19.84", a reference to the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. The "Mob Vote" was an online event organized by Mojang in which the Minecraft community voted between three original mob concepts; initially, the winning mob was to be implemented in a future update, while the losing mobs were scrapped, though after the first mob vote this was changed, and losing mobs would now have a chance to come to the game in the future. The first Mob Vote was held during Minecon Earth 2017 and became an annual event starting with Minecraft Live 2020. The Mob Vote was often criticized for forcing players to choose one mob instead of implementing all three, causing divisions and flaming within the community, and potentially allowing internet bots and Minecraft content creators with large fanbases to conduct vote brigading. The Mob Vote was also blamed for a perceived lack of new content added to Minecraft since Microsoft's acquisition of Mojang in 2014. The 2023 Mob Vote featured three passive mobs—the crab, the penguin, and the armadillo—with voting scheduled to start on 13 October. In response, a Change.org petition was created on 6 October, demanding that Mojang eliminate the Mob Vote and instead implement all three mobs going forward. The petition received approximately 445,000 signatures by 13 October and was joined by calls to boycott the Mob Vote, as well as a partially tongue-in-cheek "revolutionary" propaganda campaign in which sympathizers created anti-Mojang and pro-boycott posters in the vein of real 20th century propaganda posters. Mojang did not release an official response to the boycott, and the Mob Vote otherwise proceeded normally, with the armadillo winning the vote. In September 2024, as part of a blog post detailing their future plans for Minecraft's development, Mojang announced the Mob Vote would be retired. Cultural impact In September 2019, The Guardian classified Minecraft as the best video game of the 21st century to date, and in November 2019, Polygon called it the "most important game of the decade" in its 2010s "decade in review". In June 2020, Minecraft was inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame. Minecraft is recognized as one of the first successful games to use an early access model to draw in sales prior to its full release version to help fund development. As Minecraft helped to bolster indie game development in the early 2010s, it also helped to popularize the use of the early access model in indie game development. Social media sites such as YouTube, Facebook, and Reddit have played a significant role in popularizing Minecraft. Research conducted by the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania showed that one-third of Minecraft players learned about the game via Internet videos. In 2010, Minecraft-related videos began to gain influence on YouTube, often made by commentators. The videos usually contain screen-capture footage of the game and voice-overs. Common coverage in the videos includes creations made by players, walkthroughs of various tasks, and parodies of works in popular culture. By May 2012, over four million Minecraft-related YouTube videos had been uploaded. The game would go on to be a prominent fixture within YouTube's gaming scene during the entire 2010s; in 2014, it was the second-most searched term on the entire platform. By 2018, it was still YouTube's biggest game globally. Some popular commentators have received employment at Machinima, a now-defunct gaming video company that owned a highly watched entertainment channel on YouTube. The Yogscast is a British company that regularly produces Minecraft videos; their YouTube channel has attained billions of views, and their panel at Minecon 2011 had the highest attendance. Another well-known YouTube personality is Jordan Maron, known online as CaptainSparklez, who has also created many Minecraft music parodies, including "Revenge", a parody of Usher's "DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love". Minecraft's popularity on YouTube was described by Polygon as quietly dominant, although in 2019, thanks in part to PewDiePie's playthroughs of the game, Minecraft experienced a visible uptick in popularity on the platform. Longer-running series include Far Lands or Bust, dedicated to reaching the obsolete "Far Lands" glitch by foot on an older version of the game. YouTube announced that on 14 December 2021 that the total amount of Minecraft-related views on the website had exceeded one trillion. Minecraft has been referenced by other video games, such as Torchlight II, Team Fortress 2, Borderlands 2, Choplifter HD, Super Meat Boy, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, The Binding of Isaac, The Stanley Parable, and FTL: Faster Than Light. Minecraft is officially represented in downloadable content for the crossover fighter Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, with Steve as a playable character with a moveset including references to building, crafting, and redstone, alongside an Overworld-themed stage. It was also referenced by electronic music artist Deadmau5 in his performances. The game is also referenced heavily in "Informative Murder Porn", the second episode of the seventeenth season of the animated television series South Park. In 2025, A Minecraft Movie was released. It made $313 million in the box office in the first week, a record-breaking opening for a video game adaptation. Minecraft has been noted as a cultural touchstone for Generation Z, as many of the generation's members played the game at a young age. The possible applications of Minecraft have been discussed extensively, especially in the fields of computer-aided design (CAD) and education. In a panel at Minecon 2011, a Swedish developer discussed the possibility of using the game to redesign public buildings and parks, stating that rendering using Minecraft was much more user-friendly for the community, making it easier to envision the functionality of new buildings and parks. In 2012, a member of the Human Dynamics group at the MIT Media Lab, Cody Sumter, said: "Notch hasn't just built a game. He's tricked 40 million people into learning to use a CAD program." Various software has been developed to allow virtual designs to be printed using professional 3D printers or personal printers such as MakerBot and RepRap. In September 2012, Mojang began the Block by Block project in cooperation with UN Habitat to create real-world environments in Minecraft. The project allows young people who live in those environments to participate in designing the changes they would like to see. Using Minecraft, the community has helped reconstruct the areas of concern, and citizens are invited to enter the Minecraft servers and modify their own neighborhood. Carl Manneh, Mojang's managing director, called the game "the perfect tool to facilitate this process", adding "The three-year partnership will support UN-Habitat's Sustainable Urban Development Network to upgrade 300 public spaces by 2016." Mojang signed Minecraft building community, FyreUK, to help render the environments into Minecraft. The first pilot project began in Kibera, one of Nairobi's informal settlements and is in the planning phase. The Block by Block project is based on an earlier initiative started in October 2011, Mina Kvarter (My Block), which gave young people in Swedish communities a tool to visualize how they wanted to change their part of town. According to Manneh, the project was a helpful way to visualize urban planning ideas without necessarily having a training in architecture. The ideas presented by the citizens were a template for political decisions. In April 2014, the Danish Geodata Agency generated all of Denmark in fullscale in Minecraft based on their own geodata. This is possible because Denmark is one of the flattest countries with the highest point at 171 meters (ranking as the country with the 30th smallest elevation span), where the limit in default Minecraft was around 192 meters above in-game sea level when the project was completed. Taking advantage of the game's accessibility where other websites are censored, the non-governmental organization Reporters Without Borders has used an open Minecraft server to create the Uncensored Library, a repository within the game of journalism by authors from countries (including Egypt, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam) who have been censored and arrested, such as Jamal Khashoggi. The neoclassical virtual building was created over about 250 hours by an international team of 24 people. Despite its unpredictable nature, Minecraft speedrunning, where players time themselves from spawning into a new world to reaching The End and defeating the Ender Dragon boss, is popular. Some speedrunners use a combination of mods, external programs, and debug menus, while other runners play the game in a more vanilla or more consistency-oriented way. Minecraft has been used in educational settings through initiatives such as MinecraftEdu, founded in 2011 to make the game affordable and accessible for schools in collaboration with Mojang. MinecraftEdu provided features allowing teachers to monitor student progress, including screenshot submissions as evidence of lesson completion, and by 2012 reported that approximately 250,000 students worldwide had access to the platform. Mojang also developed Minecraft: Education Edition with pre-built lesson plans for up to 30 students in a closed environment. Educators have used Minecraft to teach subjects such as history, language arts, and science through custom-built environments, including reconstructions of historical landmarks and large-scale models of biological structures such as animal cells. The introduction of redstone blocks enabled the construction of functional virtual machines such as a hard drive and an 8-bit computer. Mods have been created to use these mechanics for teaching programming. In 2014, the British Museum announced a project to reproduce its building and exhibits in Minecraft in collaboration with the public. Microsoft and Code.org have offered Minecraft-based tutorials and activities designed to teach programming, reporting by 2018 that more than 85 million children had used their resources. In 2025, the Musée de Minéralogie in Paris held a temporary exhibition titled "Minerals in Minecraft." Following the initial surge in popularity of Minecraft in 2010, other video games were criticised for having various similarities to Minecraft, and some were described as being "clones", often due to a direct inspiration from Minecraft, or a superficial similarity. Examples include Ace of Spades, CastleMiner, CraftWorld, FortressCraft, Terraria, BlockWorld 3D, Total Miner, and Luanti (formerly Minetest). David Frampton, designer of The Blockheads, reported that one failure of his 2D game was the "low resolution pixel art" that too closely resembled the art in Minecraft, which resulted in "some resistance" from fans. A homebrew adaptation of the alpha version of Minecraft for the Nintendo DS, titled DScraft, has been released; it has been noted for its similarity to the original game considering the technical limitations of the system. In response to Microsoft's acquisition of Mojang and their Minecraft IP, various developers announced further clone titles developed specifically for Nintendo's consoles, as they were the only major platforms not to officially receive Minecraft at the time. These clone titles include UCraft (Nexis Games), Cube Life: Island Survival (Cypronia), Discovery (Noowanda), Battleminer (Wobbly Tooth Games), Cube Creator 3D (Big John Games), and Stone Shire (Finger Gun Games). Despite this, the fears of fans were unfounded, with official Minecraft releases on Nintendo consoles eventually resuming. Markus Persson made another similar game, Minicraft, for a Ludum Dare competition in 2011. In 2025, Persson announced through a poll on his X account that he was considering developing a spiritual successor to Minecraft. He later clarified that he was "100% serious", and that he had "basically announced Minecraft 2". Within days, however, Persson cancelled the plans after speaking to his team. In November 2024, artificial intelligence companies Decart and Etched released Oasis, an artificially generated version of Minecraft, as a proof of concept. Every in-game element is completely AI-generated in real time and the model does not store world data, leading to "hallucinations" such as items and blocks appearing that were not there before. In January 2026, indie game developer Unomelon announced that their voxel sandbox game Allumeria would be playable in Steam Next Fest that year. On 10 February, Mojang issued a DMCA takedown of Allumeria on Steam through Valve, alleging the game was infringing on Minecraft's copyright. Some reports suggested that the takedown may have used an automatic AI copyright claiming service. The DMCA was later withdrawn. Minecon was an annual official fan convention dedicated to Minecraft. The first full Minecon was held in November 2011 at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The event included the official launch of Minecraft; keynote speeches, including one by Persson; building and costume contests; Minecraft-themed breakout classes; exhibits by leading gaming and Minecraft-related companies; commemorative merchandise; and autograph and picture times with Mojang employees and well-known contributors from the Minecraft community. In 2016, Minecon was held in-person for the last time, with the following years featuring annual "Minecon Earth" livestreams on minecraft.net and YouTube instead. These livestreams, later rebranded to "Minecraft Live", included the mob/biome votes, and announcements of new game updates. In 2025, "Minecraft Live" became a biannual event as part of Minecraft's changing update schedule.[citation needed] Notes References External links |
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Contents Minecraft Minecraft is a sandbox game developed and published by Mojang Studios. Following its initial public alpha release in 2009, it was formally released in 2011 for personal computers. The game has since been ported to numerous platforms, including mobile devices and various video game consoles. In Minecraft, players explore a procedurally generated world with virtually infinite terrain made up of voxels (cubes). They can discover and extract raw materials, craft tools and items, build structures, fight hostile mobs, and cooperate with or compete against other players in multiplayer. The game's large community offers a wide variety of user-generated content, such as modifications, servers, player skins, texture packs, and custom maps, which add new game mechanics and possibilities. Originally created by Markus "Notch" Persson using the Java programming language, Jens "Jeb" Bergensten was handed control over the game's development following its full release. In 2014, Mojang and the Minecraft intellectual property were purchased by Microsoft for US$2.5 billion; Xbox Game Studios hold the publishing rights for the Bedrock Edition, the unified cross-platform version which evolved from the Pocket Edition codebase[i] and replaced the legacy console versions. Bedrock is updated concurrently with Mojang's original Java Edition, although with numerous, generally small, differences. Minecraft is the best-selling video game in history with over 350 million copies sold. It has received critical acclaim, winning several awards and being cited as one of the greatest video games of all time. Social media, parodies, adaptations, merchandise, and the annual Minecon conventions have played prominent roles in popularizing it. The wider Minecraft franchise includes several spin-off games, such as Minecraft: Story Mode, Minecraft Dungeons, and Minecraft Legends. A film adaptation, titled A Minecraft Movie, was released in 2025 and became the second highest-grossing video game film of all time. Gameplay Minecraft is a 3D sandbox video game that has no required goals to accomplish, giving players a large amount of freedom in choosing how to play the game. The game features an optional achievement system. Gameplay is in the first-person perspective by default, but players have the option of third-person perspectives. The game world is composed of rough 3D objects—mainly cubes, referred to as blocks—representing various materials, such as dirt, stone, ores, tree trunks, water, and lava. The core gameplay revolves around picking up and placing these objects. These blocks are arranged in a voxel grid, while players can move freely around the world. Players can break, or mine, blocks and then place them elsewhere, enabling them to build things. Very few blocks are affected by gravity, instead maintaining their voxel position in the air. Players can also craft a wide variety of items, such as armor, which mitigates damage from attacks; weapons (such as swords or bows and arrows), which allow monsters and animals to be killed more easily; and tools (such as pickaxes or shovels), which break certain types of blocks more quickly. Some items have multiple tiers depending on the material used to craft them, with higher-tier items being more effective and durable. They may also freely craft helpful blocks—such as furnaces which can cook food and smelt ores, and torches that produce light—or exchange items with villagers (NPC) through trading emeralds for different goods and vice versa. The game has an inventory system, allowing players to carry a limited number of items. The in-game time system follows a day and night cycle, with one full cycle lasting for 20 real-time minutes. The game also contains a material called redstone, which can be used to make primitive mechanical devices, electrical circuits, and logic gates, allowing for the construction of many complex systems. New players are given a randomly selected default character skin out of nine possibilities, including Steve or Alex, but are able to create and upload their own skins. Players encounter various mobs (short for mobile entities) including animals, villagers, and hostile creatures. Passive mobs, such as cows, pigs, and chickens, spawn during the daytime and can be hunted for food and crafting materials, while hostile mobs—including large spiders, witches, skeletons, and zombies—spawn during nighttime or in dark places such as caves. Some hostile mobs, such as zombies and skeletons, burn under the sun if they have no headgear and are not standing in water. Other creatures unique to Minecraft include the creeper (an exploding creature that sneaks up on the player) and the enderman (a creature with the ability to teleport as well as pick up and place blocks). There are also variants of mobs that spawn in different conditions; for example, zombies have husk and drowned variants that spawn in deserts and oceans, respectively. The Minecraft environment is procedurally generated as players explore it using a map seed that is randomly chosen at the time of world creation (or manually specified by the player). Divided into biomes representing different environments with unique resources and structures, worlds are designed to be effectively infinite in traditional gameplay, though technical limits on the player have existed throughout development, both intentionally and not. Implementation of horizontally infinite generation initially resulted in a glitch termed the "Far Lands" at over 12 million blocks away from the world center, where terrain generated as wall-like, fissured patterns. The Far Lands and associated glitches were considered the effective edge of the world until they were resolved, with the current horizontal limit instead being a special impassable barrier called the world border, located 30 million blocks away. Vertical space is comparatively limited, with an unbreakable bedrock layer at the bottom and a building limit several hundred blocks into the sky. Minecraft features three independent dimensions accessible through portals and providing alternate game environments. The Overworld is the starting dimension and represents the real world, with a terrestrial surface setting including plains, mountains, forests, oceans, caves, and small sources of lava. The Nether is a hell-like underworld dimension accessed via an obsidian portal and composed mainly of lava. Mobs that populate the Nether include shrieking, fireball-shooting ghasts, alongside anthropomorphic pigs called piglins and their zombified counterparts. Piglins in particular have a bartering system, where players can give them gold ingots and receive items in return. Structures known as Nether Fortresses generate in the Nether, containing mobs such as wither skeletons and blazes, which can drop blaze rods needed to access the End dimension. The player can also choose to build an optional boss mob known as the Wither, using skulls obtained from wither skeletons and soul sand. The End can be reached through an end portal, consisting of twelve end portal frames. End portals are found in underground structures in the Overworld known as strongholds. To find strongholds, players must craft eyes of ender using an ender pearl and blaze powder. Eyes of ender can then be thrown, traveling in the direction of the stronghold. Once the player reaches the stronghold, they can place eyes of ender into each portal frame to activate the end portal. The dimension consists of islands floating in a dark, bottomless void. A boss enemy called the Ender Dragon guards the largest, central island. Killing the dragon opens access to an exit portal, which, when entered, cues the game's ending credits and the End Poem, a roughly 1,500-word work written by Irish novelist Julian Gough, which takes about nine minutes to scroll past, is the game's only narrative text, and the only text of significant length directed at the player.: 10–12 At the conclusion of the credits, the player is teleported back to their respawn point and may continue the game indefinitely. In Survival mode, players have to gather natural resources such as wood and stone found in the environment in order to craft certain blocks and items. Depending on the difficulty, monsters spawn in darker areas outside a certain radius of the character, requiring players to build a shelter in order to survive at night. The mode also has a health bar which is depleted by attacks from mobs, falls, drowning, falling into lava, suffocation, starvation, and other events. Players also have a hunger bar, which must be periodically refilled by eating food in-game unless the player is playing on peaceful difficulty. If the hunger bar is empty, the player starves. Health replenishes when players have a full hunger bar or continuously on peaceful. Upon losing all health, players die. The items in the players' inventories are dropped unless the game is reconfigured not to do so. Players then re-spawn at their spawn point, which by default is where players first spawn in the game and can be changed by sleeping in a bed or using a respawn anchor. Dropped items can be recovered if players can reach them before they despawn after 5 minutes. Players may acquire experience points (commonly referred to as "xp" or "exp") by killing mobs and other players, mining, smelting ores, animal breeding, and cooking food. Experience can then be spent on enchanting tools, armor and weapons. Enchanted items are generally more powerful, last longer, or have other special effects. The game features two more game modes based on Survival, known as Hardcore mode and Adventure mode. Hardcore mode plays identically to Survival mode, but with the game's difficulty setting locked to "Hard" and with permadeath, forcing them to delete the world or explore it as a spectator after dying. Adventure mode was added to the game in a post-launch update, and prevents the player from directly modifying the game's world. It was designed primarily for use in custom maps, allowing map designers to let players experience it as intended. In Creative mode, players have access to an infinite number of all resources and items in the game through the inventory menu and can place or mine them instantly. Players can toggle the ability to fly freely around the game world at will, and their characters usually do not take any damage nor are affected by hunger. The game mode helps players focus on building and creating projects of any size without disturbance. Multiplayer in Minecraft enables multiple players to interact and communicate with each other on a single world. It is available through direct game-to-game multiplayer, local area network (LAN) play, local split screen (console-only), and servers (player-hosted and business-hosted). Players can run their own server by making a realm, using a host provider, hosting one themselves or connect directly to another player's game via Xbox Live, PlayStation Network or Nintendo Switch Online. Single-player worlds have LAN support, allowing players to join a world on locally interconnected computers without a server setup. Minecraft multiplayer servers are guided by server operators, who have access to server commands such as setting the time of day and teleporting players. Operators can also set up restrictions concerning which usernames or IP addresses are allowed or disallowed to enter the server. Multiplayer servers have a wide range of activities, with some servers having their own unique rules and customs. The largest and most popular server is Hypixel, which has been visited by over 14 million unique players. Player versus player combat (PvP) can be enabled to allow fighting between players. In 2013, Mojang announced Minecraft Realms, a server hosting service intended to enable players to run server multiplayer games easily and safely without having to set up their own. Unlike a standard server, only invited players can join Realms servers, and these servers do not use server addresses. Minecraft: Java Edition Realms server owners can invite up to twenty people to play on their server, with up to ten players online at a time. Minecraft Realms server owners can invite up to 3,000 people to play on their server, with up to ten players online at one time. The Minecraft: Java Edition Realms servers do not support user-made plugins, but players can play custom Minecraft maps. Minecraft Bedrock Realms servers support user-made add-ons, resource packs, behavior packs, and custom Minecraft maps. At Electronic Entertainment Expo 2016, support for cross-platform play between Windows 10, iOS, and Android platforms was added through Realms starting in June 2016, with Xbox One and Nintendo Switch support to come later in 2017, and support for virtual reality devices. On 31 July 2017, Mojang released the beta version of the update allowing cross-platform play. Nintendo Switch support for Realms was released in July 2018. The modding community consists of fans, users and third-party programmers. Using a variety of application program interfaces that have arisen over time, they have produced a wide variety of downloadable content for Minecraft, such as modifications, texture packs and custom maps. Modifications of the Minecraft code, called mods, add a variety of gameplay changes, ranging from new blocks, items, and mobs to entire arrays of mechanisms. The modding community is responsible for a substantial supply of mods from ones that enhance gameplay, such as mini-maps, waypoints, and durability counters, to ones that add to the game elements from other video games and media. While a variety of mod frameworks were independently developed by reverse engineering the code, Mojang has also enhanced vanilla Minecraft with official frameworks for modification, allowing the production of community-created resource packs, which alter certain game elements including textures and sounds. Players can also create their own "maps" (custom world save files) that often contain specific rules, challenges, puzzles and quests, and share them for others to play. Mojang added an adventure mode in August 2012 and "command blocks" in October 2012, which were created specially for custom maps in Java Edition. Data packs, introduced in version 1.13 of the Java Edition, allow further customization, including the ability to add new achievements, dimensions, functions, loot tables, predicates, recipes, structures, tags, and world generation. The Xbox 360 Edition supported downloadable content, which was available to purchase via the Xbox Games Store; these content packs usually contained additional character skins. It later received support for texture packs in its twelfth title update while introducing "mash-up packs", which combined texture packs with skin packs and changes to the game's sounds, music and user interface. The first mash-up pack (and by extension, the first texture pack) for the Xbox 360 Edition was released on 4 September 2013, and was themed after the Mass Effect franchise. Unlike Java Edition, however, the Xbox 360 Edition did not support player-made mods or custom maps. A cross-promotional resource pack based on the Super Mario franchise by Nintendo was released exclusively for the Wii U Edition worldwide on 17 May 2016, and later bundled free with the Nintendo Switch Edition at launch. Another based on Fallout was released on consoles that December, and for Windows and Mobile in April 2017. In April 2018, malware was discovered in several downloadable user-made Minecraft skins for use with the Java Edition of the game. Avast stated that nearly 50,000 accounts were infected, and when activated, the malware would attempt to reformat the user's hard drive. Mojang promptly patched the issue, and released a statement stating that "the code would not be run or read by the game itself", and would run only when the image containing the skin itself was opened. In June 2017, Mojang released the "1.1 Discovery Update" to the Pocket Edition of the game, which later became the Bedrock Edition. The update introduced the "Marketplace", a catalogue of purchasable user-generated content intended to give Minecraft creators "another way to make a living from the game". Various skins, maps, texture packs and add-ons from different creators can be bought with "Minecoins", a digital currency that is purchased with real money. Additionally, users can access specific content with a subscription service titled "Marketplace Pass". Alongside content from independent creators, the Marketplace also houses items published by Mojang and Microsoft themselves, as well as official collaborations between Minecraft and other intellectual properties. By 2022, the Marketplace had over 1.7 billion content downloads, generating over $500 million in revenue. Development Before creating Minecraft, Markus "Notch" Persson was a game developer at King, where he worked until March 2009. At King, he primarily developed browser games and learned several programming languages. During his free time, he prototyped his own games, often drawing inspiration from other titles, and was an active participant on the TIGSource forums for independent developers. One such project was "RubyDung", a base-building game inspired by Dwarf Fortress, but with an isometric, three-dimensional perspective similar to RollerCoaster Tycoon. Among the features in RubyDung that he explored was a first-person view similar to Dungeon Keeper, though he ultimately discarded this idea, feeling the graphics were too pixelated at the time. Around March 2009, Persson left King and joined jAlbum, while continuing to work on his prototypes. Infiniminer, a block-based open-ended mining game first released in April 2009, inspired Persson's vision for RubyDung's future direction. Infiniminer heavily influenced the visual style of gameplay, including bringing back the first-person mode, the "blocky" visual style and the block-building fundamentals. However, unlike Infiniminer, Persson wanted Minecraft to have RPG elements. The first public alpha build of Minecraft was released on 17 May 2009 on TIGSource. Over the years, Persson regularly released test builds that added new features, including tools, mobs, and entire new dimensions. In 2011, partly due to the game's rising popularity, Persson decided to release a full 1.0 version—a second part of the "Adventure Update"—on 18 November 2011. Shortly after, Persson stepped down from development, handing the project's lead to Jens "Jeb" Bergensten. On 15 September 2014, Microsoft, the developer behind the Microsoft Windows operating system and Xbox video game console, announced a $2.5 billion acquisition of Mojang, which included the Minecraft intellectual property. Persson had suggested the deal on Twitter, asking a corporation to buy his stake in the game after receiving criticism for enforcing terms in the game's end-user license agreement (EULA), which had been in place for the past three years. According to Persson, Mojang CEO Carl Manneh received a call from a Microsoft executive shortly after the tweet, asking if Persson was serious about a deal. Mojang was also approached by other companies including Activision Blizzard and Electronic Arts. The deal with Microsoft was arbitrated on 6 November 2014 and led to Persson becoming one of Forbes' "World's Billionaires". After 2014, Minecraft's primary versions received usually annual major updates—free to players who have purchased the game— each primarily centered around a specific theme. For instance, version 1.13, the Update Aquatic, focused on ocean-related features, while version 1.16, the Nether Update, introduced significant changes to the Nether dimension. However, in late 2024, Mojang announced a shift in their update strategy; rather than releasing large updates annually, they opted for a more frequent release schedule with smaller, incremental updates, stating, "We know that you want new Minecraft content more often." The Bedrock Edition has also received regular updates, now matching the themes of the Java Edition updates. Other versions of the game, such as various console editions and the Pocket Edition, were either merged into Bedrock or discontinued and have not received further updates. On 7 May 2019, coinciding with Minecraft's 10th anniversary, a JavaScript recreation of an old 2009 Java Edition build named Minecraft Classic was made available to play online for free. On 16 April 2020, a Bedrock Edition-exclusive beta version of Minecraft, called Minecraft RTX, was released by Nvidia. It introduced physically-based rendering, real-time path tracing, and DLSS for RTX-enabled GPUs. The public release was made available on 8 December 2020. Path tracing can only be enabled in supported worlds, which can be downloaded for free via the in-game Minecraft Marketplace, with a texture pack from Nvidia's website, or with compatible third-party texture packs. It cannot be enabled by default with any texture pack on any world. Initially, Minecraft RTX was affected by many bugs, display errors, and instability issues. On 22 March 2025, a new visual mode called Vibrant Visuals, an optional graphical overhaul similar to Minecraft RTX, was announced. It promises modern rendering features—such as dynamic shadows, screen space reflections, volumetric fog, and bloom—without the need of RTX-capable hardware. Vibrant Visuals was released as a part of the Chase the Skies update on 17 June 2025 for Bedrock Edition and is planned to release on Java Edition at a later date. Development began for the original edition of Minecraft—then known as Cave Game, and now known as the Java Edition—in May 2009,[k] and ended on 13 May, when Persson released a test video on YouTube of an early version of the game, dubbed the "Cave game tech test" or the "Cave game tech demo". The game was named Minecraft: Order of the Stone the next day, after a suggestion made by a player. "Order of the Stone" came from the webcomic The Order of the Stick, and "Minecraft" was chosen "because it's a good name". The title was later shortened to just Minecraft, omitting the subtitle. Persson completed the game's base programming over a weekend in May 2009, and private testing began on TigIRC on 16 May. The first public release followed on 17 May 2009 as a developmental version shared on the TIGSource forums. Based on feedback from forum users, Persson continued updating the game. This initial public build later became known as Classic. Further developmental phases—dubbed Survival Test, Indev, and Infdev—were released throughout 2009 and 2010. The first major update, known as Alpha, was released on 30 June 2010. At the time, Persson was still working a day job at jAlbum but later resigned to focus on Minecraft full-time as sales of the alpha version surged. Updates were distributed automatically, introducing new blocks, items, mobs, and changes to game mechanics such as water flow. With revenue generated from the game, Persson founded Mojang, a video game studio, alongside former colleagues Jakob Porser and Carl Manneh. On 11 December 2010, Persson announced that Minecraft would enter its beta phase on 20 December. He assured players that bug fixes and all pre-release updates would remain free. As development progressed, Mojang expanded, hiring additional employees to work on the project. The game officially exited beta and launched in full on 18 November 2011. On 1 December 2011, Jens "Jeb" Bergensten took full creative control over Minecraft, replacing Persson as lead designer. On 28 February 2012, Mojang announced the hiring of the developers behind Bukkit, a popular developer API for Minecraft servers, to improve Minecraft's support of server modifications. This move included Mojang taking apparent ownership of the CraftBukkit server mod, though this apparent acquisition later became controversial, and its legitimacy was questioned due to CraftBukkit's open-source nature and licensing under the GNU General Public License and Lesser General Public License. In August 2011, Minecraft: Pocket Edition was released as an early alpha for the Xperia Play via the Android Market, later expanding to other Android devices on 8 October 2011. The iOS version followed on 17 November 2011. A port was made available for Windows Phones shortly after Microsoft acquired Mojang. Unlike Java Edition, Pocket Edition initially focused on Minecraft's creative building and basic survival elements but lacked many features of the PC version. Bergensten confirmed on Twitter that the Pocket Edition was written in C++ rather than Java, as iOS does not support Java. On 10 December 2014, a port of Pocket Edition was released for Windows Phone 8.1. In July 2015, a port of the Pocket Edition to Windows 10 was released as the Windows 10 Edition, with full crossplay to other Pocket versions. In January 2017, Microsoft announced that it would no longer maintain the Windows Phone versions of Pocket Edition. On 20 September 2017, with the "Better Together Update", the Pocket Edition was ported to the Xbox One, and was renamed to the Bedrock Edition. The console versions of Minecraft debuted with the Xbox 360 edition, developed by 4J Studios and released on 9 May 2012. Announced as part of the Xbox Live Arcade NEXT promotion, this version introduced a redesigned crafting system, a new control interface, in-game tutorials, split-screen multiplayer, and online play via Xbox Live. Unlike the PC version, its worlds were finite, bordered by invisible walls. Initially, the Xbox 360 version resembled outdated PC versions but received updates to bring it closer to Java Edition before eventually being discontinued. The Xbox One version launched on 5 September 2014, featuring larger worlds and support for more players. Minecraft expanded to PlayStation platforms with PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 editions released on 17 December 2013 and 4 September 2014, respectively. Originally planned as a PS4 launch title, it was delayed before its eventual release. A PlayStation Vita version followed in October 2014. Like the Xbox versions, the PlayStation editions were developed by 4J Studios. Nintendo platforms received Minecraft: Wii U Edition on 17 December 2015, with a physical release in North America on 17 June 2016 and in Europe on 30 June. The Nintendo Switch version launched via the eShop on 11 May 2017. During a Nintendo Direct presentation on 13 September 2017, Nintendo announced that Minecraft: New Nintendo 3DS Edition, based on the Pocket Edition, would be available for download immediately after the livestream, and a physical copy available on a later date. The game is compatible only with the New Nintendo 3DS or New Nintendo 2DS XL systems and does not work with the original 3DS or 2DS systems. On 20 September 2017, the Better Together Update introduced Bedrock Edition across Xbox One, Windows 10, VR, and mobile platforms, enabling cross-play between these versions. Bedrock Edition later expanded to Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4, with the latter receiving the update in December 2019, allowing cross-platform play for users with a free Xbox Live account. The Bedrock Edition released a native version for PlayStation 5 on 22 October 2024, while the Xbox Series X/S version launched on 17 June 2025. On 18 December 2018, the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Xbox 360, and Wii U versions of Minecraft received their final update and would later become known as "Legacy Console Editions". On 15 January 2019, the New Nintendo 3DS version of Minecraft received its final update, effectively becoming discontinued as well. An educational version of Minecraft, designed for use in schools, launched on 1 November 2016. It is available on Android, ChromeOS, iPadOS, iOS, MacOS, and Windows. On 20 August 2018, Mojang announced that it would bring Education Edition to iPadOS in Autumn 2018. It was released to the App Store on 6 September 2018. On 27 March 2019, it was announced that it would be operated by JD.com in China. On 26 June 2020, a public beta for the Education Edition was made available to Google Play Store compatible Chromebooks. The full game was released to the Google Play Store for Chromebooks on 7 August 2020. On 20 May 2016, China Edition (also known as My World) was announced as a localized edition for China, where it was released under a licensing agreement between NetEase and Mojang. The PC edition was released for public testing on 8 August 2017. The iOS version was released on 15 September 2017, and the Android version was released on 12 October 2017. The PC edition is based on the original Java Edition, while the iOS and Android mobile versions are based on the Bedrock Edition. The edition is free-to-play and had over 700 million registered accounts by September 2023. This version of Bedrock Edition is exclusive to Microsoft's Windows 10 and Windows 11 operating systems. The beta release for Windows 10 launched on the Windows Store on 29 July 2015. After nearly a year and a half in beta, Microsoft fully released the version on 19 December 2016. Called the "Ender Update", this release implemented new features to this version of Minecraft like world templates and add-on packs. On 7 June 2022, the Java and Bedrock Editions of Minecraft were merged into a single bundle for purchase on Windows; those who owned one version would automatically gain access to the other version. Both game versions would otherwise remain separate. Around 2011, prior to Minecraft's full release, Mojang collaborated with The Lego Group to create a Lego brick-based Minecraft game called Brickcraft. This would have modified the base Minecraft game to use Lego bricks, which meant adapting the basic 1×1 block to account for larger pieces typically used in Lego sets. Persson worked on an early version called "Project Rex Kwon Do", named after the character of the same name from the film Napoleon Dynamite. Although Lego approved the project and Mojang assigned two developers for six months, it was canceled due to the Lego Group's demands, according to Mojang's Daniel Kaplan. Lego considered buying Mojang to complete the game, but when Microsoft offered over $2 billion for the company, Lego stepped back, unsure of Minecraft's potential. On 26 June 2025, a build of Brickcraft dated 28 June 2012 was published on a community archive website Omniarchive. Initially, Markus Persson planned to support the Oculus Rift with a Minecraft port. However, after Facebook acquired Oculus in 2013, he abruptly canceled the plans, stating, "Facebook creeps me out." In 2016, a community-made mod, Minecraft VR, added VR support for Java Edition, followed by Vivecraft for HTC Vive. Later that year, Microsoft introduced official Oculus Rift support for Windows 10 Edition, leading to the discontinuation of the Minecraft VR mod due to trademark complaints. Vivecraft was endorsed by Minecraft VR contributors for its Rift support. Also available is a Gear VR version, titled Minecraft: Gear VR Edition. Windows Mixed Reality support was added in 2017. On 7 September 2020, Mojang Studios announced that the PlayStation 4 Bedrock version would receive PlayStation VR support later that month. In September 2024, the Minecraft team announced they would no longer support PlayStation VR, which received its final update in March 2025. Music and sound design Minecraft's music and sound effects were produced by German musician Daniel Rosenfeld, better known as C418. To create the sound effects for the game, Rosenfeld made extensive use of Foley techniques. On learning the processes for the game, he remarked, "Foley's an interesting thing, and I had to learn its subtleties. Early on, I wasn't that knowledgeable about it. It's a whole trial-and-error process. You just make a sound and eventually you go, 'Oh my God, that's it! Get the microphone!' There's no set way of doing anything at all." He reminisced on creating the in-game sound for grass blocks, stating "It turns out that to make grass sounds you don't actually walk on grass and record it, because grass sounds like nothing. What you want to do is get a VHS, break it apart, and just lightly touch the tape." According to Rosenfeld, his favorite sound to design for the game was the hisses of spiders. He elaborates, "I like the spiders. Recording that was a whole day of me researching what a spider sounds like. Turns out, there are spiders that make little screeching sounds, so I think I got this recording of a fire hose, put it in a sampler, and just pitched it around until it sounded like a weird spider was talking to you." Many of the sound design decisions by Rosenfeld were done accidentally or spontaneously. The creeper notably lacks any specific noises apart from a loud fuse-like sound when about to explode; Rosenfeld later recalled "That was just a complete accident by Markus and me [sic]. We just put in a placeholder sound of burning a matchstick. It seemed to work hilariously well, so we kept it." On other sounds, such as those of the zombie, Rosenfeld remarked, "I actually never wanted the zombies so scary. I intentionally made them sound comical. It's nice to hear that they work so well [...]." Rosenfeld remarked that the sound engine was "terrible" to work with, remembering "If you had two song files at once, it [the game engine] would actually crash. There were so many more weird glitches like that the guys never really fixed because they were too busy with the actual game and not the sound engine." The background music in Minecraft consists of instrumental ambient music. To compose the music of Minecraft, Rosenfeld used the package from Ableton Live, along with several additional plug-ins. Speaking on them, Rosenfeld said "They can be pretty much everything from an effect to an entire orchestra. Additionally, I've got some synthesizers that are attached to the computer. Like a Moog Voyager, Dave Smith Prophet 08 and a Virus TI." On 4 March 2011, Rosenfeld released a soundtrack titled Minecraft – Volume Alpha; it includes most of the tracks featured in Minecraft, as well as other music not featured in the game. Kirk Hamilton of Kotaku chose the music in Minecraft as one of the best video game soundtracks of 2011. On 9 November 2013, Rosenfeld released the second official soundtrack, titled Minecraft – Volume Beta, which included the music that was added in a 2013 "Music Update" for the game. A physical release of Volume Alpha, consisting of CDs, black vinyl, and limited-edition transparent green vinyl LPs, was issued by indie electronic label Ghostly International on 21 August 2015. On 14 August 2020, Ghostly released Volume Beta on CD and vinyl, with alternate color LPs and lenticular cover pressings released in limited quantities. The final update Rosenfeld worked on was 2018's 1.13 Update Aquatic. His music remained the only music in the game until 2020's "Nether Update", introducing pieces from Lena Raine. Since then, other composers have made contributions, including Kumi Tanioka, Samuel Åberg, Aaron Cherof, and Amos Roddy, with Raine remaining as the new primary composer. Ownership of all music besides Rosenfeld's independently released albums has been retained by Microsoft, with their label publishing all of the other artists' releases. Gareth Coker also composed some of the music for the game's mini games from the Legacy Console editions. Rosenfeld had stated his intent to create a third album of music for the game in a 2015 interview with Fact, and confirmed its existence in a 2017 tweet, stating that his work on the record as of then had tallied up to be longer than the previous two albums combined, which in total clocks in at over 3 hours and 18 minutes. However, due to licensing issues with Microsoft, the third volume has since not seen release. On 8 January 2021, Rosenfeld was asked in an interview with Anthony Fantano whether or not there was still a third volume of his music intended for release. Rosenfeld responded, saying, "I have something—I consider it finished—but things have become complicated, especially as Minecraft is now a big property, so I don't know." Reception Minecraft has received critical acclaim, with praise for the creative freedom it grants players in-game, as well as the ease of enabling emergent gameplay. Critics have expressed enjoyment in Minecraft's complex crafting system, commenting that it is an important aspect of the game's open-ended gameplay. Most publications were impressed by the game's "blocky" graphics, with IGN describing them as "instantly memorable". Reviewers also liked the game's adventure elements, noting that the game creates a good balance between exploring and building. The game's multiplayer feature has been generally received favorably, with IGN commenting that "adventuring is always better with friends". Jaz McDougall of PC Gamer said Minecraft is "intuitively interesting and contagiously fun, with an unparalleled scope for creativity and memorable experiences". It has been regarded as having introduced millions of children to the digital world, insofar as its basic game mechanics are logically analogous to computer commands. IGN was disappointed about the troublesome steps needed to set up multiplayer servers, calling it a "hassle". Critics also said that visual glitches occur periodically. Despite its release out of beta in 2011, GameSpot said the game had an "unfinished feel", adding that some game elements seem "incomplete or thrown together in haste". A review of the alpha version, by Scott Munro of the Daily Record, called it "already something special" and urged readers to buy it. Jim Rossignol of Rock Paper Shotgun also recommended the alpha of the game, calling it "a kind of generative 8-bit Lego Stalker". On 17 September 2010, gaming webcomic Penny Arcade began a series of comics and news posts about the addictiveness of the game. The Xbox 360 version was generally received positively by critics, but did not receive as much praise as the PC version. Although reviewers were disappointed by the lack of features such as mod support and content from the PC version, they acclaimed the port's addition of a tutorial and in-game tips and crafting recipes, saying that they make the game more user-friendly. The Xbox One Edition was one of the best received ports, being praised for its relatively large worlds. The PlayStation 3 Edition also received generally favorable reviews, being compared to the Xbox 360 Edition and praised for its well-adapted controls. The PlayStation 4 edition was the best received port to date, being praised for having 36 times larger worlds than the PlayStation 3 edition and described as nearly identical to the Xbox One edition. The PlayStation Vita Edition received generally positive reviews from critics but was noted for its technical limitations. The Wii U version received generally positive reviews from critics but was noted for a lack of GamePad integration. The 3DS version received mixed reviews, being criticized for its high price, technical issues, and lack of cross-platform play. The Nintendo Switch Edition received fairly positive reviews from critics, being praised, like other modern ports, for its relatively larger worlds. Minecraft: Pocket Edition initially received mixed reviews from critics. Although reviewers appreciated the game's intuitive controls, they were disappointed by the lack of content. The inability to collect resources and craft items, as well as the limited types of blocks and lack of hostile mobs, were especially criticized. After updates added more content, Pocket Edition started receiving more positive reviews. Reviewers complimented the controls and the graphics, but still noted a lack of content. Minecraft surpassed over a million purchases less than a month after entering its beta phase in early 2011. At the same time, the game had no publisher backing and has never been commercially advertised except through word of mouth, and various unpaid references in popular media such as the Penny Arcade webcomic. By April 2011, Persson estimated that Minecraft had made €23 million (US$33 million) in revenue, with 800,000 sales of the alpha version of the game, and over 1 million sales of the beta version. In November 2011, prior to the game's full release, Minecraft beta surpassed 16 million registered users and 4 million purchases. By March 2012, Minecraft had become the 6th best-selling PC game of all time. As of 10 October 2014[update], the game had sold 17 million copies on PC, becoming the best-selling PC game of all time. On 25 February 2014, the game reached 100 million registered users. By May 2019, 180 million copies had been sold across all platforms, making it the single best-selling video game of all time. The free-to-play Minecraft China version had over 700 million registered accounts by September 2023. By 2023, the game had sold over 300 million copies. As of April 2025, Minecraft has sold over 350 million copies. The Xbox 360 version of Minecraft became profitable within the first day of the game's release in 2012, when the game broke the Xbox Live sales records with 400,000 players online. Within a week of being on the Xbox Live Marketplace, Minecraft sold a million copies. GameSpot announced in December 2012 that Minecraft sold over 4.48 million copies since the game debuted on Xbox Live Arcade in May 2012. In 2012, Minecraft was the most purchased title on Xbox Live Arcade; it was also the fourth most played title on Xbox Live based on average unique users per day. As of 4 April 2014[update], the Xbox 360 version has sold 12 million copies. In addition, Minecraft: Pocket Edition has reached a figure of 21 million in sales. The PlayStation 3 Edition sold one million copies in five weeks. The release of the game's PlayStation Vita version boosted Minecraft sales by 79%, outselling both PS3 and PS4 debut releases and becoming the largest Minecraft launch on a PlayStation console. The PS Vita version sold 100,000 digital copies in Japan within the first two months of release, according to an announcement by SCE Japan Asia. By January 2015, 500,000 digital copies of Minecraft were sold in Japan across all PlayStation platforms, with a surge in primary school children purchasing the PS Vita version. As of 2022, the Vita version has sold over 1.65 million physical copies in Japan, making it the best-selling Vita game in the country. Minecraft helped improve Microsoft's total first-party revenue by $63 million for the 2015 second quarter. The game, including all of its versions, had over 112 million monthly active players by September 2019. On its 11th anniversary in May 2020, the company announced that Minecraft had reached over 200 million copies sold across platforms with over 126 million monthly active players. By April 2021, the number of active monthly users had climbed to 140 million. In July 2010, PC Gamer listed Minecraft as the fourth-best game to play at work. In December of that year, Good Game selected Minecraft as their choice for Best Downloadable Game of 2010, Gamasutra named it the eighth best game of the year as well as the eighth best indie game of the year, and Rock, Paper, Shotgun named it the "game of the year". Indie DB awarded the game the 2010 Indie of the Year award as chosen by voters, in addition to two out of five Editor's Choice awards for Most Innovative and Best Singleplayer Indie. It was also awarded Game of the Year by PC Gamer UK. The game was nominated for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize, Technical Excellence, and Excellence in Design awards at the March 2011 Independent Games Festival and won the Grand Prize and the community-voted Audience Award. At Game Developers Choice Awards 2011, Minecraft won awards in the categories for Best Debut Game, Best Downloadable Game and Innovation Award, winning every award for which it was nominated. It also won GameCity's video game arts award. On 5 May 2011, Minecraft was selected as one of the 80 games that would be displayed at the Smithsonian American Art Museum as part of The Art of Video Games exhibit that opened on 16 March 2012. At the 2011 Spike Video Game Awards, Minecraft won the award for Best Independent Game and was nominated in the Best PC Game category. In 2012, at the British Academy Video Games Awards, Minecraft was nominated in the GAME Award of 2011 category and Persson received The Special Award. In 2012, Minecraft XBLA was awarded a Golden Joystick Award in the Best Downloadable Game category, and a TIGA Games Industry Award in the Best Arcade Game category. In 2013, it was nominated as the family game of the year at the British Academy Video Games Awards. During the 16th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated the Xbox 360 version of Minecraft for "Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year". Minecraft Console Edition won the award for TIGA Game Of The Year in 2014. In 2015, the game placed 6th on USgamer's The 15 Best Games Since 2000 list. In 2016, Minecraft placed 6th on Time's The 50 Best Video Games of All Time list. Minecraft was nominated for the 2013 Kids' Choice Awards for Favorite App, but lost to Temple Run. It was nominated for the 2014 Kids' Choice Awards for Favorite Video Game, but lost to Just Dance 2014. The game later won the award for the Most Addicting Game at the 2015 Kids' Choice Awards. In addition, the Java Edition was nominated for "Favorite Video Game" at the 2018 Kids' Choice Awards, while the game itself won the "Still Playing" award at the 2019 Golden Joystick Awards, as well as the "Favorite Video Game" award at the 2020 Kids' Choice Awards. Minecraft also won "Stream Game of the Year" at inaugural Streamer Awards in 2021. The game later garnered a Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Award nomination for Favorite Video Game in 2021, and won the same category in 2022 and 2023. At the Golden Joystick Awards 2025, it won the Still Playing Award - PC and Console. Minecraft has been subject to several notable controversies. In June 2014, Mojang announced that it would begin enforcing the portion of Minecraft's end-user license agreement (EULA) which prohibits servers from giving in-game advantages to players in exchange for donations or payments. Spokesperson Owen Hill stated that servers could still require players to pay a fee to access the server and could sell in-game cosmetic items. The change was supported by Persson, citing emails he received from parents of children who had spent hundreds of dollars on servers. The Minecraft community and server owners protested, arguing that the EULA's terms were more broad than Mojang was claiming, that the crackdown would force smaller servers to shut down for financial reasons, and that Mojang was suppressing competition for its own Minecraft Realms subscription service. The controversy contributed to Notch's decision to sell Mojang. In 2020, Mojang announced an eventual change to the Java Edition to require a login from a Microsoft account rather than a Mojang account, the latter of which would be sunsetted. This also required Java Edition players to create Xbox network Gamertags. Mojang defended the move to Microsoft accounts by saying that improved security could be offered, including two-factor authentication, blocking cyberbullies in chat, and improved parental controls. The community responded with intense backlash, citing various technical difficulties encountered in the process and how account migration would be mandatory, even for those who do not play on servers. As of 10 March 2022, Microsoft required that all players migrate in order to maintain access the Java Edition of Minecraft. Mojang announced a deadline of 19 September 2023 for account migration, after which all legacy Mojang accounts became inaccessible and unable to be migrated. In June 2022, Mojang added a player-reporting feature in Java Edition. Players could report other players on multiplayer servers for sending messages prohibited by the Xbox Live Code of Conduct; report categories included profane language,[l] substance abuse, hate speech, threats of violence, and nudity. If a player was found to be in violation of Xbox Community Standards, they would be banned from all servers for a specific period of time or permanently. The update containing the report feature (1.19.1) was released on 27 July 2022. Mojang received substantial backlash and protest from community members, one of the most common complaints being that banned players would be forbidden from joining any server, even private ones. Others took issue to what they saw as Microsoft increasing control over its player base and exercising censorship, leading some to start a hashtag #saveminecraft and dub the version "1.19.84", a reference to the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. The "Mob Vote" was an online event organized by Mojang in which the Minecraft community voted between three original mob concepts; initially, the winning mob was to be implemented in a future update, while the losing mobs were scrapped, though after the first mob vote this was changed, and losing mobs would now have a chance to come to the game in the future. The first Mob Vote was held during Minecon Earth 2017 and became an annual event starting with Minecraft Live 2020. The Mob Vote was often criticized for forcing players to choose one mob instead of implementing all three, causing divisions and flaming within the community, and potentially allowing internet bots and Minecraft content creators with large fanbases to conduct vote brigading. The Mob Vote was also blamed for a perceived lack of new content added to Minecraft since Microsoft's acquisition of Mojang in 2014. The 2023 Mob Vote featured three passive mobs—the crab, the penguin, and the armadillo—with voting scheduled to start on 13 October. In response, a Change.org petition was created on 6 October, demanding that Mojang eliminate the Mob Vote and instead implement all three mobs going forward. The petition received approximately 445,000 signatures by 13 October and was joined by calls to boycott the Mob Vote, as well as a partially tongue-in-cheek "revolutionary" propaganda campaign in which sympathizers created anti-Mojang and pro-boycott posters in the vein of real 20th century propaganda posters. Mojang did not release an official response to the boycott, and the Mob Vote otherwise proceeded normally, with the armadillo winning the vote. In September 2024, as part of a blog post detailing their future plans for Minecraft's development, Mojang announced the Mob Vote would be retired. Cultural impact In September 2019, The Guardian classified Minecraft as the best video game of the 21st century to date, and in November 2019, Polygon called it the "most important game of the decade" in its 2010s "decade in review". In June 2020, Minecraft was inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame. Minecraft is recognized as one of the first successful games to use an early access model to draw in sales prior to its full release version to help fund development. As Minecraft helped to bolster indie game development in the early 2010s, it also helped to popularize the use of the early access model in indie game development. Social media sites such as YouTube, Facebook, and Reddit have played a significant role in popularizing Minecraft. Research conducted by the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania showed that one-third of Minecraft players learned about the game via Internet videos. In 2010, Minecraft-related videos began to gain influence on YouTube, often made by commentators. The videos usually contain screen-capture footage of the game and voice-overs. Common coverage in the videos includes creations made by players, walkthroughs of various tasks, and parodies of works in popular culture. By May 2012, over four million Minecraft-related YouTube videos had been uploaded. The game would go on to be a prominent fixture within YouTube's gaming scene during the entire 2010s; in 2014, it was the second-most searched term on the entire platform. By 2018, it was still YouTube's biggest game globally. Some popular commentators have received employment at Machinima, a now-defunct gaming video company that owned a highly watched entertainment channel on YouTube. The Yogscast is a British company that regularly produces Minecraft videos; their YouTube channel has attained billions of views, and their panel at Minecon 2011 had the highest attendance. Another well-known YouTube personality is Jordan Maron, known online as CaptainSparklez, who has also created many Minecraft music parodies, including "Revenge", a parody of Usher's "DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love". Minecraft's popularity on YouTube was described by Polygon as quietly dominant, although in 2019, thanks in part to PewDiePie's playthroughs of the game, Minecraft experienced a visible uptick in popularity on the platform. Longer-running series include Far Lands or Bust, dedicated to reaching the obsolete "Far Lands" glitch by foot on an older version of the game. YouTube announced that on 14 December 2021 that the total amount of Minecraft-related views on the website had exceeded one trillion. Minecraft has been referenced by other video games, such as Torchlight II, Team Fortress 2, Borderlands 2, Choplifter HD, Super Meat Boy, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, The Binding of Isaac, The Stanley Parable, and FTL: Faster Than Light. Minecraft is officially represented in downloadable content for the crossover fighter Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, with Steve as a playable character with a moveset including references to building, crafting, and redstone, alongside an Overworld-themed stage. It was also referenced by electronic music artist Deadmau5 in his performances. The game is also referenced heavily in "Informative Murder Porn", the second episode of the seventeenth season of the animated television series South Park. In 2025, A Minecraft Movie was released. It made $313 million in the box office in the first week, a record-breaking opening for a video game adaptation. Minecraft has been noted as a cultural touchstone for Generation Z, as many of the generation's members played the game at a young age. The possible applications of Minecraft have been discussed extensively, especially in the fields of computer-aided design (CAD) and education. In a panel at Minecon 2011, a Swedish developer discussed the possibility of using the game to redesign public buildings and parks, stating that rendering using Minecraft was much more user-friendly for the community, making it easier to envision the functionality of new buildings and parks. In 2012, a member of the Human Dynamics group at the MIT Media Lab, Cody Sumter, said: "Notch hasn't just built a game. He's tricked 40 million people into learning to use a CAD program." Various software has been developed to allow virtual designs to be printed using professional 3D printers or personal printers such as MakerBot and RepRap. In September 2012, Mojang began the Block by Block project in cooperation with UN Habitat to create real-world environments in Minecraft. The project allows young people who live in those environments to participate in designing the changes they would like to see. Using Minecraft, the community has helped reconstruct the areas of concern, and citizens are invited to enter the Minecraft servers and modify their own neighborhood. Carl Manneh, Mojang's managing director, called the game "the perfect tool to facilitate this process", adding "The three-year partnership will support UN-Habitat's Sustainable Urban Development Network to upgrade 300 public spaces by 2016." Mojang signed Minecraft building community, FyreUK, to help render the environments into Minecraft. The first pilot project began in Kibera, one of Nairobi's informal settlements and is in the planning phase. The Block by Block project is based on an earlier initiative started in October 2011, Mina Kvarter (My Block), which gave young people in Swedish communities a tool to visualize how they wanted to change their part of town. According to Manneh, the project was a helpful way to visualize urban planning ideas without necessarily having a training in architecture. The ideas presented by the citizens were a template for political decisions. In April 2014, the Danish Geodata Agency generated all of Denmark in fullscale in Minecraft based on their own geodata. This is possible because Denmark is one of the flattest countries with the highest point at 171 meters (ranking as the country with the 30th smallest elevation span), where the limit in default Minecraft was around 192 meters above in-game sea level when the project was completed. Taking advantage of the game's accessibility where other websites are censored, the non-governmental organization Reporters Without Borders has used an open Minecraft server to create the Uncensored Library, a repository within the game of journalism by authors from countries (including Egypt, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam) who have been censored and arrested, such as Jamal Khashoggi. The neoclassical virtual building was created over about 250 hours by an international team of 24 people. Despite its unpredictable nature, Minecraft speedrunning, where players time themselves from spawning into a new world to reaching The End and defeating the Ender Dragon boss, is popular. Some speedrunners use a combination of mods, external programs, and debug menus, while other runners play the game in a more vanilla or more consistency-oriented way. Minecraft has been used in educational settings through initiatives such as MinecraftEdu, founded in 2011 to make the game affordable and accessible for schools in collaboration with Mojang. MinecraftEdu provided features allowing teachers to monitor student progress, including screenshot submissions as evidence of lesson completion, and by 2012 reported that approximately 250,000 students worldwide had access to the platform. Mojang also developed Minecraft: Education Edition with pre-built lesson plans for up to 30 students in a closed environment. Educators have used Minecraft to teach subjects such as history, language arts, and science through custom-built environments, including reconstructions of historical landmarks and large-scale models of biological structures such as animal cells. The introduction of redstone blocks enabled the construction of functional virtual machines such as a hard drive and an 8-bit computer. Mods have been created to use these mechanics for teaching programming. In 2014, the British Museum announced a project to reproduce its building and exhibits in Minecraft in collaboration with the public. Microsoft and Code.org have offered Minecraft-based tutorials and activities designed to teach programming, reporting by 2018 that more than 85 million children had used their resources. In 2025, the Musée de Minéralogie in Paris held a temporary exhibition titled "Minerals in Minecraft." Following the initial surge in popularity of Minecraft in 2010, other video games were criticised for having various similarities to Minecraft, and some were described as being "clones", often due to a direct inspiration from Minecraft, or a superficial similarity. Examples include Ace of Spades, CastleMiner, CraftWorld, FortressCraft, Terraria, BlockWorld 3D, Total Miner, and Luanti (formerly Minetest). David Frampton, designer of The Blockheads, reported that one failure of his 2D game was the "low resolution pixel art" that too closely resembled the art in Minecraft, which resulted in "some resistance" from fans. A homebrew adaptation of the alpha version of Minecraft for the Nintendo DS, titled DScraft, has been released; it has been noted for its similarity to the original game considering the technical limitations of the system. In response to Microsoft's acquisition of Mojang and their Minecraft IP, various developers announced further clone titles developed specifically for Nintendo's consoles, as they were the only major platforms not to officially receive Minecraft at the time. These clone titles include UCraft (Nexis Games), Cube Life: Island Survival (Cypronia), Discovery (Noowanda), Battleminer (Wobbly Tooth Games), Cube Creator 3D (Big John Games), and Stone Shire (Finger Gun Games). Despite this, the fears of fans were unfounded, with official Minecraft releases on Nintendo consoles eventually resuming. Markus Persson made another similar game, Minicraft, for a Ludum Dare competition in 2011. In 2025, Persson announced through a poll on his X account that he was considering developing a spiritual successor to Minecraft. He later clarified that he was "100% serious", and that he had "basically announced Minecraft 2". Within days, however, Persson cancelled the plans after speaking to his team. In November 2024, artificial intelligence companies Decart and Etched released Oasis, an artificially generated version of Minecraft, as a proof of concept. Every in-game element is completely AI-generated in real time and the model does not store world data, leading to "hallucinations" such as items and blocks appearing that were not there before. In January 2026, indie game developer Unomelon announced that their voxel sandbox game Allumeria would be playable in Steam Next Fest that year. On 10 February, Mojang issued a DMCA takedown of Allumeria on Steam through Valve, alleging the game was infringing on Minecraft's copyright. Some reports suggested that the takedown may have used an automatic AI copyright claiming service. The DMCA was later withdrawn. Minecon was an annual official fan convention dedicated to Minecraft. The first full Minecon was held in November 2011 at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The event included the official launch of Minecraft; keynote speeches, including one by Persson; building and costume contests; Minecraft-themed breakout classes; exhibits by leading gaming and Minecraft-related companies; commemorative merchandise; and autograph and picture times with Mojang employees and well-known contributors from the Minecraft community. In 2016, Minecon was held in-person for the last time, with the following years featuring annual "Minecon Earth" livestreams on minecraft.net and YouTube instead. These livestreams, later rebranded to "Minecraft Live", included the mob/biome votes, and announcements of new game updates. In 2025, "Minecraft Live" became a biannual event as part of Minecraft's changing update schedule.[citation needed] Notes References External links |
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Contents Bibcode The bibcode (also known as the refcode) is a compact identifier used by several astronomical data systems to uniquely specify literature references. Adoption The Bibliographic Reference Code (refcode) was originally[when?] developed to be used in SIMBAD and the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED), but it became a de facto standard and is now used more widely, for example, by the NASA Astrophysics Data System, which coined and prefers the term "bibcode". Format The code has a fixed length of 19 characters and has the form where YYYY is the four-digit year of the reference and JJJJJ is a code indicating where the reference was published. In the case of a journal reference, VVVV is the volume number, M indicates the section of the journal where the reference was published (e.g., L for a letters section), PPPP gives the starting page number, and A is the first letter of the last name of the first author. Periods (.) are used to fill unused fields and to pad fields out to their fixed length if too short; padding is done on the right for the publication code and on the left for the volume number and page number. Page numbers greater than 9999 are continued in the M column. The 6-digit article ID numbers (in lieu of page numbers) used by the Physical Review publications since the late 1990s are treated as follows: The first two digits of the article ID, corresponding to the issue number, are converted to a lower-case letter (01 = a, etc.) and inserted into column M. The remaining four digits are used in the page field. As many publishers are moving away from page numbers and using electronic identifiers more and more frequently, the page field is no longer guaranteed to be numeric. Often an identifier of more than 5 digits is truncated, and there may be letters, periods, dashes, or other characters in the page field as well. The volume field may also contain non-numeric characters. Modern bibcodes are likely to be deprecated in the future, and users should not depend on semantic meaning represented in the bibcode. For the most current information on bibcodes, see the help text for ADS. Examples Some examples of bibcodes are: See also Notes References |
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Contents World The world is the totality of entities, the whole of reality, or everything that exists. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique, while others talk of a "plurality of worlds". Some treat the world as one simple object, while others analyze the world as a complex made up of parts. In scientific cosmology, the world or universe is commonly defined as "the totality of all space and time; all that is, has been, and will be". Theories of modality talk of possible worlds as complete and consistent ways how things could have been. Phenomenology, starting from the horizon of co-given objects present in the periphery of every experience, defines the world as the biggest horizon, or the "horizon of all horizons". In philosophy of mind, the world is contrasted with the mind as that which is represented by the mind. Theology conceptualizes the world in relation to God, for example, as God's creation, as identical to God, or as the two being interdependent. In religions, there is a tendency to downgrade the material or sensory world in favor of a spiritual world to be sought through religious practice. A comprehensive representation of the world and our place in it, as is found in religions, is known as a worldview. Cosmogony is the field that studies the origin or creation of the world, while eschatology refers to the science or doctrine of the last things or of the end of the world. In various contexts, the term "world" takes a more restricted meaning associated, for example, with the Earth and all life on it, with humanity as a whole, or with an international or intercontinental scope. In this sense, world history refers to the history of humanity as a whole, and world politics is the discipline of political science studying issues that transcend nations and continents. Other examples include terms such as "world religion", "world language", "world government", "world war", "world population", "world economy", or "world championship". Etymology The English word world comes from the Old English weorold. The Old English is a reflex of the Common Germanic *weraldiz, a compound of weraz 'man' and aldiz 'age', thus literally meaning roughly 'age of man'; this word led to Old Frisian warld, Old Saxon werold, Old Dutch werolt, Old High German weralt, and Old Norse verǫld. The corresponding word in Latin is mundus, literally 'clean, elegant', itself a loan translation of Greek cosmos 'orderly arrangement'. While the Germanic word thus reflects a mythological notion of a "domain of Man" (compare Midgard), presumably as opposed to the divine sphere on the one hand and the chthonic sphere of the underworld on the other, the Greco-Latin term expresses a notion of creation as an act of establishing order out of chaos. Conceptions Different fields often work with quite different conceptions of the essential features associated with the term "world". Some conceptions see the world as unique: there can be no more than one world. Others talk of a "plurality of worlds". Some see worlds as complex things composed of many substances as their parts while others hold that worlds are simple in the sense that there is only one substance: the world as a whole. Some characterize worlds in terms of objective spacetime while others define them relative to the horizon present in each experience. These different characterizations are not always exclusive: it may be possible to combine some without leading to a contradiction. Most of them agree that worlds are unified totalities. Monism is a thesis about oneness: that only one thing exists in a certain sense. The denial of monism is pluralism, the thesis that, in a certain sense, more than one thing exists. There are many forms of monism and pluralism, but in relation to the world as a whole, two are of special interest: existence monism/pluralism and priority monism/pluralism. Existence monism states that the world is the only concrete object there is. This means that all the concrete "objects" we encounter in our daily lives, including apples, cars and ourselves, are not truly objects in a strict sense. Instead, they are just dependent aspects of the world-object. Such a world-object is simple in the sense that it does not have any genuine parts. For this reason, it has also been referred to as "blobject" since it lacks an internal structure like a blob. Priority monism allows that there are other concrete objects besides the world. But it holds that these objects do not have the most fundamental form of existence, that they somehow depend on the existence of the world. The corresponding forms of pluralism state that the world is complex in the sense that it is made up of concrete, independent objects. Scientific cosmology can be defined as the science of the universe as a whole. In it, the terms "universe" and "cosmos" are usually used as synonyms for the term "world". One common definition of the world/universe found in this field is as "[t]he totality of all space and time; all that is, has been, and will be". Some definitions emphasize that there are two other aspects to the universe besides spacetime: forms of energy or matter, like stars and particles, and laws of nature. World-conceptions in this field differ both concerning their notion of spacetime and of the contents of spacetime. The theory of relativity plays a central role in modern cosmology and its conception of space and time. A difference from its predecessors is that it conceives space and time not as distinct dimensions but as a single four-dimensional manifold called spacetime. This can be seen in special relativity in relation to the Minkowski metric, which includes both spatial and temporal components in its definition of distance. General relativity goes one step further by integrating the concept of mass into the concept of spacetime as its curvature. Quantum cosmology uses a classical notion of spacetime and conceives the whole world as one big wave function expressing the probability of finding particles in a given location. The world-concept plays a role in many modern theories of modality, sometimes in the form of possible worlds. A possible world is a complete and consistent way how things could have been. The actual world is a possible world since the way things are is a way things could have been. There are many other ways things could have been besides how they actually are. For example, Hillary Clinton did not win the 2016 US election, but she could have won. So there is a possible world in which she did. There is a vast number of possible worlds, one corresponding to each such difference, no matter how small or big, as long as no outright contradictions are introduced this way. Possible worlds are often conceived as abstract objects, for example, in terms of non-obtaining states of affairs or as maximally consistent sets of propositions. On such a view, they can even be seen as belonging to the actual world. Another way to conceive possible worlds, made famous by David Lewis, is as concrete entities. On this conception, there is no important difference between the actual world and possible worlds: both are conceived as concrete, inclusive and spatiotemporally connected. The only difference is that the actual world is the world we live in, while other possible worlds are not inhabited by us but by our counterparts. Everything within a world is spatiotemporally connected to everything else but the different worlds do not share a common spacetime: They are spatiotemporally isolated from each other. This is what makes them separate worlds. It has been suggested that, besides possible worlds, there are also impossible worlds. Possible worlds are ways things could have been, so impossible worlds are ways things could not have been. Such worlds involve a contradiction, like a world in which Hillary Clinton both won and lost the 2016 US election. Both possible and impossible worlds have in common the idea that they are totalities of their constituents. Within phenomenology, worlds are defined in terms of horizons of experiences. When we perceive an object, like a house, we do not just experience this object at the center of our attention but also various other objects surrounding it, given in the periphery. The term "horizon" refers to these co-given objects, which are usually experienced only in a vague, indeterminate manner. The perception of a house involves various horizons, corresponding to the neighborhood, the city, the country, the Earth, etc. In this context, the world is the biggest horizon or the "horizon of all horizons". It is common among phenomenologists to understand the world not just as a spatiotemporal collection of objects but as additionally incorporating various other relations between these objects. These relations include, for example, indication-relations that help us anticipate one object given the appearances of another object and means-end-relations or functional involvements relevant for practical concerns. In philosophy of mind, the term "world" is commonly used in contrast to the term "mind" as that which is represented by the mind. This is sometimes expressed by stating that there is a gap between mind and world and that this gap needs to be overcome for representation to be successful. One problem in philosophy of mind is to explain how the mind is able to bridge this gap and to enter into genuine mind-world-relations, for example, in the form of perception, knowledge or action. This is necessary for the world to be able to rationally constrain the activity of the mind. According to a realist position, the world is something distinct and independent from the mind. Idealists conceive of the world as partially or fully determined by the mind. Immanuel Kant's transcendental idealism, for example, posits that the spatiotemporal structure of the world is imposed by the mind on reality but lacks independent existence otherwise. A more radical idealist conception of the world can be found in Berkeley's subjective idealism, which holds that the world as a whole, including all everyday objects like tables, cats, trees and ourselves, "consists of nothing but minds and ideas". Different theological positions hold different conceptions of the world based on its relation to God. Classical theism states that God is wholly distinct from the world. But the world depends for its existence on God, both because God created the world and because He maintains or conserves it. This is sometimes understood in analogy to how humans create and conserve ideas in their imagination, with the difference being that the divine mind is vastly more powerful. On such a view, God has absolute, ultimate reality in contrast to the lower ontological status ascribed to the world. God's involvement in the world is often understood along the lines of a personal, benevolent God who looks after and guides His creation. Deists agree with theists that God created the world but deny any subsequent, personal involvement in it. Pantheists reject the separation between God and world. Instead, they claim that the two are identical. This means that there is nothing to the world that does not belong to God and that there is nothing to God beyond what is found in the world. Panentheism constitutes a middle ground between theism and pantheism. Against theism, it holds that God and the world are interrelated and depend on each other. Against pantheism, it holds that there is no outright identity between the two. History of philosophy In philosophy, the term world has several possible meanings. In some contexts, it refers to everything that makes up reality or the physical universe. In others, it can mean have a specific ontological sense (see world disclosure). While clarifying the concept of world has arguably always been among the basic tasks of Western philosophy, this theme appears to have been raised explicitly only at the start of the twentieth century, Plato is well known for his theory of forms, which posits the existence of two different worlds: the sensible world and the intelligible world. The sensible world is the world we live in, filled with changing physical things we can see, touch and interact with. The intelligible world is the world of invisible, eternal, changeless forms like goodness, beauty, unity and sameness. Plato ascribes a lower ontological status to the sensible world, which only imitates the world of forms. This is due to the fact that physical things exist only to the extent that they participate in the forms that characterize them, while the forms themselves have an independent manner of existence. In this sense, the sensible world is a mere replication of the perfect exemplars found in the world of forms: it never lives up to the original. In the allegory of the cave, Plato compares the physical things we are familiar with to mere shadows of the real things. But not knowing the difference, the prisoners in the cave mistake the shadows for the real things. Two definitions that were both put forward in the 1920s, however, suggest the range of available opinion. "The world is everything that is the case", wrote Ludwig Wittgenstein in his influential Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, first published in 1921. Martin Heidegger, meanwhile, argued that "the surrounding world is different for each of us, and notwithstanding that we move about in a common world". "World" is one of the key terms in Eugen Fink's philosophy. He thinks that there is a misguided tendency in western philosophy to understand the world as one enormously big thing containing all the small everyday things we are familiar with. He sees this view as a form of forgetfulness of the world and tries to oppose it by what he calls the "cosmological difference": the difference between the world and the inner-worldly things it contains. On his view, the world is the totality of the inner-worldly things that transcends them. It is itself groundless but it provides a ground for things. It therefore cannot be identified with a mere container. Instead, the world gives appearance to inner-worldly things, it provides them with a place, a beginning and an end. One difficulty in investigating the world is that we never encounter it since it is not just one more thing that appears to us. This is why Fink uses the notion of play or playing to elucidate the nature of the world. He sees play as a symbol of the world that is both part of it and that represents it. Play usually comes with a form of imaginary play-world involving various things relevant to the play. But just like the play is more than the imaginary realities appearing in it so the world is more than the actual things appearing in it. The concept of worlds plays a central role in Nelson Goodman's late philosophy. He argues that we need to posit different worlds in order to account for the fact that there are different incompatible truths found in reality. Two truths are incompatible if they ascribe incompatible properties to the same thing. This happens, for example, when we assert both that the earth moves and that the earth is at rest. These incompatible truths correspond to two different ways of describing the world: heliocentrism and geocentrism. Goodman terms such descriptions "world versions". He holds a correspondence theory of truth: a world version is true if it corresponds to a world. Incompatible true world versions correspond to different worlds. It is common for theories of modality to posit the existence of a plurality of possible worlds. But Goodman's theory is different since it posits a plurality not of possible but of actual worlds. Such a position is in danger of involving a contradiction: there cannot be a plurality of actual worlds if worlds are defined as maximally inclusive wholes. This danger may be avoided by interpreting Goodman's world-concept not as maximally inclusive wholes in the absolute sense but in relation to its corresponding world-version: a world contains all and only the entities that its world-version describes. Religion Mythological cosmologies depict the world as centered on an axis mundi and delimited by a boundary such as a world ocean, a world serpent or similar. Hinduism constitutes a family of religious-philosophical views. These views present perspectives on the nature and role of the world. Samkhya philosophy, for example, is a metaphysical dualism that understands reality as comprising 2 parts: purusha and prakriti. The term "purusha" stands for the individual conscious self that each of "us" possesses. Prakriti, on the other hand, is the 1 world inhabited by all these selves. Samkhya understands this world as a world of matter governed by the law of cause and effect. The term "matter" is understood in a sense in this tradition including physical and mental aspects. This is reflected in the doctrine of tattvas, according to which prakriti is made up of 23 principles or elements of reality. These principles include physical elements, like water or earth, and mental aspects, like intelligence or sense-impressions. The relation between purusha and prakriti is conceived as 1 of observation: purusha is the conscious self aware of the world of prakriti and does not causally interact with it. A conception of the world is present in Advaita Vedanta, the monist school among the Vedanta schools. Unlike the realist position defended in Samkhya philosophy, Advaita Vedanta sees the world of multiplicity as an illusion, referred to as Maya. This illusion includes impression of existing as separate experiencing selfs called Jivas. Instead, Advaita Vedanta teaches that on the most fundamental level of reality, referred to as Brahman, there exists no plurality or difference. All there is is 1 all-encompassing self: Atman. Ignorance is seen as the source of this illusion, which results in bondage to the world of mere appearances. Liberation is possible in the course of overcoming this illusion by acquiring the knowledge of Brahman, according to Advaita Vedanta. Contemptus mundi is the name given to the belief that the world, in all its vanity, is nothing more than a futile attempt to hide from God by stifling our desire for the good and the holy. This view has been characterised as a "pastoral of fear" by historian Jean Delumeau. "The world, the flesh, and the devil" is a traditional division of the sources of temptation. Orbis Catholicus is a Latin phrase meaning "Catholic world", per the expression Urbi et Orbi, and refers to that area of Christendom under papal supremacy. In Islam, the term "dunya" is used for the world. Its meaning is derived from the root word "dana", a term for "near". It is associated with the temporal, sensory world and earthly concerns, i.e. with this world in contrast to the spiritual world. Religious teachings warn of a tendency to seek happiness in this world and advise a more ascetic lifestyle concerned with the afterlife. Other strands in Islam recommend a balanced approach. In Mandaean cosmology, the world or earthly realm is known as Tibil. It is separated from the World of Light (alma d-nhūra) above and the World of Darkness (alma d-hšuka) below by aether (ayar). Related terms and problems A worldview is a comprehensive representation of the world and our place in it. As a representation, it is a subjective perspective of the world and thereby different from the world it represents. All higher animals need to represent their environment in some way in order to navigate it. But it has been argued that only humans possess a representation encompassing enough to merit the term "worldview". Philosophers of worldviews commonly hold that the understanding of any object depends on a worldview constituting the background on which this understanding can take place. This may affect not just our intellectual understanding of the object in question but the experience of it in general. It is therefore impossible to assess one's worldview from a neutral perspective since this assessment already presupposes the worldview as its background. Some hold that each worldview is based on a single hypothesis that promises to solve all the problems of our existence we may encounter. On this interpretation, the term is closely associated to the worldviews given by different religions. Worldviews offer orientation not just in theoretical matters but also in practical matters. For this reason, they usually include answers to the question of the meaning of life and other evaluative components about what matters and how we should act. A worldview can be unique to one individual but worldviews are usually shared by many people within a certain culture or religion. The idea that there exist many different worlds is found in various fields. For example, theories of modality talk about a plurality of possible worlds and the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics carries this reference even in its name. Talk of different worlds is also common in everyday language, for example, with reference to the world of music, the world of business, the world of football, the world of experience or the Asian world. But at the same time, worlds are usually defined as all-inclusive totalities. This seems to contradict the very idea of a plurality of worlds since if a world is total and all-inclusive then it cannot have anything outside itself. Understood this way, a world can neither have other worlds besides itself or be part of something bigger. One way to resolve this paradox while holding onto the notion of a plurality of worlds is to restrict the sense in which worlds are totalities. On this view, worlds are not totalities in an absolute sense. This might be even understood in the sense that, strictly speaking, there are no worlds at all. Another approach understands worlds in a schematic sense: as context-dependent expressions that stand for the current domain of discourse. So in the expression "Around the World in Eighty Days", the term "world" refers to the earth while in the colonial expression "the New World" it refers to the landmass of North and South America. Cosmogony is the field that studies the origin or creation of the world. This includes both scientific cosmogony and creation myths found in various religions. The dominant theory in scientific cosmogony is the Big Bang theory, according to which both space, time and matter have their origin in one initial singularity occurring about 13.8 billion years ago. This singularity was followed by an expansion that allowed the universe to sufficiently cool down for the formation of subatomic particles and later atoms. These initial elements formed giant clouds, which would then coalesce into stars and galaxies. Non-scientific creation myths are found in many cultures and are often enacted in rituals expressing their symbolic meaning. They can be categorized concerning their contents. Types often found include creation from nothing, from chaos or from a cosmic egg. Eschatology refers to the science or doctrine of the last things or of the end of the world. It is traditionally associated with religion, specifically with the Abrahamic religions. In this form, it may include teachings both of the end of each individual human life and of the end of the world as a whole. But it has been applied to other fields as well, for example, in the form of physical eschatology, which includes scientifically based speculations about the far future of the universe. According to some models, there will be a Big Crunch in which the whole universe collapses back into a singularity, possibly resulting in a second Big Bang afterward. But current astronomical evidence seems to suggest that our universe will continue to expand indefinitely. World history studies the world from a historical perspective. Unlike other approaches to history, it employs a global viewpoint. It deals less with individual nations and civilizations, which it usually approaches at a high level of abstraction. Instead, it concentrates on wider regions and zones of interaction, often interested in how people, goods and ideas move from one region to another. It includes comparisons of different societies and civilizations as well as considering wide-ranging developments with a long-term global impact like the process of industrialization. Contemporary world history is dominated by three main research paradigms determining the periodization into different epochs. One is based on productive relations between humans and nature. The two most important changes in history in this respect were the introduction of agriculture and husbandry concerning the production of food, which started around 10,000 to 8,000 BCE and is sometimes termed the Neolithic Revolution, and the Industrial Revolution, which started around 1760 CE and involved the transition from manual to industrial manufacturing. Another paradigm, focusing on culture and religion instead, is based on Karl Jaspers' theories about the Axial Age, a time in which various new forms of religious and philosophical thoughts appeared in several separate parts of the world around the time between 800 and 200 BCE. A third periodization is based on the relations between civilizations and societies. According to this paradigm, history can be divided into three periods in relation to the dominant region in the world: Middle Eastern dominance before 500 BCE, Eurasian cultural balance until 1500 CE and Western dominance since 1500 CE. Big History employs an even wider framework than world history by putting human history into the context of the history of the universe as a whole. It starts with the Big Bang and traces the formation of galaxies, the Solar System, the Earth, its geological eras, the evolution of life and humans until the present day. World politics, also referred to as global politics or international relations, is the discipline of political science studying issues of interest to the world that transcend nations and continents. It aims to explain complex patterns found in the social world that are often related to the pursuit of power, order and justice, usually in the context of globalization. It focuses not just on the relations between nation-states but also considers other transnational actors, like multinational corporations, terrorist groups, or non-governmental organizations. For example, it tries to explain events such as the September 11 attacks, the 2003 invasion of Iraq or the 2008 financial crisis. Various theories have been proposed in order to deal with the complexity involved in formulating such explanations. These theories are sometimes divided into realism, liberalism and constructivism. Realists see nation-states as the main actors in world politics. They constitute an anarchical international system without any overarching power to control their behavior. They are seen as sovereign agents that, determined by human nature, act according to their national self-interest. Military force may play an important role in the ensuing struggle for power between states, but diplomacy and cooperation are also key mechanisms for nations to achieve their goals. Liberalists acknowledge the importance of states but they also emphasize the role of transnational actors, like the United Nations or the World Trade Organization. They see humans as perfectible and stress the role of democracy in this process. The emergent order in world politics, on this perspective, is more complex than a mere balance of power since more different agents and interests are involved in its production. Constructivism ascribes more importance to the agency of individual humans than realism and liberalism. It understands the social world as a construction of the people living in it. This leads to an emphasis on the possibility of change. If the international system is an anarchy of nation-states, as the realists hold, then this is only so because we made it this way and may change since this is not prefigured by human nature, according to the constructivists. See also References External links Africa Antarctica Asia Australia Europe North America South America Afro-Eurasia Americas Eurasia Oceania |
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Urgent research needed to tackle AI threats, says Google AI boss23 hours agoShareSaveZoe Kleinman,Technology editorandPhilippa Wain,technology producer, Delhi, IndiaShareSaveGetty ImagesSir Demis Hassabis of Google DeepMind spoke to the BBC at the AI Impact Summit in DelhiMore research on the threats of artificial intelligence (AI) "needs to be done urgently", the boss of Google DeepMind has told BBC News. In an exclusive interview at the AI Impact Summit in Delhi, Sir Demis Hassabis said the industry wanted "smart regulation" for "the real risks" posed by the tech. Many tech leaders and politicians at the Summit have called for more global governance of AI, ahead of an expected joint statement as the event draws to a close.But the US has rejected this stance, with White House technology adviser Michael Kratsios saying: "AI adoption cannot lead to a brighter future if it is subject to bureaucracies and centralised control."Sir Demis said it was important to build "robust guardrails" against the most serious threats from the rise of autonomous systems.He said the two main threats were the technology being used by "bad actors", and the risk of losing control of systems as they become more powerful.When asked whether he had the power to slow down the progress of the tech to give experts more time to work on its challenges, he said his firm had an important role to play, but was "only one player in the ecosystem".But he admitted keeping up with the pace of AI development was "the hard thing" for regulators. Sam Altman, the boss of OpenAI, also called for "urgent regulation" in a speech at the AI Summit, while Indian Prime Minster Narendra Modi said countries had to work together to benefit from AI.However, the US has taken the opposite view. "As the Trump administration has now said many times: We totally reject global governance of AI," said the head of the US delegation Michael Kratsios.Sir Demis won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2024Delegates from more than 100 countries, including several world leaders, are attending the event. Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy MP represented the UK government. Mr Lammy said the power wasn't just with tech firms when it came to safety of AI and politicians need to work "hand in hand" with tech adding, "security and safety must come first and it must be of benefit for the wider public". Sir Demis believes the US and the west are "slightly" ahead in the race with China for AI dominance but added that it could be "only a matter of months" before China catches up.He said he felt the responsibility to balance being "bold and responsible" about deploying AI systems out in the world."We don't always get things right," he admitted, "but we get it more correct than most".Science education 'still very important'In the next 10 years the tech would become "a superpower" in terms of what people would be able to create, Sir Demis, who won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, said."I think it's still very important to have a Stem (science, technology, engineering and maths) education," he added."If you have a technical background, I think it will still be an advantage in using these systems."He thinks AI writing code would open up the number of people who could build new applications, "and then maybe the key thing becomes taste and creativity and judgement".The AI Impact Summit is the largest ever global gathering of world leaders and tech bosses. It ends on Friday with companies and countries expected to deliver a shared view of how to handle artificial intelligence.Bill Gates pulls out of India's AI summit over Epstein files controversy'Architects of AI' named Time Magazine's Person of the YearWhat is AI and how does it work?Sign up for our Tech Decoded newsletter to follow the world's top tech stories and trends. Outside the UK? Sign up here.Science & EnvironmentInternational BusinessGoogleArtificial intelligence Urgent research needed to tackle AI threats, says Google AI boss More research on the threats of artificial intelligence (AI) "needs to be done urgently", the boss of Google DeepMind has told BBC News. In an exclusive interview at the AI Impact Summit in Delhi, Sir Demis Hassabis said the industry wanted "smart regulation" for "the real risks" posed by the tech. Many tech leaders and politicians at the Summit have called for more global governance of AI, ahead of an expected joint statement as the event draws to a close. But the US has rejected this stance, with White House technology adviser Michael Kratsios saying: "AI adoption cannot lead to a brighter future if it is subject to bureaucracies and centralised control." Sir Demis said it was important to build "robust guardrails" against the most serious threats from the rise of autonomous systems. He said the two main threats were the technology being used by "bad actors", and the risk of losing control of systems as they become more powerful. When asked whether he had the power to slow down the progress of the tech to give experts more time to work on its challenges, he said his firm had an important role to play, but was "only one player in the ecosystem". But he admitted keeping up with the pace of AI development was "the hard thing" for regulators. Sam Altman, the boss of OpenAI, also called for "urgent regulation" in a speech at the AI Summit, while Indian Prime Minster Narendra Modi said countries had to work together to benefit from AI. However, the US has taken the opposite view. "As the Trump administration has now said many times: We totally reject global governance of AI," said the head of the US delegation Michael Kratsios. Delegates from more than 100 countries, including several world leaders, are attending the event. Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy MP represented the UK government. Mr Lammy said the power wasn't just with tech firms when it came to safety of AI and politicians need to work "hand in hand" with tech adding, "security and safety must come first and it must be of benefit for the wider public". Sir Demis believes the US and the west are "slightly" ahead in the race with China for AI dominance but added that it could be "only a matter of months" before China catches up. He said he felt the responsibility to balance being "bold and responsible" about deploying AI systems out in the world. "We don't always get things right," he admitted, "but we get it more correct than most". Science education 'still very important' In the next 10 years the tech would become "a superpower" in terms of what people would be able to create, Sir Demis, who won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, said. "I think it's still very important to have a Stem (science, technology, engineering and maths) education," he added. "If you have a technical background, I think it will still be an advantage in using these systems." He thinks AI writing code would open up the number of people who could build new applications, "and then maybe the key thing becomes taste and creativity and judgement". The AI Impact Summit is the largest ever global gathering of world leaders and tech bosses. It ends on Friday with companies and countries expected to deliver a shared view of how to handle artificial intelligence. Bill Gates pulls out of India's AI summit over Epstein files controversy 'Architects of AI' named Time Magazine's Person of the Year What is AI and how does it work? Sign up for our Tech Decoded newsletter to follow the world's top tech stories and trends. Outside the UK? Sign up here. Deer culling to be made easier to protect trees and crops SpaceX rocket fireball linked to plume of polluting lithium Ancient bone may prove legendary war elephant crossing of Alps Tumbler Ridge suspect's ChatGPT account banned before shooting OpenAI said the account's activity did not meet the threshold to flag it to authorities when it was identified. 'Breweries using AI could put artists out of work' As two pubs in Newcastle ban AI art, artists discuss the impact it can have on creatives. How will Trump's new 10% global tariffs work and what's next? The Supreme Court's decision has led questions over whether people can get a refund over the unlawful tariffs. What tariffs has Trump announced and why? Trump's volatile trade policy has thrown the world economy into chaos, and put some US prices up. Asos co-founder dies after Thailand apartment block fall Quentin Griffiths co-founded Asos in 2000 and remained a significant shareholder after leaving the firm five years later. Copyright 2026 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking. |
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[SOURCE: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5ydjd6ep73o] | [TOKENS: 2162] |
UK doctor stuck in India after police case over Facebook post1 day agoShareSaveAlpesh KarkareBBC MarathiShareSaveSangram Patil/YouTubeSangram Patil is a consultant with the UK's National Health ServiceA British doctor has been unable to leave India for more than a month after police opened a case against him over a social media post about a top politician of the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).Sangram Patil, a UK citizen of Indian origin who works with the NHS, was stopped from taking a flight back to London from Mumbai on 19 January after a lookout circular was issued against him - a notice that prevents a person under investigation from leaving the country.He is being investigated for allegedly posting "objectionable content" about a BJP leader. Patil, who has a substantial following on Facebook and YouTube, has called the action against him "unlawful".It's not clear when the doctor will be allowed to go back to the UK. He has approached a court, seeking the police case registered against him be dropped and travel restrictions imposed on him be removed. The matter is due to be next heard on 27 February."My children and my job are in the UK. International law and Indian law give me the right to move freely. Restrictions have been imposed on that. I am not able to go home," he told BBC Marathi last week.The BBC has reached out to the Mumbai police, which is investigating the case, for a comment. A spokesperson from the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office did not offer specifics but said last week that they "are supporting a British man in India and are in contact with the local authorities".Police say they are investigating Patil over a complaint filed by Nikhil Bhamre, who handles BJP's social media in the western state of Maharashtra of which Mumbai is the capital.Bhamre's complaint, registered on 18 December, accuses Patil of publishing "objectionable content" against a top BJP leader on Facebook. The complaint did not name the BJP leader who was targeted, but it came four days after Patil had posted a comment about Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Facebook.The police complaint that BBC has seen a copy of contains a link to this post. According to the police complaint, Bhamre alleged that "the post could create hostility between various groups that support and oppose the BJP's ideology".Police registered a case against Patil under India's criminal code "for making statements containing false information that could lead to a feeling of enmity and hatred between communities". The offence is bailable and carries a maximum sentence of up to three years.Patil has rejected the allegations, saying it was "unlawful to register such a complaint against me for that social media post"."My post is a simple question to government supporters and nothing else. It doesn't involve any community, any rumour or sensational news," Patil told BBC Marathi.He said he was first questioned for more than 10 hours when he arrived in Mumbai on 10 January with his wife, and again for eight hours on 16 January. He said he had provided "written answers to all" the police questions and asked for the lookout circular to be withdrawn so he could return to the UK on 19 January.He said officers told him the process to cancel the notice had been initiated, but he was stopped at the airport on the day of his flight.Being questioned for more than 20 hours over what he described as a single line on social media felt like "targeted harassment", he added.In an affidavit filed on 30 January, police defended the action against Patil saying the investigation was at a crucial stage and "the possibility of an organised effort to malign constitutional authority cannot be ruled out"."It is a matter of serious concern, warranting investigation as to why a foreign citizen, despite being a qualified medical professional, visiting India on a Tourist e-Visa, has engaged in posting defamatory, scandalous, obscene and inflammatory material without any substance and basis against the prime minister of India while residing outside the country," the police told the court.They have also urged the court to dismiss Patil's "misconceived and premature" plea challenging the investigation against him. In a rejoinder filed in court last week, Patil denied the allegations. According to court filings reported by The Indian Express newspaper, he "categorically denied" writing any post naming or referring to the prime minister, adding that "criminal prosecution cannot be founded on subjective political interpretation or perceived sentiment".Follow BBC News India on Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.Get our flagship newsletter with all the headlines you need to start the day. Sign up here.AsiaFacebookIndia UK doctor stuck in India after police case over Facebook post A British doctor has been unable to leave India for more than a month after police opened a case against him over a social media post about a top politician of the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Sangram Patil, a UK citizen of Indian origin who works with the NHS, was stopped from taking a flight back to London from Mumbai on 19 January after a lookout circular was issued against him - a notice that prevents a person under investigation from leaving the country. He is being investigated for allegedly posting "objectionable content" about a BJP leader. Patil, who has a substantial following on Facebook and YouTube, has called the action against him "unlawful". It's not clear when the doctor will be allowed to go back to the UK. He has approached a court, seeking the police case registered against him be dropped and travel restrictions imposed on him be removed. The matter is due to be next heard on 27 February. "My children and my job are in the UK. International law and Indian law give me the right to move freely. Restrictions have been imposed on that. I am not able to go home," he told BBC Marathi last week. The BBC has reached out to the Mumbai police, which is investigating the case, for a comment. A spokesperson from the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office did not offer specifics but said last week that they "are supporting a British man in India and are in contact with the local authorities". Police say they are investigating Patil over a complaint filed by Nikhil Bhamre, who handles BJP's social media in the western state of Maharashtra of which Mumbai is the capital. Bhamre's complaint, registered on 18 December, accuses Patil of publishing "objectionable content" against a top BJP leader on Facebook. The complaint did not name the BJP leader who was targeted, but it came four days after Patil had posted a comment about Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Facebook. The police complaint that BBC has seen a copy of contains a link to this post. According to the police complaint, Bhamre alleged that "the post could create hostility between various groups that support and oppose the BJP's ideology". Police registered a case against Patil under India's criminal code "for making statements containing false information that could lead to a feeling of enmity and hatred between communities". The offence is bailable and carries a maximum sentence of up to three years. Patil has rejected the allegations, saying it was "unlawful to register such a complaint against me for that social media post". "My post is a simple question to government supporters and nothing else. It doesn't involve any community, any rumour or sensational news," Patil told BBC Marathi. He said he was first questioned for more than 10 hours when he arrived in Mumbai on 10 January with his wife, and again for eight hours on 16 January. He said he had provided "written answers to all" the police questions and asked for the lookout circular to be withdrawn so he could return to the UK on 19 January. He said officers told him the process to cancel the notice had been initiated, but he was stopped at the airport on the day of his flight. Being questioned for more than 20 hours over what he described as a single line on social media felt like "targeted harassment", he added. In an affidavit filed on 30 January, police defended the action against Patil saying the investigation was at a crucial stage and "the possibility of an organised effort to malign constitutional authority cannot be ruled out". "It is a matter of serious concern, warranting investigation as to why a foreign citizen, despite being a qualified medical professional, visiting India on a Tourist e-Visa, has engaged in posting defamatory, scandalous, obscene and inflammatory material without any substance and basis against the prime minister of India while residing outside the country," the police told the court. They have also urged the court to dismiss Patil's "misconceived and premature" plea challenging the investigation against him. In a rejoinder filed in court last week, Patil denied the allegations. According to court filings reported by The Indian Express newspaper, he "categorically denied" writing any post naming or referring to the prime minister, adding that "criminal prosecution cannot be founded on subjective political interpretation or perceived sentiment". Follow BBC News India on Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. Get our flagship newsletter with all the headlines you need to start the day. Sign up here. How photography helped the British empire classify India Mother and infant burnt to death in Indian state over witchcraft allegations Mystery donor gives Japanese city $3.6m in gold bars to fix water system Which teams are through to T20 World Cup Super 8s? What will India, Sri Lanka, West Indies, England, South Africa, New Zealand, Zimbabwe and Pakistan have to do reach the semi-finals of the 2026 T20 World Cup? Men's T20 World Cup tables, top run-scorers & wicket-takers BBC Sport lists the best performing batters and bowlers from the Men's T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka. Men's T20 World Cup 2026 - fixtures & results Fixtures, results and scorecards for the 2026 ICC Men's T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka. Stats battle: Can you beat our new T20 World Cup game? Think you know your cricket? Only the most knowledgeable of fans will smash our T20 World Cup stats battle game. Revealed: The billions given to charity by ordinary Indians every year India’s real philanthropy engine isn’t billionaires - it’s everyday household giving, a new survey finds. Copyright 2026 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking. |
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[SOURCE: https://www.fast.ai/posts/2021-10-17-control-groups.html] | [TOKENS: 2644] |
Statistical problems found when studying Long Covid in kids Jeremy Howard October 17, 2021 On this page Summary: Statistical tests need to be paired with proper data and study design to yield valid results. A recent review paper on Long Covid in children provides a useful example of how researchers can get this wrong. We use causal diagrams to decompose the problem and illustrate where errors were made. Background A recent review paper by Australian and Swiss doctors, How Common Is Long COVID in Children and Adolescents?, was widely discussed in the press, with 128 news stories from 103 outlets. The headlines were reassuring: The paper in question does not actually say any of these things, but rather concludes that “the true incidence of this syndrome in children and adolescents remains uncertain.” However, the challenges of accurate science journalism are not the topic for our article today. Rather, we will describe a critical flaw in the statistical analysis in this review, as an exercise in better understanding how to interpret statistical tests. A key contribution of the review is that it separates those studies that use a “control group” from those that do not. The authors suggest we should focus our attention on the studies with a control group, because “in the absence of a control group, it is impossible to distinguish symptoms of long COVID from symptoms attributable to the pandemic.” The National Academy of Sciences warns that “use of an inappropriate control group can make it impossible to draw meaningful conclusions from a study.” As we will see, this is, unfortunately, what happened in this review. But first, let’s do a brief recap of control groups and statistical tests. Control groups and RCTs When assessing the impact of an intervention, such as the use of a new drug, the gold standard is to use a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT). In an RCT, a representative sample is selected, and randomly split into two groups, one of which receives the medical intervention (e.g. the drug), and one which doesn’t (normally that one gets a placebo). This can, when things go well, show clearly whether the drug made a difference. Generally, a “p value” is calculated, which is the probability that the effect seen in the data would be observed by chance if there was truly no difference between cases and controls (i.e. null hypothesis was true), along with a “confidence interval”, which is the range of outcomes that would be expected after considering random variation. If the p value is less than some number (often 0.05) the RCT is considered to be “statistically significant”. Without an RCT, it can be harder to distinguish whether two groups differ because of the intervention, or because of some other difference between the groups. We can represent this analysis as a diagram like so: This is an example of a (simplified and informal) causal diagram. The black arrows show the direct relationships we can measure or control – in this case, our selection of control group vs experimental group is used to decide who gets the drug, and we then measure the outcome (e.g. do symptoms improve) for each group based on our group selection. Because the selection was random (since this is an RCT), we can infer the dotted line: how much does taking the drug change the outcome? If the size of the control or experimental group is small, then it is possible that the difference in outcomes between the two groups is entirely due to random chance. To handle that, we pop the effect size and sample size into statistical software such as R and it will tell us the p value and confidence interval of the effect. Because RCTs are the gold standard for assessing the impact of a medical intervention, they are used whenever possible. Nearly all drugs on the market have been through multiple RCTs, and most medical education includes some discussion of the use and interpretation of RCTs. Control groups and observational studies Sometimes, as discussed in The Planning of Observational Studies of Human Populations, “it is not feasible to use controlled experimentation”, but we want to investigate a causal relationship between variables, in which case we may decide to use an observational study. For instance, studying “the relationship between smoking and health”, risk factors for “injuries in motor accidents”, or “effects of new social programmes”. In cases like these, it isn’t possible to create a true “control group” like in an RCT, since we cannot generally randomly assign people, for instance, to a group that are told to start smoking. Instead, we have to try to find two groups that are as similar as possible, but differ only in the variable under study – for instance, a group of smokers and a group of non-smokers that are of similar demographics, health, etc. This can be challenging. Indeed, the question “does smoking cause cancer” remained controversial for decades, despite many attempts at observational studies. Researchers have noted that “results from observational studies can confuse the effect of interest with other variables’ effects, leading to an association that is not causal. It would be helpful for clinicians and researchers to be able to visualize the structure of biases in a clinical study”. They suggest using causal diagrams for this purpose, including to help avoid confounding bias in epidemiological studies. So, let’s give that a try now! Structure of the Long Covid review In How Common Is Long COVID in Children and Adolescents? the authors suggest we focus on studies of Long Covid prevalence that include a control group. The idea is that we take one group that has (or had) COVID, and one group that didn’t, and then see if they have Long Covid symptoms a few weeks or months later. Here’s what the causal diagram would look like: Here we are trying to determine if COVID infection causes Long Covid symptoms. Since COVID infection is the basis of the Control group selection, and we can compare the Long Covid symptoms for each group, that would allow us to infer the answer to our question. The statistical tests reported in the review paper only apply if this structure is correct. However, it’s not quite this simple. We don’t directly know who has a COVID infection, but instead we have to infer it using a test (e.g serology, PCR, or rapid). It is so easy nowadays to run a statistical test on a computer, it can be quite tempting to just use the software and report what it says, without being careful to check that the statistical assumptions implicitly being made are met by the data and design. We might hope that we could modify our diagram like so: In this case, we could still directly infer the dotted line (i.e “does COVID infection cause Long Covid symptoms?”), since there is just one unknown relationship, and all the arrows go in the same direction. But unfortunately, this doesn’t work either. The link between test results and infection is not perfect. Some researchers, for instance, have estimated that PCR tests may miss half, or even 90% of infections. Part of the reason is that “thresholds for SARS-CoV-2 antibody assays have typically been determined using samples from symptomatic, often hospitalised, patients”. Others have found that 36% of infections do not seroconvert, and that children in particular may serorevert. It appears that false negative test results may be more common in children – tests are most sensitive when used for middle-aged men. To make things even more complicated, research shows that “Long-COVID is associated with weak anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody response.” Putting this all together, here’s what our diagram now looks like, using red arrows here to indicate negative relationships: This shows that test results are not just associated with COVID infection, but also with Age and Long Covid symptoms, and that the association between COVID infection and test result is not imperfect and not fully understood. Because of this, we can’t now directly infer the relationship between COVID infection and Long Covid symptoms. We would first need to fully understand and account for the confounders and uncertainties. Simply reporting the results of a statistical test does not give meaningful information in this case. In particular, we can see that the issues we have identified all bias the data in the same direction: they result in infected cases being incorrectly placed in the control group. For more details about this issue, see the article Long Covid: issues around control selection, by Dr Nisreen Alwan MBE. The problem of p-values The review claims that “all studies to date have substantial limitations or do not show a difference between children who had been infected by SARS-CoV-2 and those who were not”. This claim appears to be made on the basis of p-values, which are shown for each control group study in the review. All but one study did actually find a statistically significant difference between the groups being compared (at p<0.05, which is the usual cut-off for such analyses). Regardless of what the results actually show, p-values are not being used in an appropriate way here. The American Statistical Association (ASA) has released a “Statement on Statistical Significance and P-Values” with six principles underlying the proper use and interpretation of the p-value. In particular, note the following principles: A p-value is lower when there is more data, or a stronger relationship in the data (and visa versa). A high p-value does not necessarily mean that there is not a relationship in the data – it may simply mean that not enough data has been collected. Because a p-value “does not measure the size of an effect or the importance of a result”, they don’t actually tell us about the prevalence of Long Covid. The use of p-values in studying drug efficacy is very common, since we do often want to answer the question “does this drug help at all”? But to assess what the range of prevalence levels may be, we instead need to look at confidence intervals, which unfortunately are not shown at all in the review. Furthermore, we should not look at p-values out of context, but instead need to also consider the likelihood of alternative hypotheses. The alternative hypothesis provided in the review is that the symptoms may be due to “lockdown measures, including school closures”. One of the included control group studies stood out as an outlier, in which 10% of Swiss children with negative tests were found to have Long Covid symptoms, many times higher than other similar studies. Was this because of the confounding effects discussed in the previous section, or was it due to lockdowns and school closures? Switzerland did not have a full lockdown, and schools were only briefly closed, reopening nearly a year before the Long Covid symptom tests in the study. On the other hand, Switzerland may have had a very high number of cases. Wikipedia notes that “the Swiss government has had an official policy of not testing people with only mild symptoms”, and has still recorded nearly 900 thousand cases in a population of just 8 million people. In a statistical design, an alternative hypothesis should not be considered the null hypothesis unless we are quite certain it represents the normal baseline behaviour. But assuming that the symptoms found in the control group are due to pandemic factors other than infection is itself a hypothesis that needs careful testing and does not seem to be fully supported by the data in the study. It is not an appropriate design to use this as the base case, as was done in the review. Conclusion and next steps The problem with control group definition, incorrect use of statistical tests, and statistical design problems does not change the key conclusion of the review: “the true incidence of this syndrome in children and adolescents remains uncertain.” So, how to we resolve this uncertainty? The review has a number of suggestions for future research to improve our understanding or Long Covid prevalence in children. As we’ve seen in this article, we also need to more carefully consider and account for confounding bias. It is often possible, mathematically, to infer an association even in more complex causal relationships such as we see above. However, doing so requires a full and accurate understanding of all of the relationships in the causal structure. Furthermore, a more complete and rigorous assessment of confounders needs to be completed. We’ve only scratched the surface in this article on one aspect: bias in the control group. Bias in the “Long Covid symptoms” node also needs to be considered. For instance: are all Long Covid symptoms being considered; is there under-reporting due to difficulties of child communication or understanding; is there under-reporting due to gender bias; are “on again / off again” variable symptoms being tracked correctly; and so forth. Whatever the solution turns out to be, it seems that for a while at least, the prevalence of Long Covid in children will remain uncertain. How parents, doctors, and policy makers respond to this risk and uncertainty will be a critical issue for children around the world. Acknowledgements Many thanks to Hannah Davis, Dr Deepti Gurdasani, Dr Rachel Thomas, Dr Zoë Hyde, and Dr Nisreen Alwan MBE for invaluable help with research and review for this article. |
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[SOURCE: https://www.fast.ai/posts/2021-10-17-control-groups.html] | [TOKENS: 2644] |
Statistical problems found when studying Long Covid in kids Jeremy Howard October 17, 2021 On this page Summary: Statistical tests need to be paired with proper data and study design to yield valid results. A recent review paper on Long Covid in children provides a useful example of how researchers can get this wrong. We use causal diagrams to decompose the problem and illustrate where errors were made. Background A recent review paper by Australian and Swiss doctors, How Common Is Long COVID in Children and Adolescents?, was widely discussed in the press, with 128 news stories from 103 outlets. The headlines were reassuring: The paper in question does not actually say any of these things, but rather concludes that “the true incidence of this syndrome in children and adolescents remains uncertain.” However, the challenges of accurate science journalism are not the topic for our article today. Rather, we will describe a critical flaw in the statistical analysis in this review, as an exercise in better understanding how to interpret statistical tests. A key contribution of the review is that it separates those studies that use a “control group” from those that do not. The authors suggest we should focus our attention on the studies with a control group, because “in the absence of a control group, it is impossible to distinguish symptoms of long COVID from symptoms attributable to the pandemic.” The National Academy of Sciences warns that “use of an inappropriate control group can make it impossible to draw meaningful conclusions from a study.” As we will see, this is, unfortunately, what happened in this review. But first, let’s do a brief recap of control groups and statistical tests. Control groups and RCTs When assessing the impact of an intervention, such as the use of a new drug, the gold standard is to use a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT). In an RCT, a representative sample is selected, and randomly split into two groups, one of which receives the medical intervention (e.g. the drug), and one which doesn’t (normally that one gets a placebo). This can, when things go well, show clearly whether the drug made a difference. Generally, a “p value” is calculated, which is the probability that the effect seen in the data would be observed by chance if there was truly no difference between cases and controls (i.e. null hypothesis was true), along with a “confidence interval”, which is the range of outcomes that would be expected after considering random variation. If the p value is less than some number (often 0.05) the RCT is considered to be “statistically significant”. Without an RCT, it can be harder to distinguish whether two groups differ because of the intervention, or because of some other difference between the groups. We can represent this analysis as a diagram like so: This is an example of a (simplified and informal) causal diagram. The black arrows show the direct relationships we can measure or control – in this case, our selection of control group vs experimental group is used to decide who gets the drug, and we then measure the outcome (e.g. do symptoms improve) for each group based on our group selection. Because the selection was random (since this is an RCT), we can infer the dotted line: how much does taking the drug change the outcome? If the size of the control or experimental group is small, then it is possible that the difference in outcomes between the two groups is entirely due to random chance. To handle that, we pop the effect size and sample size into statistical software such as R and it will tell us the p value and confidence interval of the effect. Because RCTs are the gold standard for assessing the impact of a medical intervention, they are used whenever possible. Nearly all drugs on the market have been through multiple RCTs, and most medical education includes some discussion of the use and interpretation of RCTs. Control groups and observational studies Sometimes, as discussed in The Planning of Observational Studies of Human Populations, “it is not feasible to use controlled experimentation”, but we want to investigate a causal relationship between variables, in which case we may decide to use an observational study. For instance, studying “the relationship between smoking and health”, risk factors for “injuries in motor accidents”, or “effects of new social programmes”. In cases like these, it isn’t possible to create a true “control group” like in an RCT, since we cannot generally randomly assign people, for instance, to a group that are told to start smoking. Instead, we have to try to find two groups that are as similar as possible, but differ only in the variable under study – for instance, a group of smokers and a group of non-smokers that are of similar demographics, health, etc. This can be challenging. Indeed, the question “does smoking cause cancer” remained controversial for decades, despite many attempts at observational studies. Researchers have noted that “results from observational studies can confuse the effect of interest with other variables’ effects, leading to an association that is not causal. It would be helpful for clinicians and researchers to be able to visualize the structure of biases in a clinical study”. They suggest using causal diagrams for this purpose, including to help avoid confounding bias in epidemiological studies. So, let’s give that a try now! Structure of the Long Covid review In How Common Is Long COVID in Children and Adolescents? the authors suggest we focus on studies of Long Covid prevalence that include a control group. The idea is that we take one group that has (or had) COVID, and one group that didn’t, and then see if they have Long Covid symptoms a few weeks or months later. Here’s what the causal diagram would look like: Here we are trying to determine if COVID infection causes Long Covid symptoms. Since COVID infection is the basis of the Control group selection, and we can compare the Long Covid symptoms for each group, that would allow us to infer the answer to our question. The statistical tests reported in the review paper only apply if this structure is correct. However, it’s not quite this simple. We don’t directly know who has a COVID infection, but instead we have to infer it using a test (e.g serology, PCR, or rapid). It is so easy nowadays to run a statistical test on a computer, it can be quite tempting to just use the software and report what it says, without being careful to check that the statistical assumptions implicitly being made are met by the data and design. We might hope that we could modify our diagram like so: In this case, we could still directly infer the dotted line (i.e “does COVID infection cause Long Covid symptoms?”), since there is just one unknown relationship, and all the arrows go in the same direction. But unfortunately, this doesn’t work either. The link between test results and infection is not perfect. Some researchers, for instance, have estimated that PCR tests may miss half, or even 90% of infections. Part of the reason is that “thresholds for SARS-CoV-2 antibody assays have typically been determined using samples from symptomatic, often hospitalised, patients”. Others have found that 36% of infections do not seroconvert, and that children in particular may serorevert. It appears that false negative test results may be more common in children – tests are most sensitive when used for middle-aged men. To make things even more complicated, research shows that “Long-COVID is associated with weak anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody response.” Putting this all together, here’s what our diagram now looks like, using red arrows here to indicate negative relationships: This shows that test results are not just associated with COVID infection, but also with Age and Long Covid symptoms, and that the association between COVID infection and test result is not imperfect and not fully understood. Because of this, we can’t now directly infer the relationship between COVID infection and Long Covid symptoms. We would first need to fully understand and account for the confounders and uncertainties. Simply reporting the results of a statistical test does not give meaningful information in this case. In particular, we can see that the issues we have identified all bias the data in the same direction: they result in infected cases being incorrectly placed in the control group. For more details about this issue, see the article Long Covid: issues around control selection, by Dr Nisreen Alwan MBE. The problem of p-values The review claims that “all studies to date have substantial limitations or do not show a difference between children who had been infected by SARS-CoV-2 and those who were not”. This claim appears to be made on the basis of p-values, which are shown for each control group study in the review. All but one study did actually find a statistically significant difference between the groups being compared (at p<0.05, which is the usual cut-off for such analyses). Regardless of what the results actually show, p-values are not being used in an appropriate way here. The American Statistical Association (ASA) has released a “Statement on Statistical Significance and P-Values” with six principles underlying the proper use and interpretation of the p-value. In particular, note the following principles: A p-value is lower when there is more data, or a stronger relationship in the data (and visa versa). A high p-value does not necessarily mean that there is not a relationship in the data – it may simply mean that not enough data has been collected. Because a p-value “does not measure the size of an effect or the importance of a result”, they don’t actually tell us about the prevalence of Long Covid. The use of p-values in studying drug efficacy is very common, since we do often want to answer the question “does this drug help at all”? But to assess what the range of prevalence levels may be, we instead need to look at confidence intervals, which unfortunately are not shown at all in the review. Furthermore, we should not look at p-values out of context, but instead need to also consider the likelihood of alternative hypotheses. The alternative hypothesis provided in the review is that the symptoms may be due to “lockdown measures, including school closures”. One of the included control group studies stood out as an outlier, in which 10% of Swiss children with negative tests were found to have Long Covid symptoms, many times higher than other similar studies. Was this because of the confounding effects discussed in the previous section, or was it due to lockdowns and school closures? Switzerland did not have a full lockdown, and schools were only briefly closed, reopening nearly a year before the Long Covid symptom tests in the study. On the other hand, Switzerland may have had a very high number of cases. Wikipedia notes that “the Swiss government has had an official policy of not testing people with only mild symptoms”, and has still recorded nearly 900 thousand cases in a population of just 8 million people. In a statistical design, an alternative hypothesis should not be considered the null hypothesis unless we are quite certain it represents the normal baseline behaviour. But assuming that the symptoms found in the control group are due to pandemic factors other than infection is itself a hypothesis that needs careful testing and does not seem to be fully supported by the data in the study. It is not an appropriate design to use this as the base case, as was done in the review. Conclusion and next steps The problem with control group definition, incorrect use of statistical tests, and statistical design problems does not change the key conclusion of the review: “the true incidence of this syndrome in children and adolescents remains uncertain.” So, how to we resolve this uncertainty? The review has a number of suggestions for future research to improve our understanding or Long Covid prevalence in children. As we’ve seen in this article, we also need to more carefully consider and account for confounding bias. It is often possible, mathematically, to infer an association even in more complex causal relationships such as we see above. However, doing so requires a full and accurate understanding of all of the relationships in the causal structure. Furthermore, a more complete and rigorous assessment of confounders needs to be completed. We’ve only scratched the surface in this article on one aspect: bias in the control group. Bias in the “Long Covid symptoms” node also needs to be considered. For instance: are all Long Covid symptoms being considered; is there under-reporting due to difficulties of child communication or understanding; is there under-reporting due to gender bias; are “on again / off again” variable symptoms being tracked correctly; and so forth. Whatever the solution turns out to be, it seems that for a while at least, the prevalence of Long Covid in children will remain uncertain. How parents, doctors, and policy makers respond to this risk and uncertainty will be a critical issue for children around the world. Acknowledgements Many thanks to Hannah Davis, Dr Deepti Gurdasani, Dr Rachel Thomas, Dr Zoë Hyde, and Dr Nisreen Alwan MBE for invaluable help with research and review for this article. |
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minecraft#cite_note-8] | [TOKENS: 12858] |
Contents Minecraft Minecraft is a sandbox game developed and published by Mojang Studios. Following its initial public alpha release in 2009, it was formally released in 2011 for personal computers. The game has since been ported to numerous platforms, including mobile devices and various video game consoles. In Minecraft, players explore a procedurally generated world with virtually infinite terrain made up of voxels (cubes). They can discover and extract raw materials, craft tools and items, build structures, fight hostile mobs, and cooperate with or compete against other players in multiplayer. The game's large community offers a wide variety of user-generated content, such as modifications, servers, player skins, texture packs, and custom maps, which add new game mechanics and possibilities. Originally created by Markus "Notch" Persson using the Java programming language, Jens "Jeb" Bergensten was handed control over the game's development following its full release. In 2014, Mojang and the Minecraft intellectual property were purchased by Microsoft for US$2.5 billion; Xbox Game Studios hold the publishing rights for the Bedrock Edition, the unified cross-platform version which evolved from the Pocket Edition codebase[i] and replaced the legacy console versions. Bedrock is updated concurrently with Mojang's original Java Edition, although with numerous, generally small, differences. Minecraft is the best-selling video game in history with over 350 million copies sold. It has received critical acclaim, winning several awards and being cited as one of the greatest video games of all time. Social media, parodies, adaptations, merchandise, and the annual Minecon conventions have played prominent roles in popularizing it. The wider Minecraft franchise includes several spin-off games, such as Minecraft: Story Mode, Minecraft Dungeons, and Minecraft Legends. A film adaptation, titled A Minecraft Movie, was released in 2025 and became the second highest-grossing video game film of all time. Gameplay Minecraft is a 3D sandbox video game that has no required goals to accomplish, giving players a large amount of freedom in choosing how to play the game. The game features an optional achievement system. Gameplay is in the first-person perspective by default, but players have the option of third-person perspectives. The game world is composed of rough 3D objects—mainly cubes, referred to as blocks—representing various materials, such as dirt, stone, ores, tree trunks, water, and lava. The core gameplay revolves around picking up and placing these objects. These blocks are arranged in a voxel grid, while players can move freely around the world. Players can break, or mine, blocks and then place them elsewhere, enabling them to build things. Very few blocks are affected by gravity, instead maintaining their voxel position in the air. Players can also craft a wide variety of items, such as armor, which mitigates damage from attacks; weapons (such as swords or bows and arrows), which allow monsters and animals to be killed more easily; and tools (such as pickaxes or shovels), which break certain types of blocks more quickly. Some items have multiple tiers depending on the material used to craft them, with higher-tier items being more effective and durable. They may also freely craft helpful blocks—such as furnaces which can cook food and smelt ores, and torches that produce light—or exchange items with villagers (NPC) through trading emeralds for different goods and vice versa. The game has an inventory system, allowing players to carry a limited number of items. The in-game time system follows a day and night cycle, with one full cycle lasting for 20 real-time minutes. The game also contains a material called redstone, which can be used to make primitive mechanical devices, electrical circuits, and logic gates, allowing for the construction of many complex systems. New players are given a randomly selected default character skin out of nine possibilities, including Steve or Alex, but are able to create and upload their own skins. Players encounter various mobs (short for mobile entities) including animals, villagers, and hostile creatures. Passive mobs, such as cows, pigs, and chickens, spawn during the daytime and can be hunted for food and crafting materials, while hostile mobs—including large spiders, witches, skeletons, and zombies—spawn during nighttime or in dark places such as caves. Some hostile mobs, such as zombies and skeletons, burn under the sun if they have no headgear and are not standing in water. Other creatures unique to Minecraft include the creeper (an exploding creature that sneaks up on the player) and the enderman (a creature with the ability to teleport as well as pick up and place blocks). There are also variants of mobs that spawn in different conditions; for example, zombies have husk and drowned variants that spawn in deserts and oceans, respectively. The Minecraft environment is procedurally generated as players explore it using a map seed that is randomly chosen at the time of world creation (or manually specified by the player). Divided into biomes representing different environments with unique resources and structures, worlds are designed to be effectively infinite in traditional gameplay, though technical limits on the player have existed throughout development, both intentionally and not. Implementation of horizontally infinite generation initially resulted in a glitch termed the "Far Lands" at over 12 million blocks away from the world center, where terrain generated as wall-like, fissured patterns. The Far Lands and associated glitches were considered the effective edge of the world until they were resolved, with the current horizontal limit instead being a special impassable barrier called the world border, located 30 million blocks away. Vertical space is comparatively limited, with an unbreakable bedrock layer at the bottom and a building limit several hundred blocks into the sky. Minecraft features three independent dimensions accessible through portals and providing alternate game environments. The Overworld is the starting dimension and represents the real world, with a terrestrial surface setting including plains, mountains, forests, oceans, caves, and small sources of lava. The Nether is a hell-like underworld dimension accessed via an obsidian portal and composed mainly of lava. Mobs that populate the Nether include shrieking, fireball-shooting ghasts, alongside anthropomorphic pigs called piglins and their zombified counterparts. Piglins in particular have a bartering system, where players can give them gold ingots and receive items in return. Structures known as Nether Fortresses generate in the Nether, containing mobs such as wither skeletons and blazes, which can drop blaze rods needed to access the End dimension. The player can also choose to build an optional boss mob known as the Wither, using skulls obtained from wither skeletons and soul sand. The End can be reached through an end portal, consisting of twelve end portal frames. End portals are found in underground structures in the Overworld known as strongholds. To find strongholds, players must craft eyes of ender using an ender pearl and blaze powder. Eyes of ender can then be thrown, traveling in the direction of the stronghold. Once the player reaches the stronghold, they can place eyes of ender into each portal frame to activate the end portal. The dimension consists of islands floating in a dark, bottomless void. A boss enemy called the Ender Dragon guards the largest, central island. Killing the dragon opens access to an exit portal, which, when entered, cues the game's ending credits and the End Poem, a roughly 1,500-word work written by Irish novelist Julian Gough, which takes about nine minutes to scroll past, is the game's only narrative text, and the only text of significant length directed at the player.: 10–12 At the conclusion of the credits, the player is teleported back to their respawn point and may continue the game indefinitely. In Survival mode, players have to gather natural resources such as wood and stone found in the environment in order to craft certain blocks and items. Depending on the difficulty, monsters spawn in darker areas outside a certain radius of the character, requiring players to build a shelter in order to survive at night. The mode also has a health bar which is depleted by attacks from mobs, falls, drowning, falling into lava, suffocation, starvation, and other events. Players also have a hunger bar, which must be periodically refilled by eating food in-game unless the player is playing on peaceful difficulty. If the hunger bar is empty, the player starves. Health replenishes when players have a full hunger bar or continuously on peaceful. Upon losing all health, players die. The items in the players' inventories are dropped unless the game is reconfigured not to do so. Players then re-spawn at their spawn point, which by default is where players first spawn in the game and can be changed by sleeping in a bed or using a respawn anchor. Dropped items can be recovered if players can reach them before they despawn after 5 minutes. Players may acquire experience points (commonly referred to as "xp" or "exp") by killing mobs and other players, mining, smelting ores, animal breeding, and cooking food. Experience can then be spent on enchanting tools, armor and weapons. Enchanted items are generally more powerful, last longer, or have other special effects. The game features two more game modes based on Survival, known as Hardcore mode and Adventure mode. Hardcore mode plays identically to Survival mode, but with the game's difficulty setting locked to "Hard" and with permadeath, forcing them to delete the world or explore it as a spectator after dying. Adventure mode was added to the game in a post-launch update, and prevents the player from directly modifying the game's world. It was designed primarily for use in custom maps, allowing map designers to let players experience it as intended. In Creative mode, players have access to an infinite number of all resources and items in the game through the inventory menu and can place or mine them instantly. Players can toggle the ability to fly freely around the game world at will, and their characters usually do not take any damage nor are affected by hunger. The game mode helps players focus on building and creating projects of any size without disturbance. Multiplayer in Minecraft enables multiple players to interact and communicate with each other on a single world. It is available through direct game-to-game multiplayer, local area network (LAN) play, local split screen (console-only), and servers (player-hosted and business-hosted). Players can run their own server by making a realm, using a host provider, hosting one themselves or connect directly to another player's game via Xbox Live, PlayStation Network or Nintendo Switch Online. Single-player worlds have LAN support, allowing players to join a world on locally interconnected computers without a server setup. Minecraft multiplayer servers are guided by server operators, who have access to server commands such as setting the time of day and teleporting players. Operators can also set up restrictions concerning which usernames or IP addresses are allowed or disallowed to enter the server. Multiplayer servers have a wide range of activities, with some servers having their own unique rules and customs. The largest and most popular server is Hypixel, which has been visited by over 14 million unique players. Player versus player combat (PvP) can be enabled to allow fighting between players. In 2013, Mojang announced Minecraft Realms, a server hosting service intended to enable players to run server multiplayer games easily and safely without having to set up their own. Unlike a standard server, only invited players can join Realms servers, and these servers do not use server addresses. Minecraft: Java Edition Realms server owners can invite up to twenty people to play on their server, with up to ten players online at a time. Minecraft Realms server owners can invite up to 3,000 people to play on their server, with up to ten players online at one time. The Minecraft: Java Edition Realms servers do not support user-made plugins, but players can play custom Minecraft maps. Minecraft Bedrock Realms servers support user-made add-ons, resource packs, behavior packs, and custom Minecraft maps. At Electronic Entertainment Expo 2016, support for cross-platform play between Windows 10, iOS, and Android platforms was added through Realms starting in June 2016, with Xbox One and Nintendo Switch support to come later in 2017, and support for virtual reality devices. On 31 July 2017, Mojang released the beta version of the update allowing cross-platform play. Nintendo Switch support for Realms was released in July 2018. The modding community consists of fans, users and third-party programmers. Using a variety of application program interfaces that have arisen over time, they have produced a wide variety of downloadable content for Minecraft, such as modifications, texture packs and custom maps. Modifications of the Minecraft code, called mods, add a variety of gameplay changes, ranging from new blocks, items, and mobs to entire arrays of mechanisms. The modding community is responsible for a substantial supply of mods from ones that enhance gameplay, such as mini-maps, waypoints, and durability counters, to ones that add to the game elements from other video games and media. While a variety of mod frameworks were independently developed by reverse engineering the code, Mojang has also enhanced vanilla Minecraft with official frameworks for modification, allowing the production of community-created resource packs, which alter certain game elements including textures and sounds. Players can also create their own "maps" (custom world save files) that often contain specific rules, challenges, puzzles and quests, and share them for others to play. Mojang added an adventure mode in August 2012 and "command blocks" in October 2012, which were created specially for custom maps in Java Edition. Data packs, introduced in version 1.13 of the Java Edition, allow further customization, including the ability to add new achievements, dimensions, functions, loot tables, predicates, recipes, structures, tags, and world generation. The Xbox 360 Edition supported downloadable content, which was available to purchase via the Xbox Games Store; these content packs usually contained additional character skins. It later received support for texture packs in its twelfth title update while introducing "mash-up packs", which combined texture packs with skin packs and changes to the game's sounds, music and user interface. The first mash-up pack (and by extension, the first texture pack) for the Xbox 360 Edition was released on 4 September 2013, and was themed after the Mass Effect franchise. Unlike Java Edition, however, the Xbox 360 Edition did not support player-made mods or custom maps. A cross-promotional resource pack based on the Super Mario franchise by Nintendo was released exclusively for the Wii U Edition worldwide on 17 May 2016, and later bundled free with the Nintendo Switch Edition at launch. Another based on Fallout was released on consoles that December, and for Windows and Mobile in April 2017. In April 2018, malware was discovered in several downloadable user-made Minecraft skins for use with the Java Edition of the game. Avast stated that nearly 50,000 accounts were infected, and when activated, the malware would attempt to reformat the user's hard drive. Mojang promptly patched the issue, and released a statement stating that "the code would not be run or read by the game itself", and would run only when the image containing the skin itself was opened. In June 2017, Mojang released the "1.1 Discovery Update" to the Pocket Edition of the game, which later became the Bedrock Edition. The update introduced the "Marketplace", a catalogue of purchasable user-generated content intended to give Minecraft creators "another way to make a living from the game". Various skins, maps, texture packs and add-ons from different creators can be bought with "Minecoins", a digital currency that is purchased with real money. Additionally, users can access specific content with a subscription service titled "Marketplace Pass". Alongside content from independent creators, the Marketplace also houses items published by Mojang and Microsoft themselves, as well as official collaborations between Minecraft and other intellectual properties. By 2022, the Marketplace had over 1.7 billion content downloads, generating over $500 million in revenue. Development Before creating Minecraft, Markus "Notch" Persson was a game developer at King, where he worked until March 2009. At King, he primarily developed browser games and learned several programming languages. During his free time, he prototyped his own games, often drawing inspiration from other titles, and was an active participant on the TIGSource forums for independent developers. One such project was "RubyDung", a base-building game inspired by Dwarf Fortress, but with an isometric, three-dimensional perspective similar to RollerCoaster Tycoon. Among the features in RubyDung that he explored was a first-person view similar to Dungeon Keeper, though he ultimately discarded this idea, feeling the graphics were too pixelated at the time. Around March 2009, Persson left King and joined jAlbum, while continuing to work on his prototypes. Infiniminer, a block-based open-ended mining game first released in April 2009, inspired Persson's vision for RubyDung's future direction. Infiniminer heavily influenced the visual style of gameplay, including bringing back the first-person mode, the "blocky" visual style and the block-building fundamentals. However, unlike Infiniminer, Persson wanted Minecraft to have RPG elements. The first public alpha build of Minecraft was released on 17 May 2009 on TIGSource. Over the years, Persson regularly released test builds that added new features, including tools, mobs, and entire new dimensions. In 2011, partly due to the game's rising popularity, Persson decided to release a full 1.0 version—a second part of the "Adventure Update"—on 18 November 2011. Shortly after, Persson stepped down from development, handing the project's lead to Jens "Jeb" Bergensten. On 15 September 2014, Microsoft, the developer behind the Microsoft Windows operating system and Xbox video game console, announced a $2.5 billion acquisition of Mojang, which included the Minecraft intellectual property. Persson had suggested the deal on Twitter, asking a corporation to buy his stake in the game after receiving criticism for enforcing terms in the game's end-user license agreement (EULA), which had been in place for the past three years. According to Persson, Mojang CEO Carl Manneh received a call from a Microsoft executive shortly after the tweet, asking if Persson was serious about a deal. Mojang was also approached by other companies including Activision Blizzard and Electronic Arts. The deal with Microsoft was arbitrated on 6 November 2014 and led to Persson becoming one of Forbes' "World's Billionaires". After 2014, Minecraft's primary versions received usually annual major updates—free to players who have purchased the game— each primarily centered around a specific theme. For instance, version 1.13, the Update Aquatic, focused on ocean-related features, while version 1.16, the Nether Update, introduced significant changes to the Nether dimension. However, in late 2024, Mojang announced a shift in their update strategy; rather than releasing large updates annually, they opted for a more frequent release schedule with smaller, incremental updates, stating, "We know that you want new Minecraft content more often." The Bedrock Edition has also received regular updates, now matching the themes of the Java Edition updates. Other versions of the game, such as various console editions and the Pocket Edition, were either merged into Bedrock or discontinued and have not received further updates. On 7 May 2019, coinciding with Minecraft's 10th anniversary, a JavaScript recreation of an old 2009 Java Edition build named Minecraft Classic was made available to play online for free. On 16 April 2020, a Bedrock Edition-exclusive beta version of Minecraft, called Minecraft RTX, was released by Nvidia. It introduced physically-based rendering, real-time path tracing, and DLSS for RTX-enabled GPUs. The public release was made available on 8 December 2020. Path tracing can only be enabled in supported worlds, which can be downloaded for free via the in-game Minecraft Marketplace, with a texture pack from Nvidia's website, or with compatible third-party texture packs. It cannot be enabled by default with any texture pack on any world. Initially, Minecraft RTX was affected by many bugs, display errors, and instability issues. On 22 March 2025, a new visual mode called Vibrant Visuals, an optional graphical overhaul similar to Minecraft RTX, was announced. It promises modern rendering features—such as dynamic shadows, screen space reflections, volumetric fog, and bloom—without the need of RTX-capable hardware. Vibrant Visuals was released as a part of the Chase the Skies update on 17 June 2025 for Bedrock Edition and is planned to release on Java Edition at a later date. Development began for the original edition of Minecraft—then known as Cave Game, and now known as the Java Edition—in May 2009,[k] and ended on 13 May, when Persson released a test video on YouTube of an early version of the game, dubbed the "Cave game tech test" or the "Cave game tech demo". The game was named Minecraft: Order of the Stone the next day, after a suggestion made by a player. "Order of the Stone" came from the webcomic The Order of the Stick, and "Minecraft" was chosen "because it's a good name". The title was later shortened to just Minecraft, omitting the subtitle. Persson completed the game's base programming over a weekend in May 2009, and private testing began on TigIRC on 16 May. The first public release followed on 17 May 2009 as a developmental version shared on the TIGSource forums. Based on feedback from forum users, Persson continued updating the game. This initial public build later became known as Classic. Further developmental phases—dubbed Survival Test, Indev, and Infdev—were released throughout 2009 and 2010. The first major update, known as Alpha, was released on 30 June 2010. At the time, Persson was still working a day job at jAlbum but later resigned to focus on Minecraft full-time as sales of the alpha version surged. Updates were distributed automatically, introducing new blocks, items, mobs, and changes to game mechanics such as water flow. With revenue generated from the game, Persson founded Mojang, a video game studio, alongside former colleagues Jakob Porser and Carl Manneh. On 11 December 2010, Persson announced that Minecraft would enter its beta phase on 20 December. He assured players that bug fixes and all pre-release updates would remain free. As development progressed, Mojang expanded, hiring additional employees to work on the project. The game officially exited beta and launched in full on 18 November 2011. On 1 December 2011, Jens "Jeb" Bergensten took full creative control over Minecraft, replacing Persson as lead designer. On 28 February 2012, Mojang announced the hiring of the developers behind Bukkit, a popular developer API for Minecraft servers, to improve Minecraft's support of server modifications. This move included Mojang taking apparent ownership of the CraftBukkit server mod, though this apparent acquisition later became controversial, and its legitimacy was questioned due to CraftBukkit's open-source nature and licensing under the GNU General Public License and Lesser General Public License. In August 2011, Minecraft: Pocket Edition was released as an early alpha for the Xperia Play via the Android Market, later expanding to other Android devices on 8 October 2011. The iOS version followed on 17 November 2011. A port was made available for Windows Phones shortly after Microsoft acquired Mojang. Unlike Java Edition, Pocket Edition initially focused on Minecraft's creative building and basic survival elements but lacked many features of the PC version. Bergensten confirmed on Twitter that the Pocket Edition was written in C++ rather than Java, as iOS does not support Java. On 10 December 2014, a port of Pocket Edition was released for Windows Phone 8.1. In July 2015, a port of the Pocket Edition to Windows 10 was released as the Windows 10 Edition, with full crossplay to other Pocket versions. In January 2017, Microsoft announced that it would no longer maintain the Windows Phone versions of Pocket Edition. On 20 September 2017, with the "Better Together Update", the Pocket Edition was ported to the Xbox One, and was renamed to the Bedrock Edition. The console versions of Minecraft debuted with the Xbox 360 edition, developed by 4J Studios and released on 9 May 2012. Announced as part of the Xbox Live Arcade NEXT promotion, this version introduced a redesigned crafting system, a new control interface, in-game tutorials, split-screen multiplayer, and online play via Xbox Live. Unlike the PC version, its worlds were finite, bordered by invisible walls. Initially, the Xbox 360 version resembled outdated PC versions but received updates to bring it closer to Java Edition before eventually being discontinued. The Xbox One version launched on 5 September 2014, featuring larger worlds and support for more players. Minecraft expanded to PlayStation platforms with PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 editions released on 17 December 2013 and 4 September 2014, respectively. Originally planned as a PS4 launch title, it was delayed before its eventual release. A PlayStation Vita version followed in October 2014. Like the Xbox versions, the PlayStation editions were developed by 4J Studios. Nintendo platforms received Minecraft: Wii U Edition on 17 December 2015, with a physical release in North America on 17 June 2016 and in Europe on 30 June. The Nintendo Switch version launched via the eShop on 11 May 2017. During a Nintendo Direct presentation on 13 September 2017, Nintendo announced that Minecraft: New Nintendo 3DS Edition, based on the Pocket Edition, would be available for download immediately after the livestream, and a physical copy available on a later date. The game is compatible only with the New Nintendo 3DS or New Nintendo 2DS XL systems and does not work with the original 3DS or 2DS systems. On 20 September 2017, the Better Together Update introduced Bedrock Edition across Xbox One, Windows 10, VR, and mobile platforms, enabling cross-play between these versions. Bedrock Edition later expanded to Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4, with the latter receiving the update in December 2019, allowing cross-platform play for users with a free Xbox Live account. The Bedrock Edition released a native version for PlayStation 5 on 22 October 2024, while the Xbox Series X/S version launched on 17 June 2025. On 18 December 2018, the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Xbox 360, and Wii U versions of Minecraft received their final update and would later become known as "Legacy Console Editions". On 15 January 2019, the New Nintendo 3DS version of Minecraft received its final update, effectively becoming discontinued as well. An educational version of Minecraft, designed for use in schools, launched on 1 November 2016. It is available on Android, ChromeOS, iPadOS, iOS, MacOS, and Windows. On 20 August 2018, Mojang announced that it would bring Education Edition to iPadOS in Autumn 2018. It was released to the App Store on 6 September 2018. On 27 March 2019, it was announced that it would be operated by JD.com in China. On 26 June 2020, a public beta for the Education Edition was made available to Google Play Store compatible Chromebooks. The full game was released to the Google Play Store for Chromebooks on 7 August 2020. On 20 May 2016, China Edition (also known as My World) was announced as a localized edition for China, where it was released under a licensing agreement between NetEase and Mojang. The PC edition was released for public testing on 8 August 2017. The iOS version was released on 15 September 2017, and the Android version was released on 12 October 2017. The PC edition is based on the original Java Edition, while the iOS and Android mobile versions are based on the Bedrock Edition. The edition is free-to-play and had over 700 million registered accounts by September 2023. This version of Bedrock Edition is exclusive to Microsoft's Windows 10 and Windows 11 operating systems. The beta release for Windows 10 launched on the Windows Store on 29 July 2015. After nearly a year and a half in beta, Microsoft fully released the version on 19 December 2016. Called the "Ender Update", this release implemented new features to this version of Minecraft like world templates and add-on packs. On 7 June 2022, the Java and Bedrock Editions of Minecraft were merged into a single bundle for purchase on Windows; those who owned one version would automatically gain access to the other version. Both game versions would otherwise remain separate. Around 2011, prior to Minecraft's full release, Mojang collaborated with The Lego Group to create a Lego brick-based Minecraft game called Brickcraft. This would have modified the base Minecraft game to use Lego bricks, which meant adapting the basic 1×1 block to account for larger pieces typically used in Lego sets. Persson worked on an early version called "Project Rex Kwon Do", named after the character of the same name from the film Napoleon Dynamite. Although Lego approved the project and Mojang assigned two developers for six months, it was canceled due to the Lego Group's demands, according to Mojang's Daniel Kaplan. Lego considered buying Mojang to complete the game, but when Microsoft offered over $2 billion for the company, Lego stepped back, unsure of Minecraft's potential. On 26 June 2025, a build of Brickcraft dated 28 June 2012 was published on a community archive website Omniarchive. Initially, Markus Persson planned to support the Oculus Rift with a Minecraft port. However, after Facebook acquired Oculus in 2013, he abruptly canceled the plans, stating, "Facebook creeps me out." In 2016, a community-made mod, Minecraft VR, added VR support for Java Edition, followed by Vivecraft for HTC Vive. Later that year, Microsoft introduced official Oculus Rift support for Windows 10 Edition, leading to the discontinuation of the Minecraft VR mod due to trademark complaints. Vivecraft was endorsed by Minecraft VR contributors for its Rift support. Also available is a Gear VR version, titled Minecraft: Gear VR Edition. Windows Mixed Reality support was added in 2017. On 7 September 2020, Mojang Studios announced that the PlayStation 4 Bedrock version would receive PlayStation VR support later that month. In September 2024, the Minecraft team announced they would no longer support PlayStation VR, which received its final update in March 2025. Music and sound design Minecraft's music and sound effects were produced by German musician Daniel Rosenfeld, better known as C418. To create the sound effects for the game, Rosenfeld made extensive use of Foley techniques. On learning the processes for the game, he remarked, "Foley's an interesting thing, and I had to learn its subtleties. Early on, I wasn't that knowledgeable about it. It's a whole trial-and-error process. You just make a sound and eventually you go, 'Oh my God, that's it! Get the microphone!' There's no set way of doing anything at all." He reminisced on creating the in-game sound for grass blocks, stating "It turns out that to make grass sounds you don't actually walk on grass and record it, because grass sounds like nothing. What you want to do is get a VHS, break it apart, and just lightly touch the tape." According to Rosenfeld, his favorite sound to design for the game was the hisses of spiders. He elaborates, "I like the spiders. Recording that was a whole day of me researching what a spider sounds like. Turns out, there are spiders that make little screeching sounds, so I think I got this recording of a fire hose, put it in a sampler, and just pitched it around until it sounded like a weird spider was talking to you." Many of the sound design decisions by Rosenfeld were done accidentally or spontaneously. The creeper notably lacks any specific noises apart from a loud fuse-like sound when about to explode; Rosenfeld later recalled "That was just a complete accident by Markus and me [sic]. We just put in a placeholder sound of burning a matchstick. It seemed to work hilariously well, so we kept it." On other sounds, such as those of the zombie, Rosenfeld remarked, "I actually never wanted the zombies so scary. I intentionally made them sound comical. It's nice to hear that they work so well [...]." Rosenfeld remarked that the sound engine was "terrible" to work with, remembering "If you had two song files at once, it [the game engine] would actually crash. There were so many more weird glitches like that the guys never really fixed because they were too busy with the actual game and not the sound engine." The background music in Minecraft consists of instrumental ambient music. To compose the music of Minecraft, Rosenfeld used the package from Ableton Live, along with several additional plug-ins. Speaking on them, Rosenfeld said "They can be pretty much everything from an effect to an entire orchestra. Additionally, I've got some synthesizers that are attached to the computer. Like a Moog Voyager, Dave Smith Prophet 08 and a Virus TI." On 4 March 2011, Rosenfeld released a soundtrack titled Minecraft – Volume Alpha; it includes most of the tracks featured in Minecraft, as well as other music not featured in the game. Kirk Hamilton of Kotaku chose the music in Minecraft as one of the best video game soundtracks of 2011. On 9 November 2013, Rosenfeld released the second official soundtrack, titled Minecraft – Volume Beta, which included the music that was added in a 2013 "Music Update" for the game. A physical release of Volume Alpha, consisting of CDs, black vinyl, and limited-edition transparent green vinyl LPs, was issued by indie electronic label Ghostly International on 21 August 2015. On 14 August 2020, Ghostly released Volume Beta on CD and vinyl, with alternate color LPs and lenticular cover pressings released in limited quantities. The final update Rosenfeld worked on was 2018's 1.13 Update Aquatic. His music remained the only music in the game until 2020's "Nether Update", introducing pieces from Lena Raine. Since then, other composers have made contributions, including Kumi Tanioka, Samuel Åberg, Aaron Cherof, and Amos Roddy, with Raine remaining as the new primary composer. Ownership of all music besides Rosenfeld's independently released albums has been retained by Microsoft, with their label publishing all of the other artists' releases. Gareth Coker also composed some of the music for the game's mini games from the Legacy Console editions. Rosenfeld had stated his intent to create a third album of music for the game in a 2015 interview with Fact, and confirmed its existence in a 2017 tweet, stating that his work on the record as of then had tallied up to be longer than the previous two albums combined, which in total clocks in at over 3 hours and 18 minutes. However, due to licensing issues with Microsoft, the third volume has since not seen release. On 8 January 2021, Rosenfeld was asked in an interview with Anthony Fantano whether or not there was still a third volume of his music intended for release. Rosenfeld responded, saying, "I have something—I consider it finished—but things have become complicated, especially as Minecraft is now a big property, so I don't know." Reception Minecraft has received critical acclaim, with praise for the creative freedom it grants players in-game, as well as the ease of enabling emergent gameplay. Critics have expressed enjoyment in Minecraft's complex crafting system, commenting that it is an important aspect of the game's open-ended gameplay. Most publications were impressed by the game's "blocky" graphics, with IGN describing them as "instantly memorable". Reviewers also liked the game's adventure elements, noting that the game creates a good balance between exploring and building. The game's multiplayer feature has been generally received favorably, with IGN commenting that "adventuring is always better with friends". Jaz McDougall of PC Gamer said Minecraft is "intuitively interesting and contagiously fun, with an unparalleled scope for creativity and memorable experiences". It has been regarded as having introduced millions of children to the digital world, insofar as its basic game mechanics are logically analogous to computer commands. IGN was disappointed about the troublesome steps needed to set up multiplayer servers, calling it a "hassle". Critics also said that visual glitches occur periodically. Despite its release out of beta in 2011, GameSpot said the game had an "unfinished feel", adding that some game elements seem "incomplete or thrown together in haste". A review of the alpha version, by Scott Munro of the Daily Record, called it "already something special" and urged readers to buy it. Jim Rossignol of Rock Paper Shotgun also recommended the alpha of the game, calling it "a kind of generative 8-bit Lego Stalker". On 17 September 2010, gaming webcomic Penny Arcade began a series of comics and news posts about the addictiveness of the game. The Xbox 360 version was generally received positively by critics, but did not receive as much praise as the PC version. Although reviewers were disappointed by the lack of features such as mod support and content from the PC version, they acclaimed the port's addition of a tutorial and in-game tips and crafting recipes, saying that they make the game more user-friendly. The Xbox One Edition was one of the best received ports, being praised for its relatively large worlds. The PlayStation 3 Edition also received generally favorable reviews, being compared to the Xbox 360 Edition and praised for its well-adapted controls. The PlayStation 4 edition was the best received port to date, being praised for having 36 times larger worlds than the PlayStation 3 edition and described as nearly identical to the Xbox One edition. The PlayStation Vita Edition received generally positive reviews from critics but was noted for its technical limitations. The Wii U version received generally positive reviews from critics but was noted for a lack of GamePad integration. The 3DS version received mixed reviews, being criticized for its high price, technical issues, and lack of cross-platform play. The Nintendo Switch Edition received fairly positive reviews from critics, being praised, like other modern ports, for its relatively larger worlds. Minecraft: Pocket Edition initially received mixed reviews from critics. Although reviewers appreciated the game's intuitive controls, they were disappointed by the lack of content. The inability to collect resources and craft items, as well as the limited types of blocks and lack of hostile mobs, were especially criticized. After updates added more content, Pocket Edition started receiving more positive reviews. Reviewers complimented the controls and the graphics, but still noted a lack of content. Minecraft surpassed over a million purchases less than a month after entering its beta phase in early 2011. At the same time, the game had no publisher backing and has never been commercially advertised except through word of mouth, and various unpaid references in popular media such as the Penny Arcade webcomic. By April 2011, Persson estimated that Minecraft had made €23 million (US$33 million) in revenue, with 800,000 sales of the alpha version of the game, and over 1 million sales of the beta version. In November 2011, prior to the game's full release, Minecraft beta surpassed 16 million registered users and 4 million purchases. By March 2012, Minecraft had become the 6th best-selling PC game of all time. As of 10 October 2014[update], the game had sold 17 million copies on PC, becoming the best-selling PC game of all time. On 25 February 2014, the game reached 100 million registered users. By May 2019, 180 million copies had been sold across all platforms, making it the single best-selling video game of all time. The free-to-play Minecraft China version had over 700 million registered accounts by September 2023. By 2023, the game had sold over 300 million copies. As of April 2025, Minecraft has sold over 350 million copies. The Xbox 360 version of Minecraft became profitable within the first day of the game's release in 2012, when the game broke the Xbox Live sales records with 400,000 players online. Within a week of being on the Xbox Live Marketplace, Minecraft sold a million copies. GameSpot announced in December 2012 that Minecraft sold over 4.48 million copies since the game debuted on Xbox Live Arcade in May 2012. In 2012, Minecraft was the most purchased title on Xbox Live Arcade; it was also the fourth most played title on Xbox Live based on average unique users per day. As of 4 April 2014[update], the Xbox 360 version has sold 12 million copies. In addition, Minecraft: Pocket Edition has reached a figure of 21 million in sales. The PlayStation 3 Edition sold one million copies in five weeks. The release of the game's PlayStation Vita version boosted Minecraft sales by 79%, outselling both PS3 and PS4 debut releases and becoming the largest Minecraft launch on a PlayStation console. The PS Vita version sold 100,000 digital copies in Japan within the first two months of release, according to an announcement by SCE Japan Asia. By January 2015, 500,000 digital copies of Minecraft were sold in Japan across all PlayStation platforms, with a surge in primary school children purchasing the PS Vita version. As of 2022, the Vita version has sold over 1.65 million physical copies in Japan, making it the best-selling Vita game in the country. Minecraft helped improve Microsoft's total first-party revenue by $63 million for the 2015 second quarter. The game, including all of its versions, had over 112 million monthly active players by September 2019. On its 11th anniversary in May 2020, the company announced that Minecraft had reached over 200 million copies sold across platforms with over 126 million monthly active players. By April 2021, the number of active monthly users had climbed to 140 million. In July 2010, PC Gamer listed Minecraft as the fourth-best game to play at work. In December of that year, Good Game selected Minecraft as their choice for Best Downloadable Game of 2010, Gamasutra named it the eighth best game of the year as well as the eighth best indie game of the year, and Rock, Paper, Shotgun named it the "game of the year". Indie DB awarded the game the 2010 Indie of the Year award as chosen by voters, in addition to two out of five Editor's Choice awards for Most Innovative and Best Singleplayer Indie. It was also awarded Game of the Year by PC Gamer UK. The game was nominated for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize, Technical Excellence, and Excellence in Design awards at the March 2011 Independent Games Festival and won the Grand Prize and the community-voted Audience Award. At Game Developers Choice Awards 2011, Minecraft won awards in the categories for Best Debut Game, Best Downloadable Game and Innovation Award, winning every award for which it was nominated. It also won GameCity's video game arts award. On 5 May 2011, Minecraft was selected as one of the 80 games that would be displayed at the Smithsonian American Art Museum as part of The Art of Video Games exhibit that opened on 16 March 2012. At the 2011 Spike Video Game Awards, Minecraft won the award for Best Independent Game and was nominated in the Best PC Game category. In 2012, at the British Academy Video Games Awards, Minecraft was nominated in the GAME Award of 2011 category and Persson received The Special Award. In 2012, Minecraft XBLA was awarded a Golden Joystick Award in the Best Downloadable Game category, and a TIGA Games Industry Award in the Best Arcade Game category. In 2013, it was nominated as the family game of the year at the British Academy Video Games Awards. During the 16th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated the Xbox 360 version of Minecraft for "Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year". Minecraft Console Edition won the award for TIGA Game Of The Year in 2014. In 2015, the game placed 6th on USgamer's The 15 Best Games Since 2000 list. In 2016, Minecraft placed 6th on Time's The 50 Best Video Games of All Time list. Minecraft was nominated for the 2013 Kids' Choice Awards for Favorite App, but lost to Temple Run. It was nominated for the 2014 Kids' Choice Awards for Favorite Video Game, but lost to Just Dance 2014. The game later won the award for the Most Addicting Game at the 2015 Kids' Choice Awards. In addition, the Java Edition was nominated for "Favorite Video Game" at the 2018 Kids' Choice Awards, while the game itself won the "Still Playing" award at the 2019 Golden Joystick Awards, as well as the "Favorite Video Game" award at the 2020 Kids' Choice Awards. Minecraft also won "Stream Game of the Year" at inaugural Streamer Awards in 2021. The game later garnered a Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Award nomination for Favorite Video Game in 2021, and won the same category in 2022 and 2023. At the Golden Joystick Awards 2025, it won the Still Playing Award - PC and Console. Minecraft has been subject to several notable controversies. In June 2014, Mojang announced that it would begin enforcing the portion of Minecraft's end-user license agreement (EULA) which prohibits servers from giving in-game advantages to players in exchange for donations or payments. Spokesperson Owen Hill stated that servers could still require players to pay a fee to access the server and could sell in-game cosmetic items. The change was supported by Persson, citing emails he received from parents of children who had spent hundreds of dollars on servers. The Minecraft community and server owners protested, arguing that the EULA's terms were more broad than Mojang was claiming, that the crackdown would force smaller servers to shut down for financial reasons, and that Mojang was suppressing competition for its own Minecraft Realms subscription service. The controversy contributed to Notch's decision to sell Mojang. In 2020, Mojang announced an eventual change to the Java Edition to require a login from a Microsoft account rather than a Mojang account, the latter of which would be sunsetted. This also required Java Edition players to create Xbox network Gamertags. Mojang defended the move to Microsoft accounts by saying that improved security could be offered, including two-factor authentication, blocking cyberbullies in chat, and improved parental controls. The community responded with intense backlash, citing various technical difficulties encountered in the process and how account migration would be mandatory, even for those who do not play on servers. As of 10 March 2022, Microsoft required that all players migrate in order to maintain access the Java Edition of Minecraft. Mojang announced a deadline of 19 September 2023 for account migration, after which all legacy Mojang accounts became inaccessible and unable to be migrated. In June 2022, Mojang added a player-reporting feature in Java Edition. Players could report other players on multiplayer servers for sending messages prohibited by the Xbox Live Code of Conduct; report categories included profane language,[l] substance abuse, hate speech, threats of violence, and nudity. If a player was found to be in violation of Xbox Community Standards, they would be banned from all servers for a specific period of time or permanently. The update containing the report feature (1.19.1) was released on 27 July 2022. Mojang received substantial backlash and protest from community members, one of the most common complaints being that banned players would be forbidden from joining any server, even private ones. Others took issue to what they saw as Microsoft increasing control over its player base and exercising censorship, leading some to start a hashtag #saveminecraft and dub the version "1.19.84", a reference to the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. The "Mob Vote" was an online event organized by Mojang in which the Minecraft community voted between three original mob concepts; initially, the winning mob was to be implemented in a future update, while the losing mobs were scrapped, though after the first mob vote this was changed, and losing mobs would now have a chance to come to the game in the future. The first Mob Vote was held during Minecon Earth 2017 and became an annual event starting with Minecraft Live 2020. The Mob Vote was often criticized for forcing players to choose one mob instead of implementing all three, causing divisions and flaming within the community, and potentially allowing internet bots and Minecraft content creators with large fanbases to conduct vote brigading. The Mob Vote was also blamed for a perceived lack of new content added to Minecraft since Microsoft's acquisition of Mojang in 2014. The 2023 Mob Vote featured three passive mobs—the crab, the penguin, and the armadillo—with voting scheduled to start on 13 October. In response, a Change.org petition was created on 6 October, demanding that Mojang eliminate the Mob Vote and instead implement all three mobs going forward. The petition received approximately 445,000 signatures by 13 October and was joined by calls to boycott the Mob Vote, as well as a partially tongue-in-cheek "revolutionary" propaganda campaign in which sympathizers created anti-Mojang and pro-boycott posters in the vein of real 20th century propaganda posters. Mojang did not release an official response to the boycott, and the Mob Vote otherwise proceeded normally, with the armadillo winning the vote. In September 2024, as part of a blog post detailing their future plans for Minecraft's development, Mojang announced the Mob Vote would be retired. Cultural impact In September 2019, The Guardian classified Minecraft as the best video game of the 21st century to date, and in November 2019, Polygon called it the "most important game of the decade" in its 2010s "decade in review". In June 2020, Minecraft was inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame. Minecraft is recognized as one of the first successful games to use an early access model to draw in sales prior to its full release version to help fund development. As Minecraft helped to bolster indie game development in the early 2010s, it also helped to popularize the use of the early access model in indie game development. Social media sites such as YouTube, Facebook, and Reddit have played a significant role in popularizing Minecraft. Research conducted by the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania showed that one-third of Minecraft players learned about the game via Internet videos. In 2010, Minecraft-related videos began to gain influence on YouTube, often made by commentators. The videos usually contain screen-capture footage of the game and voice-overs. Common coverage in the videos includes creations made by players, walkthroughs of various tasks, and parodies of works in popular culture. By May 2012, over four million Minecraft-related YouTube videos had been uploaded. The game would go on to be a prominent fixture within YouTube's gaming scene during the entire 2010s; in 2014, it was the second-most searched term on the entire platform. By 2018, it was still YouTube's biggest game globally. Some popular commentators have received employment at Machinima, a now-defunct gaming video company that owned a highly watched entertainment channel on YouTube. The Yogscast is a British company that regularly produces Minecraft videos; their YouTube channel has attained billions of views, and their panel at Minecon 2011 had the highest attendance. Another well-known YouTube personality is Jordan Maron, known online as CaptainSparklez, who has also created many Minecraft music parodies, including "Revenge", a parody of Usher's "DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love". Minecraft's popularity on YouTube was described by Polygon as quietly dominant, although in 2019, thanks in part to PewDiePie's playthroughs of the game, Minecraft experienced a visible uptick in popularity on the platform. Longer-running series include Far Lands or Bust, dedicated to reaching the obsolete "Far Lands" glitch by foot on an older version of the game. YouTube announced that on 14 December 2021 that the total amount of Minecraft-related views on the website had exceeded one trillion. Minecraft has been referenced by other video games, such as Torchlight II, Team Fortress 2, Borderlands 2, Choplifter HD, Super Meat Boy, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, The Binding of Isaac, The Stanley Parable, and FTL: Faster Than Light. Minecraft is officially represented in downloadable content for the crossover fighter Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, with Steve as a playable character with a moveset including references to building, crafting, and redstone, alongside an Overworld-themed stage. It was also referenced by electronic music artist Deadmau5 in his performances. The game is also referenced heavily in "Informative Murder Porn", the second episode of the seventeenth season of the animated television series South Park. In 2025, A Minecraft Movie was released. It made $313 million in the box office in the first week, a record-breaking opening for a video game adaptation. Minecraft has been noted as a cultural touchstone for Generation Z, as many of the generation's members played the game at a young age. The possible applications of Minecraft have been discussed extensively, especially in the fields of computer-aided design (CAD) and education. In a panel at Minecon 2011, a Swedish developer discussed the possibility of using the game to redesign public buildings and parks, stating that rendering using Minecraft was much more user-friendly for the community, making it easier to envision the functionality of new buildings and parks. In 2012, a member of the Human Dynamics group at the MIT Media Lab, Cody Sumter, said: "Notch hasn't just built a game. He's tricked 40 million people into learning to use a CAD program." Various software has been developed to allow virtual designs to be printed using professional 3D printers or personal printers such as MakerBot and RepRap. In September 2012, Mojang began the Block by Block project in cooperation with UN Habitat to create real-world environments in Minecraft. The project allows young people who live in those environments to participate in designing the changes they would like to see. Using Minecraft, the community has helped reconstruct the areas of concern, and citizens are invited to enter the Minecraft servers and modify their own neighborhood. Carl Manneh, Mojang's managing director, called the game "the perfect tool to facilitate this process", adding "The three-year partnership will support UN-Habitat's Sustainable Urban Development Network to upgrade 300 public spaces by 2016." Mojang signed Minecraft building community, FyreUK, to help render the environments into Minecraft. The first pilot project began in Kibera, one of Nairobi's informal settlements and is in the planning phase. The Block by Block project is based on an earlier initiative started in October 2011, Mina Kvarter (My Block), which gave young people in Swedish communities a tool to visualize how they wanted to change their part of town. According to Manneh, the project was a helpful way to visualize urban planning ideas without necessarily having a training in architecture. The ideas presented by the citizens were a template for political decisions. In April 2014, the Danish Geodata Agency generated all of Denmark in fullscale in Minecraft based on their own geodata. This is possible because Denmark is one of the flattest countries with the highest point at 171 meters (ranking as the country with the 30th smallest elevation span), where the limit in default Minecraft was around 192 meters above in-game sea level when the project was completed. Taking advantage of the game's accessibility where other websites are censored, the non-governmental organization Reporters Without Borders has used an open Minecraft server to create the Uncensored Library, a repository within the game of journalism by authors from countries (including Egypt, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam) who have been censored and arrested, such as Jamal Khashoggi. The neoclassical virtual building was created over about 250 hours by an international team of 24 people. Despite its unpredictable nature, Minecraft speedrunning, where players time themselves from spawning into a new world to reaching The End and defeating the Ender Dragon boss, is popular. Some speedrunners use a combination of mods, external programs, and debug menus, while other runners play the game in a more vanilla or more consistency-oriented way. Minecraft has been used in educational settings through initiatives such as MinecraftEdu, founded in 2011 to make the game affordable and accessible for schools in collaboration with Mojang. MinecraftEdu provided features allowing teachers to monitor student progress, including screenshot submissions as evidence of lesson completion, and by 2012 reported that approximately 250,000 students worldwide had access to the platform. Mojang also developed Minecraft: Education Edition with pre-built lesson plans for up to 30 students in a closed environment. Educators have used Minecraft to teach subjects such as history, language arts, and science through custom-built environments, including reconstructions of historical landmarks and large-scale models of biological structures such as animal cells. The introduction of redstone blocks enabled the construction of functional virtual machines such as a hard drive and an 8-bit computer. Mods have been created to use these mechanics for teaching programming. In 2014, the British Museum announced a project to reproduce its building and exhibits in Minecraft in collaboration with the public. Microsoft and Code.org have offered Minecraft-based tutorials and activities designed to teach programming, reporting by 2018 that more than 85 million children had used their resources. In 2025, the Musée de Minéralogie in Paris held a temporary exhibition titled "Minerals in Minecraft." Following the initial surge in popularity of Minecraft in 2010, other video games were criticised for having various similarities to Minecraft, and some were described as being "clones", often due to a direct inspiration from Minecraft, or a superficial similarity. Examples include Ace of Spades, CastleMiner, CraftWorld, FortressCraft, Terraria, BlockWorld 3D, Total Miner, and Luanti (formerly Minetest). David Frampton, designer of The Blockheads, reported that one failure of his 2D game was the "low resolution pixel art" that too closely resembled the art in Minecraft, which resulted in "some resistance" from fans. A homebrew adaptation of the alpha version of Minecraft for the Nintendo DS, titled DScraft, has been released; it has been noted for its similarity to the original game considering the technical limitations of the system. In response to Microsoft's acquisition of Mojang and their Minecraft IP, various developers announced further clone titles developed specifically for Nintendo's consoles, as they were the only major platforms not to officially receive Minecraft at the time. These clone titles include UCraft (Nexis Games), Cube Life: Island Survival (Cypronia), Discovery (Noowanda), Battleminer (Wobbly Tooth Games), Cube Creator 3D (Big John Games), and Stone Shire (Finger Gun Games). Despite this, the fears of fans were unfounded, with official Minecraft releases on Nintendo consoles eventually resuming. Markus Persson made another similar game, Minicraft, for a Ludum Dare competition in 2011. In 2025, Persson announced through a poll on his X account that he was considering developing a spiritual successor to Minecraft. He later clarified that he was "100% serious", and that he had "basically announced Minecraft 2". Within days, however, Persson cancelled the plans after speaking to his team. In November 2024, artificial intelligence companies Decart and Etched released Oasis, an artificially generated version of Minecraft, as a proof of concept. Every in-game element is completely AI-generated in real time and the model does not store world data, leading to "hallucinations" such as items and blocks appearing that were not there before. In January 2026, indie game developer Unomelon announced that their voxel sandbox game Allumeria would be playable in Steam Next Fest that year. On 10 February, Mojang issued a DMCA takedown of Allumeria on Steam through Valve, alleging the game was infringing on Minecraft's copyright. Some reports suggested that the takedown may have used an automatic AI copyright claiming service. The DMCA was later withdrawn. Minecon was an annual official fan convention dedicated to Minecraft. The first full Minecon was held in November 2011 at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The event included the official launch of Minecraft; keynote speeches, including one by Persson; building and costume contests; Minecraft-themed breakout classes; exhibits by leading gaming and Minecraft-related companies; commemorative merchandise; and autograph and picture times with Mojang employees and well-known contributors from the Minecraft community. In 2016, Minecon was held in-person for the last time, with the following years featuring annual "Minecon Earth" livestreams on minecraft.net and YouTube instead. These livestreams, later rebranded to "Minecraft Live", included the mob/biome votes, and announcements of new game updates. In 2025, "Minecraft Live" became a biannual event as part of Minecraft's changing update schedule.[citation needed] Notes References External links |
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AI and coding firm's 'pride' at business award1 day agoShareSaveChloe HughesWest MidlandsShareSaveSchool of Coding & AIThe coding and AI teaching firm, with Birmingham and Wolverhampton bases, was named business of the year by a Birmingham groupThe founder of a company which teaches computer coding and AI has described getting a business of the year award as a milestone for the firm,The School of Coding & AI (SOC) was given the accolade at Birmingham's Signature Awards, which celebrates businesses.The company teaches people on their own, in businesses or in public sector organisations and, in the last year, opened a £2.5m tech lab in Birmingham, redeveloped its Wolverhampton headquarters and launched an international campus in Dubai.The firm's chief executive and founder, Manny Athwal, said it was a "great honour" to be recognised in the Midlands."We started with a mission to reshape digital education and create genuine pathways into tech careers, and this recognition shows the real-world impact we are making," he said."We are growing as a global business but we are immensely proud of our Midlands roots, so receiving this award in Birmingham is a great honour."The school opened a city centre campus in early 2025 in partnership with the University of Wolverhampton, offering computer science, business management, and health and social care courses with AI "across the curriculum".Follow BBC Birmingham on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.More on this storyHow are West Midlands businesses embracing AI?AI and cyber attack centre will be 'leading force'Global cyber firm expands at university siteRelated internet linksSchool of Coding & AIArtificial intelligenceBirminghamWolverhamptonComputer programming AI and coding firm's 'pride' at business award The founder of a company which teaches computer coding and AI has described getting a business of the year award as a milestone for the firm, The School of Coding & AI (SOC) was given the accolade at Birmingham's Signature Awards, which celebrates businesses. The company teaches people on their own, in businesses or in public sector organisations and, in the last year, opened a £2.5m tech lab in Birmingham, redeveloped its Wolverhampton headquarters and launched an international campus in Dubai. The firm's chief executive and founder, Manny Athwal, said it was a "great honour" to be recognised in the Midlands. "We started with a mission to reshape digital education and create genuine pathways into tech careers, and this recognition shows the real-world impact we are making," he said. "We are growing as a global business but we are immensely proud of our Midlands roots, so receiving this award in Birmingham is a great honour." The school opened a city centre campus in early 2025 in partnership with the University of Wolverhampton, offering computer science, business management, and health and social care courses with AI "across the curriculum". Follow BBC Birmingham on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram. How are West Midlands businesses embracing AI? AI and cyber attack centre will be 'leading force' Global cyber firm expands at university site School of Coding & AI Tumbler Ridge suspect's ChatGPT account banned before shooting 'Breweries using AI could put artists out of work' Urgent research needed to tackle AI threats, says Google AI boss 'We're using wood to do good in our community' Jim Brennan and Eimert de Graaff recently launched their social enterprise, Wolverhampton Wood Recycling. Drivers warned over week-long HS2 road closure The road is due to shut from Monday to 2 March to install parts of the Water Orton viaducts. Where are Lunar New Year events being held? A range of activities are taking place across the West Midlands to mark the Year of the Horse. West Midlands news quiz of the week From a Mardi Gras honour to winning with toys, how many questions can you get right? Severe train delays due to overhead wire damage Services for Birmingham, Herefordshire, Staffordshire and Worcestershire were affected. Copyright 2026 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking. |
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Microsoft error sees confidential emails exposed to AI tool Copilot2 days agoShareSaveLiv McMahonTechnology reporterShareSaveGetty ImagesMicrosoft has acknowledged an error causing its AI work assistant to access and summarise some users' confidential emails by mistake.The tech giant has pushed Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat as a secure way for workplaces and their staff to use its generative AI chatbot.But it said a recent issue caused the tool to surface information to some enterprise users from messages stored in their drafts and sent email folders - including those marked as confidential.Microsoft says it has rolled out an update to fix the issue, and that it "did not provide anyone access to information they weren't already authorised to see".However, some experts warned the speed at which companies compete to add new AI features meant these kinds of mistakes were inevitable.Copilot Chat can be used within Microsoft programs such as Outlook and Teams, used for emails and chat functions, to get answers to questions or summarise messages."We identified and addressed an issue where Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat could return content from emails labelled confidential authored by a user and stored within their Draft and Sent Items in Outlook desktop," a Microsoft spokesperson told BBC News."While our access controls and data protection policies remained intact, this behaviour did not meet our intended Copilot experience, which is designed to exclude protected content from Copilot access," they added. "A configuration update has been deployed worldwide for enterprise customers."The blunder was first reported by tech news outlet Bleeping Computer, which said it had seen a service alert confirming the issue.It cited a Microsoft notice saying "users' email messages with a confidential label applied are being incorrectly processed by Microsoft 365 Copilot chat".The notice added that a work tab within Copilot Chat had summarised email messages stored in a user's drafts and sent folders, even when they had a sensitivity label and a data loss prevention policy configured to prevent unauthorised data sharing.Reports suggest Microsoft first became aware of the error in January.Its notice about the bug was also shared on a support dashboard for NHS workers in England - where the root cause is attributed to a "code issue".A section of the notice on the NHS IT support site implies it has been affected.But it told BBC News the contents of any draft or sent emails processed by Copilot Chat would remain with their creators, and patient information has not been exposed.'Data leakage will happen'Enterprise AI tools such as Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat - available to organisations with a Microsoft 365 subscription - often have stricter controls and security protections in place to prevent sharing of sensitive corporate information.But for some experts, the issue still highlights risks of adopting generative AI tools in certain work environments.Nader Henein, data protection and AI governance analyst at Gartner, said "this sort of fumble is unavoidable", given the frequency of "new and novel AI capabilities" being released.He told BBC News organisations using these AI products often lack tools needed to protect themselves and manage each new feature."Under normal circumstances, organisations would simply switch off the feature and wait till governance caught up," Henein said."Unfortunately the amount of pressure caused by the torrent of unsubstantiated AI hype makes that near-impossible," he added.Cyber-security expert Professor Alan Woodward of the University of Surrey said it showed the importance of making such tools private-by-default and opt-in only."There will inevitably be bugs in these tools, not least as they advance at break-neck speed, so even though data leakage may not be intentional it will happen," he told BBC News.Amazon shares fall as it joins Big Tech AI spending spreeXbox producer tells staff to use AI to ease job loss painMicrosoft rolls out AI screenshot tool dubbed 'privacy nightmare'Sign up for our Tech Decoded newsletter to follow the world's top tech stories and trends. Outside the UK? Sign up here.Artificial intelligenceMicrosoftCyber-security Microsoft error sees confidential emails exposed to AI tool Copilot Microsoft has acknowledged an error causing its AI work assistant to access and summarise some users' confidential emails by mistake. The tech giant has pushed Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat as a secure way for workplaces and their staff to use its generative AI chatbot. But it said a recent issue caused the tool to surface information to some enterprise users from messages stored in their drafts and sent email folders - including those marked as confidential. Microsoft says it has rolled out an update to fix the issue, and that it "did not provide anyone access to information they weren't already authorised to see". However, some experts warned the speed at which companies compete to add new AI features meant these kinds of mistakes were inevitable. Copilot Chat can be used within Microsoft programs such as Outlook and Teams, used for emails and chat functions, to get answers to questions or summarise messages. "We identified and addressed an issue where Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat could return content from emails labelled confidential authored by a user and stored within their Draft and Sent Items in Outlook desktop," a Microsoft spokesperson told BBC News. "While our access controls and data protection policies remained intact, this behaviour did not meet our intended Copilot experience, which is designed to exclude protected content from Copilot access," they added. "A configuration update has been deployed worldwide for enterprise customers." The blunder was first reported by tech news outlet Bleeping Computer, which said it had seen a service alert confirming the issue. It cited a Microsoft notice saying "users' email messages with a confidential label applied are being incorrectly processed by Microsoft 365 Copilot chat". The notice added that a work tab within Copilot Chat had summarised email messages stored in a user's drafts and sent folders, even when they had a sensitivity label and a data loss prevention policy configured to prevent unauthorised data sharing. Reports suggest Microsoft first became aware of the error in January. Its notice about the bug was also shared on a support dashboard for NHS workers in England - where the root cause is attributed to a "code issue". A section of the notice on the NHS IT support site implies it has been affected. But it told BBC News the contents of any draft or sent emails processed by Copilot Chat would remain with their creators, and patient information has not been exposed. 'Data leakage will happen' Enterprise AI tools such as Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat - available to organisations with a Microsoft 365 subscription - often have stricter controls and security protections in place to prevent sharing of sensitive corporate information. But for some experts, the issue still highlights risks of adopting generative AI tools in certain work environments. Nader Henein, data protection and AI governance analyst at Gartner, said "this sort of fumble is unavoidable", given the frequency of "new and novel AI capabilities" being released. He told BBC News organisations using these AI products often lack tools needed to protect themselves and manage each new feature. "Under normal circumstances, organisations would simply switch off the feature and wait till governance caught up," Henein said. "Unfortunately the amount of pressure caused by the torrent of unsubstantiated AI hype makes that near-impossible," he added. Cyber-security expert Professor Alan Woodward of the University of Surrey said it showed the importance of making such tools private-by-default and opt-in only. "There will inevitably be bugs in these tools, not least as they advance at break-neck speed, so even though data leakage may not be intentional it will happen," he told BBC News. Amazon shares fall as it joins Big Tech AI spending spree Xbox producer tells staff to use AI to ease job loss pain Microsoft rolls out AI screenshot tool dubbed 'privacy nightmare' Sign up for our Tech Decoded newsletter to follow the world's top tech stories and trends. Outside the UK? Sign up here. Tumbler Ridge suspect's ChatGPT account banned before shooting 'Breweries using AI could put artists out of work' Urgent research needed to tackle AI threats, says Google AI boss Parents angered by lack of online safety strategy Vicky O'Neil has raised concerns about how long it is taking the island to bring in new laws. AI coding platform's flaws allow BBC reporter to be hacked Vibe-coding tools - which let people without coding skills create apps using AI - are exploding in popularity. Amazon shares fall as it joins Big Tech AI spending spree Major firms collectively announce $650bn worth of investment in AI this week, rattling investors. I mocked the Saudi leader on YouTube - then my phone was hacked and I was beaten up in London Satirist Ghanem al-Masarir has been awarded £3m in damages, but it's unclear if Saudi Arabia will pay. A faceless hacker stole my therapy notes – now my deepest secrets are online forever Meri-Tuuli Auer told her counsellor things about her life she didn't want her closest family to know. Copyright 2026 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking. |
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Starmer 'appeasing' big tech firms, says online safety campaigner1 day agoShareSaveBecky MortonPolitical reporterShareSaveGetty ImagesA leading campaigner has accused the prime minister of "appeasing" big tech companies and being "late to the party" in regulating social media and artificial intelligence.Crossbench peer Baroness Kidron told the BBC Sir Keir Starmer needed to "get on with it" rather than launching more consultations.She also criticised the PM for citing his own experience as a father of two teenage children on social media, arguing that this did not make him an expert on the subject and that his family were "sheltered" compared to others.The government rejected the claims, with a spokesperson saying it had already introduced "some of the strongest online safety protections in the world".Sir Keir has launched a consultation on banning under-16s from social media and promised to crackdown on the addictive elements of the apps.But Baroness Kidron said many of the proposals had already been put forward in the House of Lords and could be accepted by the government as soon as next week.The crossbench peer, who was an award-winning film director before joining the House of Lords, has become a leading voice in Parliament on online safety.In an interview with BBC Radio 4's Political Thinking with Nick Robinson, she said successive governments had pushed back on proposals which would have stopped things like AI chatbots being used to create sexualised images.Asked what she would tell Sir Keir, Baroness Kidron quoted Winston Churchill, saying "the appeaser thinks that they feed the crocodile in the hope they'll be eaten last".She accused the PM of "rubbing up against the tech bros", adding: "We're giving away our kids to Silicon Valley to please Trump."In an article on Monday, Sir Keir said he wanted to "crack down on the addictive elements of social media" that "keep our children hooked on their screens for hours"."And if that means a fight with the big social media companies, then bring it on," he added. A government spokesperson said: "We are clear: when it comes to children's safety, nothing is off the table, and no company is too big to face the consequences. "Just weeks ago, we called out abhorrent non-consensual intimate images being shared on Grok, which led to functionality being removed, and now ministers are legislating to make 'nudification' tools illegal and bringing additional chatbots within scope of the Online Safety Act."Tech firms will have 48 hours to remove abusive images under new lawWe will do battle with AI chatbots as we did with Grok, says StarmerSir Keir has often spoken about how as a parent of two teenage children he has first-hand experience of the dangers of social media for young people.However, Baroness Kidron said it was "careless" of the prime minister to see the issue "through the lens of his own children"."I don't think that anybody is an expert because they have their own children," she said."His children are very particularly sheltered. "He is the prime minister. He has two working parents with education and access to all the information in the world and nothing that untoward might happen to his individual children. That's not the experience of children at large."Last month the government launched a three-month consultation on banning social media for under-16s in the UK, after the world's first ban took effect in Australia last year. Opponents of the idea have argued it could see children move to other areas of the internet and would fail to improve safety.Baroness Kidron told Nick Robinson a ban social media for under 16-year-olds was "not a silver bullet"."My own personal view is that we are in a digital world, we have an AI future, and we can't uninvite the next generation," she said."We have to let them participate in that. But I do think that access to children should be conditional, and it should be conditional on respecting their rights, on keeping them safe, on actually not addicting them and not extracting economic value out of their behaviour."You can listen to the full interview with Baroness Kidron on BBC Radio 4 at 17:30 GMT on Saturday on or BBC Sounds.Sign up for our Politics Essential newsletter to keep up with the inner workings of Westminster and beyond.Social mediaKeir Starmer Starmer 'appeasing' big tech firms, says online safety campaigner A leading campaigner has accused the prime minister of "appeasing" big tech companies and being "late to the party" in regulating social media and artificial intelligence. Crossbench peer Baroness Kidron told the BBC Sir Keir Starmer needed to "get on with it" rather than launching more consultations. She also criticised the PM for citing his own experience as a father of two teenage children on social media, arguing that this did not make him an expert on the subject and that his family were "sheltered" compared to others. The government rejected the claims, with a spokesperson saying it had already introduced "some of the strongest online safety protections in the world". Sir Keir has launched a consultation on banning under-16s from social media and promised to crackdown on the addictive elements of the apps. But Baroness Kidron said many of the proposals had already been put forward in the House of Lords and could be accepted by the government as soon as next week. The crossbench peer, who was an award-winning film director before joining the House of Lords, has become a leading voice in Parliament on online safety. In an interview with BBC Radio 4's Political Thinking with Nick Robinson, she said successive governments had pushed back on proposals which would have stopped things like AI chatbots being used to create sexualised images. Asked what she would tell Sir Keir, Baroness Kidron quoted Winston Churchill, saying "the appeaser thinks that they feed the crocodile in the hope they'll be eaten last". She accused the PM of "rubbing up against the tech bros", adding: "We're giving away our kids to Silicon Valley to please Trump." In an article on Monday, Sir Keir said he wanted to "crack down on the addictive elements of social media" that "keep our children hooked on their screens for hours". "And if that means a fight with the big social media companies, then bring it on," he added. A government spokesperson said: "We are clear: when it comes to children's safety, nothing is off the table, and no company is too big to face the consequences. "Just weeks ago, we called out abhorrent non-consensual intimate images being shared on Grok, which led to functionality being removed, and now ministers are legislating to make 'nudification' tools illegal and bringing additional chatbots within scope of the Online Safety Act." Tech firms will have 48 hours to remove abusive images under new law We will do battle with AI chatbots as we did with Grok, says Starmer Sir Keir has often spoken about how as a parent of two teenage children he has first-hand experience of the dangers of social media for young people. However, Baroness Kidron said it was "careless" of the prime minister to see the issue "through the lens of his own children". "I don't think that anybody is an expert because they have their own children," she said. "His children are very particularly sheltered. "He is the prime minister. He has two working parents with education and access to all the information in the world and nothing that untoward might happen to his individual children. That's not the experience of children at large." Last month the government launched a three-month consultation on banning social media for under-16s in the UK, after the world's first ban took effect in Australia last year. Opponents of the idea have argued it could see children move to other areas of the internet and would fail to improve safety. Baroness Kidron told Nick Robinson a ban social media for under 16-year-olds was "not a silver bullet". "My own personal view is that we are in a digital world, we have an AI future, and we can't uninvite the next generation," she said. "We have to let them participate in that. But I do think that access to children should be conditional, and it should be conditional on respecting their rights, on keeping them safe, on actually not addicting them and not extracting economic value out of their behaviour." You can listen to the full interview with Baroness Kidron on BBC Radio 4 at 17:30 GMT on Saturday on or BBC Sounds. Sign up for our Politics Essential newsletter to keep up with the inner workings of Westminster and beyond. Why fake AI videos of UK urban decline are taking over social media Zuckerberg defends Meta in landmark social media addiction trial Parents angered by lack of online safety strategy What tariffs has Trump announced and why? Trump's volatile trade policy has thrown the world economy into chaos, and put some US prices up. UK has not given US permission to use RAF bases for Iran strikes It comes as US President Donald Trump criticises Sir Keir Starmer's deal to hand over the Chagos Islands. PM says 'nobody is above the law' over Andrew allegations Police are currently considering allegations against Andrew, who has consistently denied any wrongdoing. Starmer says Reform UK plans to repeal Equality Act 'shocking' Reform UK's education spokesman Suella Braverman says the UK is being torn apart by "tokenism" and "victimhood". New railway stations part of £14bn UK government funding promise Sir Keir Starmer backs long list of Welsh railway projects, including seven new stations. Copyright 2026 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking. |
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Medicine is Political Rachel Thomas October 12, 2021 Experts warn that we are not prepared for the surge in disability due to long covid, an illness that afflicts between one-fourth and one-third of people who get covid, including mild cases, for months afterwards. Some early covid cases have been sick for 18 months, with no end in sight. The physiological damage that covid causes can include cognitive dysfunction and deficits, brain activity scans similar to those seen in Alzheimer’s patients, GI immune system damage, cornea damage, immune dysfunction, increased risk of kidney outcomes, dysfunction in T cell memory generation, pancreas damage, and ovarian failure. Children are at risk too. As the evidence continues to mount of alarming long term physiological impacts of covid, and tens of millions are unable to return to work, we might expect leaders to take covid more seriously. Yet we are seeing concerted efforts to downplay the long-term health effects of covid using strategies straight out of the climate denial playbook, such as funding contrarian scientists, misleading petitions, social media bots, and disingenuous debate tactics that make the science seem murkier than it is. In many cases, these minimization efforts are being funded by the same billionaires and institutions that fund climate change denialism. Dealing with many millions of newly disabled people will be very expensive for governments, social service programs, private insurance companies, and others. Thus, many have a significant financial interest in distorting the science around long term effects of covid to minimize the perceived impact. In topics ranging from covid-19 to HIV research to the long history of wrongly assuming women’s illnesses are psychosomatic, we have seen again and again that medicine, like all science, is political. This shows up in myriad ways, such as: who provides funding, who receives that funding, which questions get asked, how questions are framed, what data is recorded, what data is left out, what categories included, and whose suffering is counted. Scientists often like to think of their work as perfectly objective, perfectly rational, free from any bias or influence. Yet by failing to acknowledge the reality that there is no “view from nowhere”, they miss their own blindspots and make themselves vulnerable to bad-faith attacks. As one climate scientist recounted of the last 3 decades, “We spent a long time thinking we were engaged in an argument about data and reason, but now we realize it’s a fight over money and power… They [climate change deniers] focused their lasers on the science and like cats we followed their pointer and their lead.” The American Institute for Economic Research (AIER), a libertarian think tank funded by right wing billionaire Charles Koch which invests in fossil fuels, energy utilities, and tobacco, is best known for its research denying the climate crisis. In October 2020, a document called the Great Barrington Declaration (GBD) was developed at a private AIER retreat, calling for a “herd immunity” approach to covid, arguing against lockdowns, and suggesting that young, healthy people have little to worry about. The three scientists who authored the GBD have prestigious pedigrees and are politically well-connected, speaking to White House Officials and having found favor in the British government. One of them, Sunetra Gupta of Oxford, had released a wildly inaccurate paper in March 2020 claiming that up to 68% of the UK population had been exposed to covid, and that there were already significant levels of herd immunity to coronavirus in both the UK and Italy (again, this was in March 2020). Gupta received funding from billionaire conservative donors, Georg and Emily von Opel. Another one of the authors, Jay Bhattacharya of Stanford, co-authored a widely criticized pre-print in April 2020 that relied on a biased sampling method to “show” that 85 times more people in Santa Clara County California had already had covid compared to other estimates, and thus suggested that the fatality rate for covid was much lower than it truly is. Half of the social media accounts advocating for herd immunity seem to be bots, characterized as engaging in abnormally high levels of retweets & low content diversity. An article in the BMJ recently advised that it is “critical for physicians, scientists, and public health officials to realize that they are not dealing with an orthodox scientific debate, but a well-funded sophisticated science denialist campaign based on ideological and corporate interests.” This myth of perfect scientific objectivity positions modern medicine as completely distinct from a history where women were diagnosed with “hysteria” (roaming uterus) for a variety of symptoms, where Black men were denied syphilis treatment for decades as part of a “scientific study”, and multiple sclerosis was “called hysterical paralysis right up to the day they invented a CAT scan machine” and demyelination could be seen on brain scans. However, there is not some sort of clean break where bias was eliminated and all unknowns were solved. Black patients, including children, still receive less pain medication than white patients for the same symptoms. Women are still more likely to have their physical symptoms dismissed as psychogenic. Nearly half of women with autoimmune disorders report being labeled as “chronic complainers” by their doctors in the 5 years (on average) they spend seeking a diagnosis. All this impacts what data is recorded in their charts, what symptoms are counted. Medical data are not objective truths. Like all data, the context is critical. It can be missing, biased, and incorrect. It is filtered through the opinions of doctors. Even blood tests and imaging scans are filtered through the decisions of what tests to order, what types of scans to take, what accepted guidelines recommend, what technology currently exists. And the technology that exists depends on research and funding decisions stretching back decades, influenced by politics and cultural context. One may hope that in 10 years we will have clearer diagnostic tests for some illnesses which remain contested now, just as the ability to identify multiple sclerosis improved with better imaging. In the meantime, we should listen to patients and trust in their ability to explain their own experiences, even if science can’t fully understand them yet. Science does not just progress inevitably, independent of funding and politics and framing and biases. A self-fulfilling prophecy often occurs in which doctors: 1. label a new, poorly understood, multi-system disease as psychogenic, 2. use this as justification to not invest much funding into researching physiological origins, 3. and then point to the lack of evidence as a reason why the illness must be psychogenic. This is largely the experience of ME/CFS patients over the last several decades. Myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS), involves dysfunction of the immune system, autonomic systems, and energy metabolism (including mitochondrial dysfunction, hypoacetylation, reduced oxygen uptake, and impaired oxygen delivery). ME/CFS is more debilitating than many chronic diseases, including chronic renal failure, lung cancer, stroke, and type-2 diabetes. It is estimated 25–29% of patients are homebound or bedbound. ME/CFS is often triggered by viral infections, so it is not surprising that we are seeing some overlap between ME/CFS and long covid. ME/CFS disproportionately impacts women, and a now discredited 1970 paper identified a major outbreak in 1958 amongst nurses at a British hospital as “epidemic hysteria”. This early narrative of ME/CFS as psychogenic has been difficult to shake. Even as evidence continues to accumulate of immune, metabolic, and autonomous system dysfunction, some doctors persist in believing that ME/CFS must be psychogenic. It has remained woefully underfunded: from 2013-2017, NIH funding was only at 7.3% relative commensurate to its disease burden. Note that the below graph is on a log scale: ME/CFS is at 7%, Depression and asthma are at 100% and diseases like cancer and HIV are closer to 1000%. Portraying patients as unscientific and irrational is the other side of the same coin for the myth that medicine is perfectly rational. Patients that disagree with having symptoms they know are physiological dismissed as psychogenic, that reject treatments from flawed studies, or who distrust medical institutions based on their experiences of racism, sexism, and mis-diagnosis, are labeled as “militant” or “irrational”, and placed in the same category with conspiracy theorists and those peddling disinformation. On an individual level, receiving a psychological misdiagnosis lengthens the time it will take to get the right diagnosis, since many doctors will stop looking for physiological explanations. A study of 12,000 rare disease patients covered by the BBC found that “while being misdiagnosed with the wrong physical disease doubled the time it took to get to the right diagnosis, getting a psychological misdiagnosis extended it even more – by 2.5 up to 14 times, depending on the disease.” This dynamic holds true at the disease level as well: once a disease is mis-labeled as psychogenic, many doctors will stop looking for physiological origins. We are seeing increasing efforts to dismiss long covid as psychogenic in high profile platforms such as the WSJ and New Yorker. The New Yorker’s first feature article on long covid, published last month, neglected to interview any clinicians who treat long covid patients nor to cite the abundant research on how covid causes damage to many organ systems, yet interviewed several doctors in unrelated fields who claim long covid is psychogenic. In response to a patient’s assertion that covid impacts the brain, the author spent an entire paragraph detailing how there is currently no evidence that covid crosses the blood-brain barrier, but didn’t mention the research on covid patients finding cognitive dysfunction and deficits, PET scans similar to those seen in Alzheimer’s patients, neurological damage, and shrinking grey matter. This leaves a general audience with the mistaken impression that it is unproven whether covid impacts the brain, and is a familiar tactic from bad-faith science debates. The New Yorker article set up a strict dichotomy between long covid patients and doctors, suggesting that patients harbor a “disregard for expertise”; are less “concerned about what is and isn’t supported by evidence”; and are overly “impatient.” In contrast, doctors appreciate the “careful study design, methodical data analysis, and the skeptical interpretation of results” that medicine requires. Of course, this is a false dichotomy: many patients are more knowledgeable about the latest research than their doctors, some patients are publishing in peer-reviewed journals, and there are many medical doctors that are also patients. And on the other hand, doctors are just as prone as the rest of us to biases, blind spots, and institutional errors. In 1987, 40,000 Americans had already died of AIDS, yet the government and pharmaceutical companies were doing little to address this health crisis. AIDS was heavily stigmatized, federal spending was minimal, and pharmaceutical companies lacked urgency. The activists of ACT UP used a two pronged approach: creative and confrontational acts of protest, and informed scientific proposals. When the FDA refused to even discuss giving AIDS patients access to experimental drugs, ACT UP protested at their headquarters, blocking entrances and lying down in front of the building with tombstones saying “Killed by the FDA”. This opened up discussions, and ACT UP offered viable scientific proposals, such as switching from the current approach of conducting drug trials on a small group of people over a long time, and instead testing a large group of people over a short time, radically speeding up the pace at which progress occurred. ACT UP used similar tactics to protest the NIH and pharmaceutical companies, demanding research on how to treat the opportunistic infections that killed AIDS patients, not solely research for a cure. The huge progress that has happened in HIV/AIDS research and treatment would not have happened without the efforts of ACT UP. Across the world, we are at a pivotal time in determining how societies and governments will deal with the masses of newly disabled people due to long covid. Narratives that take hold early often have disproportionate staying power. Will we inaccurately label long covid as psychogenic, primarily invest in psychiatric research that can’t address the well-documented physiological damage caused by covid, and financially abandon the patients who are now unable to work? Or will we take the chance to transform medicine to better recognize the lived experiences and knowledge of patients, to center patient partnerships in biomedical research for complex and multi-system diseases, and strengthen inadequate disability support and services to improve life for all people with disabilities? The decisions we collectively make now on these questions will have reverberations for decades to come. |
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[SOURCE: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c309qv9zglno] | [TOKENS: 2068] |
Bill Gates pulls out of India's AI summit over Epstein files controversy2 days agoShareSaveCherylann MollanandLiv McMahon,technology reporterShareSaveGetty ImagesGates is currently in India and there was speculation over whether he would attend the summit amid a renewed scrutiny of his ties to EpsteinBill Gates will not deliver his keynote address at the India AI Impact Summit in Delhi, his philanthropic organisation said hours before the Microsoft co-founder was due to speak.The Gates Foundation said the decision was made after "careful consideration" and "to ensure the focus remains on the [summit's] key priorities", but did not elaborate.Gates's withdrawal comes amid a controversy over his ties to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein after he was named in new files released by the US Department of Justice in January.Gates's spokesperson has called the claims in the files "absolutely absurd and completely false", and the billionaire has said he regretted spending time with Epstein.Gates has not been accused of wrongdoing by any of Epstein's victims and the appearance of his name in the files does not imply criminal activity of any kind.The Gates Foundation said Ankur Vora, president of its Africa and India offices, would speak at the summit instead of Gates.The organisation added that it remained "fully committed" to its work in India to advance "shared health and development goals".Gates's decision to not speak to the summit came after days of uncertainty over whether he would attend.He is currently in India and had visited the southern state of Andhra Pradesh on Monday, where he reportedly discussed initiatives for boosting health, agriculture, education and technology.After media reports speculated he would pull out of the summit, his foundation said on Tuesday he would deliver the address as scheduled.Gates's withdrawal is a blow for the summit, which India has pitched as a flagship gathering to position the country as a global AI hub.The five-day summit features policy discussions, start-up showcases and closed-door meetings on AI governance, infrastructure and innovation.The event has also seen investment pledges by companies, including Microsoft, to expand AI access and infrastructure in countries such as India.Delegates from more than 100 countries, including several world leaders, are attending the event.But it has already been marked by some controversies over mismanagement on the first day and an Indian university's claims to have developed a robot dog - which turned out to be made in China.AI democratisation callsThough Gates is not attending, other big names are appearing at the Summit. OpenAI boss Altman said in a speech the world should "urgently" look to regulate AI."Democratisation of AI is the best way to ensure humanity flourishes," he said, adding that centralising the tech in one company or country "could lead to ruin"."This is not to suggest that we won't need any regulation or safeguards," Altman added."We obviously do, urgently, like we have for other powerful technologies."Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron made similar calls for AI's democratisation and for a shared approach to innovation.ReutersModi and Macron are among many world leaders and tech executives speaking at India's AI Impact SummitAddressing the Summit, Modi said there was a need to share technology "so that humans don't just become a data point for AI or remain a raw material for AI"."AI must become a medium for inclusion and empowerment, particularly for the Global South," he said.Macron, who earlier held bilateral talks with Modi, said there was a need to change the discussion around AI from "let's do more" to "let's do better together". This theme was addressed by other speakers as well, including UN chief Antonio Guterres - who stressed the future of AI should not be "decided by a handful of countries" or left to the "whims of a few billionaires".Google's chief executive Sundai Pichai underscored India's growing role in the AI landscape.He said his firm was working on establishing an AI hub in the southern city of Vishakhapatnam, which he said would help bring jobs and cutting-edge AI to Indians.Billionaire Mukesh Ambani meanwhile pledged to invest $110bn (£81.4bn) over the next seven years to build India's AI ecosystem, while Anthropic boss Amodei said it would like to work with India on "testing and evaluation of models for safety and security risks".Follow BBC News India on Instagram, YouTube, X and Facebook.Could Bill Gates and political tussles overshadow AI safety debate in Delhi?AI safety leader says 'world is in peril' and quits to study poetryAsiaArtificial intelligenceIndiaBill Gates Bill Gates pulls out of India's AI summit over Epstein files controversy Bill Gates will not deliver his keynote address at the India AI Impact Summit in Delhi, his philanthropic organisation said hours before the Microsoft co-founder was due to speak. The Gates Foundation said the decision was made after "careful consideration" and "to ensure the focus remains on the [summit's] key priorities", but did not elaborate. Gates's withdrawal comes amid a controversy over his ties to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein after he was named in new files released by the US Department of Justice in January. Gates's spokesperson has called the claims in the files "absolutely absurd and completely false", and the billionaire has said he regretted spending time with Epstein. Gates has not been accused of wrongdoing by any of Epstein's victims and the appearance of his name in the files does not imply criminal activity of any kind. The Gates Foundation said Ankur Vora, president of its Africa and India offices, would speak at the summit instead of Gates. The organisation added that it remained "fully committed" to its work in India to advance "shared health and development goals". Gates's decision to not speak to the summit came after days of uncertainty over whether he would attend. He is currently in India and had visited the southern state of Andhra Pradesh on Monday, where he reportedly discussed initiatives for boosting health, agriculture, education and technology. After media reports speculated he would pull out of the summit, his foundation said on Tuesday he would deliver the address as scheduled. Gates's withdrawal is a blow for the summit, which India has pitched as a flagship gathering to position the country as a global AI hub. The five-day summit features policy discussions, start-up showcases and closed-door meetings on AI governance, infrastructure and innovation. The event has also seen investment pledges by companies, including Microsoft, to expand AI access and infrastructure in countries such as India. Delegates from more than 100 countries, including several world leaders, are attending the event. But it has already been marked by some controversies over mismanagement on the first day and an Indian university's claims to have developed a robot dog - which turned out to be made in China. AI democratisation calls Though Gates is not attending, other big names are appearing at the Summit. OpenAI boss Altman said in a speech the world should "urgently" look to regulate AI. "Democratisation of AI is the best way to ensure humanity flourishes," he said, adding that centralising the tech in one company or country "could lead to ruin". "This is not to suggest that we won't need any regulation or safeguards," Altman added. "We obviously do, urgently, like we have for other powerful technologies." Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron made similar calls for AI's democratisation and for a shared approach to innovation. Addressing the Summit, Modi said there was a need to share technology "so that humans don't just become a data point for AI or remain a raw material for AI". "AI must become a medium for inclusion and empowerment, particularly for the Global South," he said. Macron, who earlier held bilateral talks with Modi, said there was a need to change the discussion around AI from "let's do more" to "let's do better together". This theme was addressed by other speakers as well, including UN chief Antonio Guterres - who stressed the future of AI should not be "decided by a handful of countries" or left to the "whims of a few billionaires". Google's chief executive Sundai Pichai underscored India's growing role in the AI landscape. He said his firm was working on establishing an AI hub in the southern city of Vishakhapatnam, which he said would help bring jobs and cutting-edge AI to Indians. Billionaire Mukesh Ambani meanwhile pledged to invest $110bn (£81.4bn) over the next seven years to build India's AI ecosystem, while Anthropic boss Amodei said it would like to work with India on "testing and evaluation of models for safety and security risks". Follow BBC News India on Instagram, YouTube, X and Facebook. Could Bill Gates and political tussles overshadow AI safety debate in Delhi? AI safety leader says 'world is in peril' and quits to study poetry How photography helped the British empire classify India Mother and infant burnt to death in Indian state over witchcraft allegations UK doctor stuck in India after police case over Facebook post Tumbler Ridge suspect's ChatGPT account banned before shooting OpenAI said the account's activity did not meet the threshold to flag it to authorities when it was identified. 'Breweries using AI could put artists out of work' As two pubs in Newcastle ban AI art, artists discuss the impact it can have on creatives. Which teams are through to T20 World Cup Super 8s? What will India, Sri Lanka, West Indies, England, South Africa, New Zealand, Zimbabwe and Pakistan have to do reach the semi-finals of the 2026 T20 World Cup? Men's T20 World Cup tables, top run-scorers & wicket-takers BBC Sport lists the best performing batters and bowlers from the Men's T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka. Men's T20 World Cup 2026 - fixtures & results Fixtures, results and scorecards for the 2026 ICC Men's T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka. Copyright 2026 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking. |
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[SOURCE: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz6ed1549yvo] | [TOKENS: 1612] |
Tech firms will have 48 hours to remove abusive images under new law2 days agoShareSaveRichard MorrisTechnology reporterShareSaveGetty ImagesTech platforms would have to remove intimate images which have been shared without consent within 48 hours, under a proposed UK law.The government said tackling intimate image abuse should be treated with the same severity as child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and terrorist content. Failure to abide by the rules could result in companies being fined up to 10% of their global sales or have their services blocked in the UK.Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer told BBC Breakfast it is part of an "ongoing battle" with platform providers on behalf of victims.Janaya Walker, interim director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said the move "rightly places the responsibility on tech companies to act".The proposals are being made through an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill, which is making its way through the House of Lords.Under the plans, victims would only have to flag an image once, rather than contact different platforms separately. Tech companies would have to block the images from being re-uploaded once they have been taken down.The proposal would also provide guidance for internet service providers to be able to block access to sites hosting illegal content, the idea being that this would target rogue websites that currently fall outside of the reach of the Online Safety Act.Women, girls and LGBT people are disproportionately affected by Intimate Image Abuse (IIA).A government report in July 2025 found young men and boys were largely targeted for financial sexual extortion - sometimes referred to as "sextortion" - where a victim is asked to pay money to keep intimate images from being shared online.A Parliamentary report published in May 2025 highlighted an increase of 20.9% in reports of intimate image abuse in 2024.Sir Keir gave details of the new law to BBC BreakfastSpeaking on BBC Breakfast, the prime minister said the rule would mean a victim of intimate image abuse "doesn't have to do a sort of whack-a-mole chasing wherever this image is next going up".He noted that tech companies are "already under that duty when it comes to terrorist material so it can be done. It's a known mechanism," adding that "we need to pursue this with the same vigour".Sir Keir said the law would be enforced by fines and other measures yet to be determined, by a "combination of oversight bodies in relation to what's online and then it will be a criminal matter".He said he did not think this would include prison sentences for tech bosses.Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said: "The days of tech firms having a free pass are over... no woman should have to chase platform after platform, waiting days for an image to come down". The announcement comes after the government's standoff with X in January, when AI tool Grok was used to generate images of real women wearing very little clothing.This eventually led to the function being removed for users. Legislation was brought in earlier in February which made non-consensual deepfake images illegal in the UK.We will do battle with AI chatbots as we did with Grok, says StarmerWhat a new law and an investigation could mean for Grok AI deepfakesWhat the Online Safety Act is - and how to keep children safe onlineSign up for our Tech Decoded newsletter to follow the world's top tech stories and trends. Outside the UK? Sign up here.Child abuseTechnologyOnline abuseArtificial intelligence Tech firms will have 48 hours to remove abusive images under new law Tech platforms would have to remove intimate images which have been shared without consent within 48 hours, under a proposed UK law. The government said tackling intimate image abuse should be treated with the same severity as child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and terrorist content. Failure to abide by the rules could result in companies being fined up to 10% of their global sales or have their services blocked in the UK. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer told BBC Breakfast it is part of an "ongoing battle" with platform providers on behalf of victims. Janaya Walker, interim director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said the move "rightly places the responsibility on tech companies to act". The proposals are being made through an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill, which is making its way through the House of Lords. Under the plans, victims would only have to flag an image once, rather than contact different platforms separately. Tech companies would have to block the images from being re-uploaded once they have been taken down. The proposal would also provide guidance for internet service providers to be able to block access to sites hosting illegal content, the idea being that this would target rogue websites that currently fall outside of the reach of the Online Safety Act. Women, girls and LGBT people are disproportionately affected by Intimate Image Abuse (IIA). A government report in July 2025 found young men and boys were largely targeted for financial sexual extortion - sometimes referred to as "sextortion" - where a victim is asked to pay money to keep intimate images from being shared online. A Parliamentary report published in May 2025 highlighted an increase of 20.9% in reports of intimate image abuse in 2024. Speaking on BBC Breakfast, the prime minister said the rule would mean a victim of intimate image abuse "doesn't have to do a sort of whack-a-mole chasing wherever this image is next going up". He noted that tech companies are "already under that duty when it comes to terrorist material so it can be done. It's a known mechanism," adding that "we need to pursue this with the same vigour". Sir Keir said the law would be enforced by fines and other measures yet to be determined, by a "combination of oversight bodies in relation to what's online and then it will be a criminal matter". He said he did not think this would include prison sentences for tech bosses. Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said: "The days of tech firms having a free pass are over... no woman should have to chase platform after platform, waiting days for an image to come down". The announcement comes after the government's standoff with X in January, when AI tool Grok was used to generate images of real women wearing very little clothing. This eventually led to the function being removed for users. Legislation was brought in earlier in February which made non-consensual deepfake images illegal in the UK. We will do battle with AI chatbots as we did with Grok, says Starmer What a new law and an investigation could mean for Grok AI deepfakes What the Online Safety Act is - and how to keep children safe online Sign up for our Tech Decoded newsletter to follow the world's top tech stories and trends. Outside the UK? Sign up here. 'Monster' taxi driver who raped girl jailed Child abuse increasing and more complex to police, crime agency says How dark web agent spotted bedroom wall clue to rescue girl from years of harm Tumbler Ridge suspect's ChatGPT account banned before shooting OpenAI said the account's activity did not meet the threshold to flag it to authorities when it was identified. 'Breweries using AI could put artists out of work' As two pubs in Newcastle ban AI art, artists discuss the impact it can have on creatives. Why fake AI videos of UK urban decline are taking over social media Deepfakes showing grim taxpayer-funded waterparks have gone viral and drawn some racist responses. Urgent research needed to tackle AI threats, says Google AI boss But the head of the US delegation at the AI Impact Summit in Delhi says: "We totally reject global governance of AI." Fixing fashion's erratic sizing problem Tech Now meets a startup trying to fix one of the fashion industry's biggest blind spots, inconsistent sizing. Copyright 2026 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking. |
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[SOURCE: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpv7xen99zdo] | [TOKENS: 2407] |
Parents angered by lack of online safety strategy3 days agoShareSaveChris CraddockBBC Jersey communities reporterShareSaveBBCVicky O'Neil said she was frustrated by the lack of online safety laws in Jersey A parent said she is frustrated Jersey still does not have an online safety law almost a year after a review was launched into the issue.Jersey declined to adopt the UK's Online Safety Act when it was drafted in 2021 which gave Ofcom powers to fine social media companies.The government has launched a consultation about how legislation could work in Jersey.Parent Vicky O'Neil said Jersey was "sitting there waiting idly" as other countries introduced a social media ban for under-16s, adding: "We need to have robust tight regulation for online safety to protect our children".'Something is better than nothing'The Economic Development Minister Kirsten Morel criticised the UK Online Safety Act in 2024 and said it was "over complexified" but since then there has not been a vote on what online safety protections in Jersey could look like.In the meantime the government has launched a consultation on how legislation could be used to remove illegal content and protect privacy.O'Neil is in favour of following Australia's ban for under 16s being on social media.She said: "Until big tech can prove that their platforms are safe and that their platforms are okay and not addictive for children to be on, a ban needs to be enforced."She added: "Children under 18 cannot drink but you are obviously going to get a percentage of those children that do have access to alcohol, but something is better than nothing which is what we currently have."Douglas Kruger does not agree with banning social media use for under-16sDouglas Kruger is also a parent in Jersey, and does not think an outright ban would be the best approach.He said: "We do need to protect our kids at the same time we have to preserve liberty and freedom of speech... with a ban you can do more harm than good."Kruger added: "We've watched this play out in Australia where kids can now no longer chat with their friends and that's not what we're after; that's not the solution."The developing childhood mind is not able to sustain the attacks from screens and from social media so it's a subtle distinction because we need the parental control - we do not need a government ban."Jersey Chief Minister Deputy Lyndon Farnham said the government is taking online safety extermely seriously The government also recently announced it was in favour of adopting a similar social media ban for under-16s and ministers would look at what options were available.Chief Minister, Deputy Lyndon Farnham said: "Protecting children and young people from online harm is a responsibility we take extremely seriously."We know that the digital landscape changes quickly, and our response must be able to change just as fast."The NSPCC said a ban would be the "wrong solution" and "it would create a false sense of safety that would see children – but also the threats to them – migrate to other areas online".Rachel Masterton from the Guernsey Office of The Data Protection Authority warned a knee jerk reaction could cause more harmGuernsey's government is in a different position to Jersey's as it has permissive extent clauses in the UK's Online Safety Act legislation, which means it can extend parts of it into local laws.The Committee for Home Affairs (CfHA) said it is "currently monitoring the implementation and associated snags in the UK and considering how it may be extended here".Rachel Masterton from the Office of The Data Protection Authority said: "A knee-jerk reaction to bring something in may cause more problems than it solves... I think we need to make sure that we do it right if we're going to look for a legislative way".She added: "We're ready to get involved in any consultation process that there is locally with regards to either extending the Online Safety Act to Guernsey or creating our own legislation".Students Robbie and Felix have different opinions on online safety for young people in JerseyIt is also something that has divided opinion between young people in Jersey.Victoria College students Robbie, 16, and Felix, 15, have been studying online safety in their PHSE lessons.Robbie said: "I feel like we should have the ban for under-16s... the reels and the short clips I feel like are not good for young minds".Felix disagreed and said: "I'm personally against the idea of a ban... I just think that that kind of behaviour could just shift to a different medium if we try and limit technology".PHSE teacher Gillian Silver has been teaching students at Victoria College about online safetyThe lessons are led by PHSE teacher Gillian Silver who said online safety is societal problem that has to be addressed."I think the biggest thing they feed back to us is they would like their parents to be more involved in their online worlds," she said."We also have joined up thinking across our schools about what are the issues that young people are asking for support around."She added: "I think it's really important that we hear what they're saying" and lessons should be "organic, reactive, and proactive to what's going on".Follow BBC Guernsey on X and Facebook. Follow BBC Jersey on X and Facebook. Send your story ideas to channel.islands@bbc.co.uk.More on this storyRestricting under-16s' social media use supportedWhy are parents flooding MPs with demands to ban social media?Jersey launches online safety law consultationRelated internet linksVictoria CollegeOnline Safety BillCyber-crimeSocial mediaOnline abuseCyber-securityPrivacy Parents angered by lack of online safety strategy A parent said she is frustrated Jersey still does not have an online safety law almost a year after a review was launched into the issue. Jersey declined to adopt the UK's Online Safety Act when it was drafted in 2021 which gave Ofcom powers to fine social media companies. The government has launched a consultation about how legislation could work in Jersey. Parent Vicky O'Neil said Jersey was "sitting there waiting idly" as other countries introduced a social media ban for under-16s, adding: "We need to have robust tight regulation for online safety to protect our children". 'Something is better than nothing' The Economic Development Minister Kirsten Morel criticised the UK Online Safety Act in 2024 and said it was "over complexified" but since then there has not been a vote on what online safety protections in Jersey could look like. In the meantime the government has launched a consultation on how legislation could be used to remove illegal content and protect privacy. O'Neil is in favour of following Australia's ban for under 16s being on social media. She said: "Until big tech can prove that their platforms are safe and that their platforms are okay and not addictive for children to be on, a ban needs to be enforced." She added: "Children under 18 cannot drink but you are obviously going to get a percentage of those children that do have access to alcohol, but something is better than nothing which is what we currently have." Douglas Kruger is also a parent in Jersey, and does not think an outright ban would be the best approach. He said: "We do need to protect our kids at the same time we have to preserve liberty and freedom of speech... with a ban you can do more harm than good." Kruger added: "We've watched this play out in Australia where kids can now no longer chat with their friends and that's not what we're after; that's not the solution. "The developing childhood mind is not able to sustain the attacks from screens and from social media so it's a subtle distinction because we need the parental control - we do not need a government ban." The government also recently announced it was in favour of adopting a similar social media ban for under-16s and ministers would look at what options were available. Chief Minister, Deputy Lyndon Farnham said: "Protecting children and young people from online harm is a responsibility we take extremely seriously. "We know that the digital landscape changes quickly, and our response must be able to change just as fast." The NSPCC said a ban would be the "wrong solution" and "it would create a false sense of safety that would see children – but also the threats to them – migrate to other areas online". Guernsey's government is in a different position to Jersey's as it has permissive extent clauses in the UK's Online Safety Act legislation, which means it can extend parts of it into local laws. The Committee for Home Affairs (CfHA) said it is "currently monitoring the implementation and associated snags in the UK and considering how it may be extended here". Rachel Masterton from the Office of The Data Protection Authority said: "A knee-jerk reaction to bring something in may cause more problems than it solves... I think we need to make sure that we do it right if we're going to look for a legislative way". She added: "We're ready to get involved in any consultation process that there is locally with regards to either extending the Online Safety Act to Guernsey or creating our own legislation". It is also something that has divided opinion between young people in Jersey. Victoria College students Robbie, 16, and Felix, 15, have been studying online safety in their PHSE lessons. Robbie said: "I feel like we should have the ban for under-16s... the reels and the short clips I feel like are not good for young minds". Felix disagreed and said: "I'm personally against the idea of a ban... I just think that that kind of behaviour could just shift to a different medium if we try and limit technology". The lessons are led by PHSE teacher Gillian Silver who said online safety is societal problem that has to be addressed. "I think the biggest thing they feed back to us is they would like their parents to be more involved in their online worlds," she said. "We also have joined up thinking across our schools about what are the issues that young people are asking for support around." She added: "I think it's really important that we hear what they're saying" and lessons should be "organic, reactive, and proactive to what's going on". Follow BBC Guernsey on X and Facebook. Follow BBC Jersey on X and Facebook. Send your story ideas to channel.islands@bbc.co.uk. Restricting under-16s' social media use supported Why are parents flooding MPs with demands to ban social media? Jersey launches online safety law consultation Victoria College We will do battle with AI chatbots as we did with Grok, says Starmer Porn site fined £800,000 for not rolling out age checks New advice for parents about 'toxic' social media Why fake AI videos of UK urban decline are taking over social media Deepfakes showing grim taxpayer-funded waterparks have gone viral and drawn some racist responses. Starmer 'appeasing' big tech firms, says online safety campaigner Baroness Kidron tells the BBC the PM has being "late to the party" in regulating social media. Microsoft error sees confidential emails exposed to AI tool Copilot The company says it has addressed the issue and it "did not provide anyone access to information they weren't already authorised to see". Zuckerberg defends Meta in landmark social media addiction trial The billionaire boss said he "always" regretted not making faster progress to identify users under 13. Tech firms will have 48 hours to remove abusive images under new law The government is proposing that intimate image abuse should be treated more severely. Copyright 2026 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking. |
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Contents Minecraft Minecraft is a sandbox game developed and published by Mojang Studios. Following its initial public alpha release in 2009, it was formally released in 2011 for personal computers. The game has since been ported to numerous platforms, including mobile devices and various video game consoles. In Minecraft, players explore a procedurally generated world with virtually infinite terrain made up of voxels (cubes). They can discover and extract raw materials, craft tools and items, build structures, fight hostile mobs, and cooperate with or compete against other players in multiplayer. The game's large community offers a wide variety of user-generated content, such as modifications, servers, player skins, texture packs, and custom maps, which add new game mechanics and possibilities. Originally created by Markus "Notch" Persson using the Java programming language, Jens "Jeb" Bergensten was handed control over the game's development following its full release. In 2014, Mojang and the Minecraft intellectual property were purchased by Microsoft for US$2.5 billion; Xbox Game Studios hold the publishing rights for the Bedrock Edition, the unified cross-platform version which evolved from the Pocket Edition codebase[i] and replaced the legacy console versions. Bedrock is updated concurrently with Mojang's original Java Edition, although with numerous, generally small, differences. Minecraft is the best-selling video game in history with over 350 million copies sold. It has received critical acclaim, winning several awards and being cited as one of the greatest video games of all time. Social media, parodies, adaptations, merchandise, and the annual Minecon conventions have played prominent roles in popularizing it. The wider Minecraft franchise includes several spin-off games, such as Minecraft: Story Mode, Minecraft Dungeons, and Minecraft Legends. A film adaptation, titled A Minecraft Movie, was released in 2025 and became the second highest-grossing video game film of all time. Gameplay Minecraft is a 3D sandbox video game that has no required goals to accomplish, giving players a large amount of freedom in choosing how to play the game. The game features an optional achievement system. Gameplay is in the first-person perspective by default, but players have the option of third-person perspectives. The game world is composed of rough 3D objects—mainly cubes, referred to as blocks—representing various materials, such as dirt, stone, ores, tree trunks, water, and lava. The core gameplay revolves around picking up and placing these objects. These blocks are arranged in a voxel grid, while players can move freely around the world. Players can break, or mine, blocks and then place them elsewhere, enabling them to build things. Very few blocks are affected by gravity, instead maintaining their voxel position in the air. Players can also craft a wide variety of items, such as armor, which mitigates damage from attacks; weapons (such as swords or bows and arrows), which allow monsters and animals to be killed more easily; and tools (such as pickaxes or shovels), which break certain types of blocks more quickly. Some items have multiple tiers depending on the material used to craft them, with higher-tier items being more effective and durable. They may also freely craft helpful blocks—such as furnaces which can cook food and smelt ores, and torches that produce light—or exchange items with villagers (NPC) through trading emeralds for different goods and vice versa. The game has an inventory system, allowing players to carry a limited number of items. The in-game time system follows a day and night cycle, with one full cycle lasting for 20 real-time minutes. The game also contains a material called redstone, which can be used to make primitive mechanical devices, electrical circuits, and logic gates, allowing for the construction of many complex systems. New players are given a randomly selected default character skin out of nine possibilities, including Steve or Alex, but are able to create and upload their own skins. Players encounter various mobs (short for mobile entities) including animals, villagers, and hostile creatures. Passive mobs, such as cows, pigs, and chickens, spawn during the daytime and can be hunted for food and crafting materials, while hostile mobs—including large spiders, witches, skeletons, and zombies—spawn during nighttime or in dark places such as caves. Some hostile mobs, such as zombies and skeletons, burn under the sun if they have no headgear and are not standing in water. Other creatures unique to Minecraft include the creeper (an exploding creature that sneaks up on the player) and the enderman (a creature with the ability to teleport as well as pick up and place blocks). There are also variants of mobs that spawn in different conditions; for example, zombies have husk and drowned variants that spawn in deserts and oceans, respectively. The Minecraft environment is procedurally generated as players explore it using a map seed that is randomly chosen at the time of world creation (or manually specified by the player). Divided into biomes representing different environments with unique resources and structures, worlds are designed to be effectively infinite in traditional gameplay, though technical limits on the player have existed throughout development, both intentionally and not. Implementation of horizontally infinite generation initially resulted in a glitch termed the "Far Lands" at over 12 million blocks away from the world center, where terrain generated as wall-like, fissured patterns. The Far Lands and associated glitches were considered the effective edge of the world until they were resolved, with the current horizontal limit instead being a special impassable barrier called the world border, located 30 million blocks away. Vertical space is comparatively limited, with an unbreakable bedrock layer at the bottom and a building limit several hundred blocks into the sky. Minecraft features three independent dimensions accessible through portals and providing alternate game environments. The Overworld is the starting dimension and represents the real world, with a terrestrial surface setting including plains, mountains, forests, oceans, caves, and small sources of lava. The Nether is a hell-like underworld dimension accessed via an obsidian portal and composed mainly of lava. Mobs that populate the Nether include shrieking, fireball-shooting ghasts, alongside anthropomorphic pigs called piglins and their zombified counterparts. Piglins in particular have a bartering system, where players can give them gold ingots and receive items in return. Structures known as Nether Fortresses generate in the Nether, containing mobs such as wither skeletons and blazes, which can drop blaze rods needed to access the End dimension. The player can also choose to build an optional boss mob known as the Wither, using skulls obtained from wither skeletons and soul sand. The End can be reached through an end portal, consisting of twelve end portal frames. End portals are found in underground structures in the Overworld known as strongholds. To find strongholds, players must craft eyes of ender using an ender pearl and blaze powder. Eyes of ender can then be thrown, traveling in the direction of the stronghold. Once the player reaches the stronghold, they can place eyes of ender into each portal frame to activate the end portal. The dimension consists of islands floating in a dark, bottomless void. A boss enemy called the Ender Dragon guards the largest, central island. Killing the dragon opens access to an exit portal, which, when entered, cues the game's ending credits and the End Poem, a roughly 1,500-word work written by Irish novelist Julian Gough, which takes about nine minutes to scroll past, is the game's only narrative text, and the only text of significant length directed at the player.: 10–12 At the conclusion of the credits, the player is teleported back to their respawn point and may continue the game indefinitely. In Survival mode, players have to gather natural resources such as wood and stone found in the environment in order to craft certain blocks and items. Depending on the difficulty, monsters spawn in darker areas outside a certain radius of the character, requiring players to build a shelter in order to survive at night. The mode also has a health bar which is depleted by attacks from mobs, falls, drowning, falling into lava, suffocation, starvation, and other events. Players also have a hunger bar, which must be periodically refilled by eating food in-game unless the player is playing on peaceful difficulty. If the hunger bar is empty, the player starves. Health replenishes when players have a full hunger bar or continuously on peaceful. Upon losing all health, players die. The items in the players' inventories are dropped unless the game is reconfigured not to do so. Players then re-spawn at their spawn point, which by default is where players first spawn in the game and can be changed by sleeping in a bed or using a respawn anchor. Dropped items can be recovered if players can reach them before they despawn after 5 minutes. Players may acquire experience points (commonly referred to as "xp" or "exp") by killing mobs and other players, mining, smelting ores, animal breeding, and cooking food. Experience can then be spent on enchanting tools, armor and weapons. Enchanted items are generally more powerful, last longer, or have other special effects. The game features two more game modes based on Survival, known as Hardcore mode and Adventure mode. Hardcore mode plays identically to Survival mode, but with the game's difficulty setting locked to "Hard" and with permadeath, forcing them to delete the world or explore it as a spectator after dying. Adventure mode was added to the game in a post-launch update, and prevents the player from directly modifying the game's world. It was designed primarily for use in custom maps, allowing map designers to let players experience it as intended. In Creative mode, players have access to an infinite number of all resources and items in the game through the inventory menu and can place or mine them instantly. Players can toggle the ability to fly freely around the game world at will, and their characters usually do not take any damage nor are affected by hunger. The game mode helps players focus on building and creating projects of any size without disturbance. Multiplayer in Minecraft enables multiple players to interact and communicate with each other on a single world. It is available through direct game-to-game multiplayer, local area network (LAN) play, local split screen (console-only), and servers (player-hosted and business-hosted). Players can run their own server by making a realm, using a host provider, hosting one themselves or connect directly to another player's game via Xbox Live, PlayStation Network or Nintendo Switch Online. Single-player worlds have LAN support, allowing players to join a world on locally interconnected computers without a server setup. Minecraft multiplayer servers are guided by server operators, who have access to server commands such as setting the time of day and teleporting players. Operators can also set up restrictions concerning which usernames or IP addresses are allowed or disallowed to enter the server. Multiplayer servers have a wide range of activities, with some servers having their own unique rules and customs. The largest and most popular server is Hypixel, which has been visited by over 14 million unique players. Player versus player combat (PvP) can be enabled to allow fighting between players. In 2013, Mojang announced Minecraft Realms, a server hosting service intended to enable players to run server multiplayer games easily and safely without having to set up their own. Unlike a standard server, only invited players can join Realms servers, and these servers do not use server addresses. Minecraft: Java Edition Realms server owners can invite up to twenty people to play on their server, with up to ten players online at a time. Minecraft Realms server owners can invite up to 3,000 people to play on their server, with up to ten players online at one time. The Minecraft: Java Edition Realms servers do not support user-made plugins, but players can play custom Minecraft maps. Minecraft Bedrock Realms servers support user-made add-ons, resource packs, behavior packs, and custom Minecraft maps. At Electronic Entertainment Expo 2016, support for cross-platform play between Windows 10, iOS, and Android platforms was added through Realms starting in June 2016, with Xbox One and Nintendo Switch support to come later in 2017, and support for virtual reality devices. On 31 July 2017, Mojang released the beta version of the update allowing cross-platform play. Nintendo Switch support for Realms was released in July 2018. The modding community consists of fans, users and third-party programmers. Using a variety of application program interfaces that have arisen over time, they have produced a wide variety of downloadable content for Minecraft, such as modifications, texture packs and custom maps. Modifications of the Minecraft code, called mods, add a variety of gameplay changes, ranging from new blocks, items, and mobs to entire arrays of mechanisms. The modding community is responsible for a substantial supply of mods from ones that enhance gameplay, such as mini-maps, waypoints, and durability counters, to ones that add to the game elements from other video games and media. While a variety of mod frameworks were independently developed by reverse engineering the code, Mojang has also enhanced vanilla Minecraft with official frameworks for modification, allowing the production of community-created resource packs, which alter certain game elements including textures and sounds. Players can also create their own "maps" (custom world save files) that often contain specific rules, challenges, puzzles and quests, and share them for others to play. Mojang added an adventure mode in August 2012 and "command blocks" in October 2012, which were created specially for custom maps in Java Edition. Data packs, introduced in version 1.13 of the Java Edition, allow further customization, including the ability to add new achievements, dimensions, functions, loot tables, predicates, recipes, structures, tags, and world generation. The Xbox 360 Edition supported downloadable content, which was available to purchase via the Xbox Games Store; these content packs usually contained additional character skins. It later received support for texture packs in its twelfth title update while introducing "mash-up packs", which combined texture packs with skin packs and changes to the game's sounds, music and user interface. The first mash-up pack (and by extension, the first texture pack) for the Xbox 360 Edition was released on 4 September 2013, and was themed after the Mass Effect franchise. Unlike Java Edition, however, the Xbox 360 Edition did not support player-made mods or custom maps. A cross-promotional resource pack based on the Super Mario franchise by Nintendo was released exclusively for the Wii U Edition worldwide on 17 May 2016, and later bundled free with the Nintendo Switch Edition at launch. Another based on Fallout was released on consoles that December, and for Windows and Mobile in April 2017. In April 2018, malware was discovered in several downloadable user-made Minecraft skins for use with the Java Edition of the game. Avast stated that nearly 50,000 accounts were infected, and when activated, the malware would attempt to reformat the user's hard drive. Mojang promptly patched the issue, and released a statement stating that "the code would not be run or read by the game itself", and would run only when the image containing the skin itself was opened. In June 2017, Mojang released the "1.1 Discovery Update" to the Pocket Edition of the game, which later became the Bedrock Edition. The update introduced the "Marketplace", a catalogue of purchasable user-generated content intended to give Minecraft creators "another way to make a living from the game". Various skins, maps, texture packs and add-ons from different creators can be bought with "Minecoins", a digital currency that is purchased with real money. Additionally, users can access specific content with a subscription service titled "Marketplace Pass". Alongside content from independent creators, the Marketplace also houses items published by Mojang and Microsoft themselves, as well as official collaborations between Minecraft and other intellectual properties. By 2022, the Marketplace had over 1.7 billion content downloads, generating over $500 million in revenue. Development Before creating Minecraft, Markus "Notch" Persson was a game developer at King, where he worked until March 2009. At King, he primarily developed browser games and learned several programming languages. During his free time, he prototyped his own games, often drawing inspiration from other titles, and was an active participant on the TIGSource forums for independent developers. One such project was "RubyDung", a base-building game inspired by Dwarf Fortress, but with an isometric, three-dimensional perspective similar to RollerCoaster Tycoon. Among the features in RubyDung that he explored was a first-person view similar to Dungeon Keeper, though he ultimately discarded this idea, feeling the graphics were too pixelated at the time. Around March 2009, Persson left King and joined jAlbum, while continuing to work on his prototypes. Infiniminer, a block-based open-ended mining game first released in April 2009, inspired Persson's vision for RubyDung's future direction. Infiniminer heavily influenced the visual style of gameplay, including bringing back the first-person mode, the "blocky" visual style and the block-building fundamentals. However, unlike Infiniminer, Persson wanted Minecraft to have RPG elements. The first public alpha build of Minecraft was released on 17 May 2009 on TIGSource. Over the years, Persson regularly released test builds that added new features, including tools, mobs, and entire new dimensions. In 2011, partly due to the game's rising popularity, Persson decided to release a full 1.0 version—a second part of the "Adventure Update"—on 18 November 2011. Shortly after, Persson stepped down from development, handing the project's lead to Jens "Jeb" Bergensten. On 15 September 2014, Microsoft, the developer behind the Microsoft Windows operating system and Xbox video game console, announced a $2.5 billion acquisition of Mojang, which included the Minecraft intellectual property. Persson had suggested the deal on Twitter, asking a corporation to buy his stake in the game after receiving criticism for enforcing terms in the game's end-user license agreement (EULA), which had been in place for the past three years. According to Persson, Mojang CEO Carl Manneh received a call from a Microsoft executive shortly after the tweet, asking if Persson was serious about a deal. Mojang was also approached by other companies including Activision Blizzard and Electronic Arts. The deal with Microsoft was arbitrated on 6 November 2014 and led to Persson becoming one of Forbes' "World's Billionaires". After 2014, Minecraft's primary versions received usually annual major updates—free to players who have purchased the game— each primarily centered around a specific theme. For instance, version 1.13, the Update Aquatic, focused on ocean-related features, while version 1.16, the Nether Update, introduced significant changes to the Nether dimension. However, in late 2024, Mojang announced a shift in their update strategy; rather than releasing large updates annually, they opted for a more frequent release schedule with smaller, incremental updates, stating, "We know that you want new Minecraft content more often." The Bedrock Edition has also received regular updates, now matching the themes of the Java Edition updates. Other versions of the game, such as various console editions and the Pocket Edition, were either merged into Bedrock or discontinued and have not received further updates. On 7 May 2019, coinciding with Minecraft's 10th anniversary, a JavaScript recreation of an old 2009 Java Edition build named Minecraft Classic was made available to play online for free. On 16 April 2020, a Bedrock Edition-exclusive beta version of Minecraft, called Minecraft RTX, was released by Nvidia. It introduced physically-based rendering, real-time path tracing, and DLSS for RTX-enabled GPUs. The public release was made available on 8 December 2020. Path tracing can only be enabled in supported worlds, which can be downloaded for free via the in-game Minecraft Marketplace, with a texture pack from Nvidia's website, or with compatible third-party texture packs. It cannot be enabled by default with any texture pack on any world. Initially, Minecraft RTX was affected by many bugs, display errors, and instability issues. On 22 March 2025, a new visual mode called Vibrant Visuals, an optional graphical overhaul similar to Minecraft RTX, was announced. It promises modern rendering features—such as dynamic shadows, screen space reflections, volumetric fog, and bloom—without the need of RTX-capable hardware. Vibrant Visuals was released as a part of the Chase the Skies update on 17 June 2025 for Bedrock Edition and is planned to release on Java Edition at a later date. Development began for the original edition of Minecraft—then known as Cave Game, and now known as the Java Edition—in May 2009,[k] and ended on 13 May, when Persson released a test video on YouTube of an early version of the game, dubbed the "Cave game tech test" or the "Cave game tech demo". The game was named Minecraft: Order of the Stone the next day, after a suggestion made by a player. "Order of the Stone" came from the webcomic The Order of the Stick, and "Minecraft" was chosen "because it's a good name". The title was later shortened to just Minecraft, omitting the subtitle. Persson completed the game's base programming over a weekend in May 2009, and private testing began on TigIRC on 16 May. The first public release followed on 17 May 2009 as a developmental version shared on the TIGSource forums. Based on feedback from forum users, Persson continued updating the game. This initial public build later became known as Classic. Further developmental phases—dubbed Survival Test, Indev, and Infdev—were released throughout 2009 and 2010. The first major update, known as Alpha, was released on 30 June 2010. At the time, Persson was still working a day job at jAlbum but later resigned to focus on Minecraft full-time as sales of the alpha version surged. Updates were distributed automatically, introducing new blocks, items, mobs, and changes to game mechanics such as water flow. With revenue generated from the game, Persson founded Mojang, a video game studio, alongside former colleagues Jakob Porser and Carl Manneh. On 11 December 2010, Persson announced that Minecraft would enter its beta phase on 20 December. He assured players that bug fixes and all pre-release updates would remain free. As development progressed, Mojang expanded, hiring additional employees to work on the project. The game officially exited beta and launched in full on 18 November 2011. On 1 December 2011, Jens "Jeb" Bergensten took full creative control over Minecraft, replacing Persson as lead designer. On 28 February 2012, Mojang announced the hiring of the developers behind Bukkit, a popular developer API for Minecraft servers, to improve Minecraft's support of server modifications. This move included Mojang taking apparent ownership of the CraftBukkit server mod, though this apparent acquisition later became controversial, and its legitimacy was questioned due to CraftBukkit's open-source nature and licensing under the GNU General Public License and Lesser General Public License. In August 2011, Minecraft: Pocket Edition was released as an early alpha for the Xperia Play via the Android Market, later expanding to other Android devices on 8 October 2011. The iOS version followed on 17 November 2011. A port was made available for Windows Phones shortly after Microsoft acquired Mojang. Unlike Java Edition, Pocket Edition initially focused on Minecraft's creative building and basic survival elements but lacked many features of the PC version. Bergensten confirmed on Twitter that the Pocket Edition was written in C++ rather than Java, as iOS does not support Java. On 10 December 2014, a port of Pocket Edition was released for Windows Phone 8.1. In July 2015, a port of the Pocket Edition to Windows 10 was released as the Windows 10 Edition, with full crossplay to other Pocket versions. In January 2017, Microsoft announced that it would no longer maintain the Windows Phone versions of Pocket Edition. On 20 September 2017, with the "Better Together Update", the Pocket Edition was ported to the Xbox One, and was renamed to the Bedrock Edition. The console versions of Minecraft debuted with the Xbox 360 edition, developed by 4J Studios and released on 9 May 2012. Announced as part of the Xbox Live Arcade NEXT promotion, this version introduced a redesigned crafting system, a new control interface, in-game tutorials, split-screen multiplayer, and online play via Xbox Live. Unlike the PC version, its worlds were finite, bordered by invisible walls. Initially, the Xbox 360 version resembled outdated PC versions but received updates to bring it closer to Java Edition before eventually being discontinued. The Xbox One version launched on 5 September 2014, featuring larger worlds and support for more players. Minecraft expanded to PlayStation platforms with PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 editions released on 17 December 2013 and 4 September 2014, respectively. Originally planned as a PS4 launch title, it was delayed before its eventual release. A PlayStation Vita version followed in October 2014. Like the Xbox versions, the PlayStation editions were developed by 4J Studios. Nintendo platforms received Minecraft: Wii U Edition on 17 December 2015, with a physical release in North America on 17 June 2016 and in Europe on 30 June. The Nintendo Switch version launched via the eShop on 11 May 2017. During a Nintendo Direct presentation on 13 September 2017, Nintendo announced that Minecraft: New Nintendo 3DS Edition, based on the Pocket Edition, would be available for download immediately after the livestream, and a physical copy available on a later date. The game is compatible only with the New Nintendo 3DS or New Nintendo 2DS XL systems and does not work with the original 3DS or 2DS systems. On 20 September 2017, the Better Together Update introduced Bedrock Edition across Xbox One, Windows 10, VR, and mobile platforms, enabling cross-play between these versions. Bedrock Edition later expanded to Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4, with the latter receiving the update in December 2019, allowing cross-platform play for users with a free Xbox Live account. The Bedrock Edition released a native version for PlayStation 5 on 22 October 2024, while the Xbox Series X/S version launched on 17 June 2025. On 18 December 2018, the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Xbox 360, and Wii U versions of Minecraft received their final update and would later become known as "Legacy Console Editions". On 15 January 2019, the New Nintendo 3DS version of Minecraft received its final update, effectively becoming discontinued as well. An educational version of Minecraft, designed for use in schools, launched on 1 November 2016. It is available on Android, ChromeOS, iPadOS, iOS, MacOS, and Windows. On 20 August 2018, Mojang announced that it would bring Education Edition to iPadOS in Autumn 2018. It was released to the App Store on 6 September 2018. On 27 March 2019, it was announced that it would be operated by JD.com in China. On 26 June 2020, a public beta for the Education Edition was made available to Google Play Store compatible Chromebooks. The full game was released to the Google Play Store for Chromebooks on 7 August 2020. On 20 May 2016, China Edition (also known as My World) was announced as a localized edition for China, where it was released under a licensing agreement between NetEase and Mojang. The PC edition was released for public testing on 8 August 2017. The iOS version was released on 15 September 2017, and the Android version was released on 12 October 2017. The PC edition is based on the original Java Edition, while the iOS and Android mobile versions are based on the Bedrock Edition. The edition is free-to-play and had over 700 million registered accounts by September 2023. This version of Bedrock Edition is exclusive to Microsoft's Windows 10 and Windows 11 operating systems. The beta release for Windows 10 launched on the Windows Store on 29 July 2015. After nearly a year and a half in beta, Microsoft fully released the version on 19 December 2016. Called the "Ender Update", this release implemented new features to this version of Minecraft like world templates and add-on packs. On 7 June 2022, the Java and Bedrock Editions of Minecraft were merged into a single bundle for purchase on Windows; those who owned one version would automatically gain access to the other version. Both game versions would otherwise remain separate. Around 2011, prior to Minecraft's full release, Mojang collaborated with The Lego Group to create a Lego brick-based Minecraft game called Brickcraft. This would have modified the base Minecraft game to use Lego bricks, which meant adapting the basic 1×1 block to account for larger pieces typically used in Lego sets. Persson worked on an early version called "Project Rex Kwon Do", named after the character of the same name from the film Napoleon Dynamite. Although Lego approved the project and Mojang assigned two developers for six months, it was canceled due to the Lego Group's demands, according to Mojang's Daniel Kaplan. Lego considered buying Mojang to complete the game, but when Microsoft offered over $2 billion for the company, Lego stepped back, unsure of Minecraft's potential. On 26 June 2025, a build of Brickcraft dated 28 June 2012 was published on a community archive website Omniarchive. Initially, Markus Persson planned to support the Oculus Rift with a Minecraft port. However, after Facebook acquired Oculus in 2013, he abruptly canceled the plans, stating, "Facebook creeps me out." In 2016, a community-made mod, Minecraft VR, added VR support for Java Edition, followed by Vivecraft for HTC Vive. Later that year, Microsoft introduced official Oculus Rift support for Windows 10 Edition, leading to the discontinuation of the Minecraft VR mod due to trademark complaints. Vivecraft was endorsed by Minecraft VR contributors for its Rift support. Also available is a Gear VR version, titled Minecraft: Gear VR Edition. Windows Mixed Reality support was added in 2017. On 7 September 2020, Mojang Studios announced that the PlayStation 4 Bedrock version would receive PlayStation VR support later that month. In September 2024, the Minecraft team announced they would no longer support PlayStation VR, which received its final update in March 2025. Music and sound design Minecraft's music and sound effects were produced by German musician Daniel Rosenfeld, better known as C418. To create the sound effects for the game, Rosenfeld made extensive use of Foley techniques. On learning the processes for the game, he remarked, "Foley's an interesting thing, and I had to learn its subtleties. Early on, I wasn't that knowledgeable about it. It's a whole trial-and-error process. You just make a sound and eventually you go, 'Oh my God, that's it! Get the microphone!' There's no set way of doing anything at all." He reminisced on creating the in-game sound for grass blocks, stating "It turns out that to make grass sounds you don't actually walk on grass and record it, because grass sounds like nothing. What you want to do is get a VHS, break it apart, and just lightly touch the tape." According to Rosenfeld, his favorite sound to design for the game was the hisses of spiders. He elaborates, "I like the spiders. Recording that was a whole day of me researching what a spider sounds like. Turns out, there are spiders that make little screeching sounds, so I think I got this recording of a fire hose, put it in a sampler, and just pitched it around until it sounded like a weird spider was talking to you." Many of the sound design decisions by Rosenfeld were done accidentally or spontaneously. The creeper notably lacks any specific noises apart from a loud fuse-like sound when about to explode; Rosenfeld later recalled "That was just a complete accident by Markus and me [sic]. We just put in a placeholder sound of burning a matchstick. It seemed to work hilariously well, so we kept it." On other sounds, such as those of the zombie, Rosenfeld remarked, "I actually never wanted the zombies so scary. I intentionally made them sound comical. It's nice to hear that they work so well [...]." Rosenfeld remarked that the sound engine was "terrible" to work with, remembering "If you had two song files at once, it [the game engine] would actually crash. There were so many more weird glitches like that the guys never really fixed because they were too busy with the actual game and not the sound engine." The background music in Minecraft consists of instrumental ambient music. To compose the music of Minecraft, Rosenfeld used the package from Ableton Live, along with several additional plug-ins. Speaking on them, Rosenfeld said "They can be pretty much everything from an effect to an entire orchestra. Additionally, I've got some synthesizers that are attached to the computer. Like a Moog Voyager, Dave Smith Prophet 08 and a Virus TI." On 4 March 2011, Rosenfeld released a soundtrack titled Minecraft – Volume Alpha; it includes most of the tracks featured in Minecraft, as well as other music not featured in the game. Kirk Hamilton of Kotaku chose the music in Minecraft as one of the best video game soundtracks of 2011. On 9 November 2013, Rosenfeld released the second official soundtrack, titled Minecraft – Volume Beta, which included the music that was added in a 2013 "Music Update" for the game. A physical release of Volume Alpha, consisting of CDs, black vinyl, and limited-edition transparent green vinyl LPs, was issued by indie electronic label Ghostly International on 21 August 2015. On 14 August 2020, Ghostly released Volume Beta on CD and vinyl, with alternate color LPs and lenticular cover pressings released in limited quantities. The final update Rosenfeld worked on was 2018's 1.13 Update Aquatic. His music remained the only music in the game until 2020's "Nether Update", introducing pieces from Lena Raine. Since then, other composers have made contributions, including Kumi Tanioka, Samuel Åberg, Aaron Cherof, and Amos Roddy, with Raine remaining as the new primary composer. Ownership of all music besides Rosenfeld's independently released albums has been retained by Microsoft, with their label publishing all of the other artists' releases. Gareth Coker also composed some of the music for the game's mini games from the Legacy Console editions. Rosenfeld had stated his intent to create a third album of music for the game in a 2015 interview with Fact, and confirmed its existence in a 2017 tweet, stating that his work on the record as of then had tallied up to be longer than the previous two albums combined, which in total clocks in at over 3 hours and 18 minutes. However, due to licensing issues with Microsoft, the third volume has since not seen release. On 8 January 2021, Rosenfeld was asked in an interview with Anthony Fantano whether or not there was still a third volume of his music intended for release. Rosenfeld responded, saying, "I have something—I consider it finished—but things have become complicated, especially as Minecraft is now a big property, so I don't know." Reception Minecraft has received critical acclaim, with praise for the creative freedom it grants players in-game, as well as the ease of enabling emergent gameplay. Critics have expressed enjoyment in Minecraft's complex crafting system, commenting that it is an important aspect of the game's open-ended gameplay. Most publications were impressed by the game's "blocky" graphics, with IGN describing them as "instantly memorable". Reviewers also liked the game's adventure elements, noting that the game creates a good balance between exploring and building. The game's multiplayer feature has been generally received favorably, with IGN commenting that "adventuring is always better with friends". Jaz McDougall of PC Gamer said Minecraft is "intuitively interesting and contagiously fun, with an unparalleled scope for creativity and memorable experiences". It has been regarded as having introduced millions of children to the digital world, insofar as its basic game mechanics are logically analogous to computer commands. IGN was disappointed about the troublesome steps needed to set up multiplayer servers, calling it a "hassle". Critics also said that visual glitches occur periodically. Despite its release out of beta in 2011, GameSpot said the game had an "unfinished feel", adding that some game elements seem "incomplete or thrown together in haste". A review of the alpha version, by Scott Munro of the Daily Record, called it "already something special" and urged readers to buy it. Jim Rossignol of Rock Paper Shotgun also recommended the alpha of the game, calling it "a kind of generative 8-bit Lego Stalker". On 17 September 2010, gaming webcomic Penny Arcade began a series of comics and news posts about the addictiveness of the game. The Xbox 360 version was generally received positively by critics, but did not receive as much praise as the PC version. Although reviewers were disappointed by the lack of features such as mod support and content from the PC version, they acclaimed the port's addition of a tutorial and in-game tips and crafting recipes, saying that they make the game more user-friendly. The Xbox One Edition was one of the best received ports, being praised for its relatively large worlds. The PlayStation 3 Edition also received generally favorable reviews, being compared to the Xbox 360 Edition and praised for its well-adapted controls. The PlayStation 4 edition was the best received port to date, being praised for having 36 times larger worlds than the PlayStation 3 edition and described as nearly identical to the Xbox One edition. The PlayStation Vita Edition received generally positive reviews from critics but was noted for its technical limitations. The Wii U version received generally positive reviews from critics but was noted for a lack of GamePad integration. The 3DS version received mixed reviews, being criticized for its high price, technical issues, and lack of cross-platform play. The Nintendo Switch Edition received fairly positive reviews from critics, being praised, like other modern ports, for its relatively larger worlds. Minecraft: Pocket Edition initially received mixed reviews from critics. Although reviewers appreciated the game's intuitive controls, they were disappointed by the lack of content. The inability to collect resources and craft items, as well as the limited types of blocks and lack of hostile mobs, were especially criticized. After updates added more content, Pocket Edition started receiving more positive reviews. Reviewers complimented the controls and the graphics, but still noted a lack of content. Minecraft surpassed over a million purchases less than a month after entering its beta phase in early 2011. At the same time, the game had no publisher backing and has never been commercially advertised except through word of mouth, and various unpaid references in popular media such as the Penny Arcade webcomic. By April 2011, Persson estimated that Minecraft had made €23 million (US$33 million) in revenue, with 800,000 sales of the alpha version of the game, and over 1 million sales of the beta version. In November 2011, prior to the game's full release, Minecraft beta surpassed 16 million registered users and 4 million purchases. By March 2012, Minecraft had become the 6th best-selling PC game of all time. As of 10 October 2014[update], the game had sold 17 million copies on PC, becoming the best-selling PC game of all time. On 25 February 2014, the game reached 100 million registered users. By May 2019, 180 million copies had been sold across all platforms, making it the single best-selling video game of all time. The free-to-play Minecraft China version had over 700 million registered accounts by September 2023. By 2023, the game had sold over 300 million copies. As of April 2025, Minecraft has sold over 350 million copies. The Xbox 360 version of Minecraft became profitable within the first day of the game's release in 2012, when the game broke the Xbox Live sales records with 400,000 players online. Within a week of being on the Xbox Live Marketplace, Minecraft sold a million copies. GameSpot announced in December 2012 that Minecraft sold over 4.48 million copies since the game debuted on Xbox Live Arcade in May 2012. In 2012, Minecraft was the most purchased title on Xbox Live Arcade; it was also the fourth most played title on Xbox Live based on average unique users per day. As of 4 April 2014[update], the Xbox 360 version has sold 12 million copies. In addition, Minecraft: Pocket Edition has reached a figure of 21 million in sales. The PlayStation 3 Edition sold one million copies in five weeks. The release of the game's PlayStation Vita version boosted Minecraft sales by 79%, outselling both PS3 and PS4 debut releases and becoming the largest Minecraft launch on a PlayStation console. The PS Vita version sold 100,000 digital copies in Japan within the first two months of release, according to an announcement by SCE Japan Asia. By January 2015, 500,000 digital copies of Minecraft were sold in Japan across all PlayStation platforms, with a surge in primary school children purchasing the PS Vita version. As of 2022, the Vita version has sold over 1.65 million physical copies in Japan, making it the best-selling Vita game in the country. Minecraft helped improve Microsoft's total first-party revenue by $63 million for the 2015 second quarter. The game, including all of its versions, had over 112 million monthly active players by September 2019. On its 11th anniversary in May 2020, the company announced that Minecraft had reached over 200 million copies sold across platforms with over 126 million monthly active players. By April 2021, the number of active monthly users had climbed to 140 million. In July 2010, PC Gamer listed Minecraft as the fourth-best game to play at work. In December of that year, Good Game selected Minecraft as their choice for Best Downloadable Game of 2010, Gamasutra named it the eighth best game of the year as well as the eighth best indie game of the year, and Rock, Paper, Shotgun named it the "game of the year". Indie DB awarded the game the 2010 Indie of the Year award as chosen by voters, in addition to two out of five Editor's Choice awards for Most Innovative and Best Singleplayer Indie. It was also awarded Game of the Year by PC Gamer UK. The game was nominated for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize, Technical Excellence, and Excellence in Design awards at the March 2011 Independent Games Festival and won the Grand Prize and the community-voted Audience Award. At Game Developers Choice Awards 2011, Minecraft won awards in the categories for Best Debut Game, Best Downloadable Game and Innovation Award, winning every award for which it was nominated. It also won GameCity's video game arts award. On 5 May 2011, Minecraft was selected as one of the 80 games that would be displayed at the Smithsonian American Art Museum as part of The Art of Video Games exhibit that opened on 16 March 2012. At the 2011 Spike Video Game Awards, Minecraft won the award for Best Independent Game and was nominated in the Best PC Game category. In 2012, at the British Academy Video Games Awards, Minecraft was nominated in the GAME Award of 2011 category and Persson received The Special Award. In 2012, Minecraft XBLA was awarded a Golden Joystick Award in the Best Downloadable Game category, and a TIGA Games Industry Award in the Best Arcade Game category. In 2013, it was nominated as the family game of the year at the British Academy Video Games Awards. During the 16th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated the Xbox 360 version of Minecraft for "Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year". Minecraft Console Edition won the award for TIGA Game Of The Year in 2014. In 2015, the game placed 6th on USgamer's The 15 Best Games Since 2000 list. In 2016, Minecraft placed 6th on Time's The 50 Best Video Games of All Time list. Minecraft was nominated for the 2013 Kids' Choice Awards for Favorite App, but lost to Temple Run. It was nominated for the 2014 Kids' Choice Awards for Favorite Video Game, but lost to Just Dance 2014. The game later won the award for the Most Addicting Game at the 2015 Kids' Choice Awards. In addition, the Java Edition was nominated for "Favorite Video Game" at the 2018 Kids' Choice Awards, while the game itself won the "Still Playing" award at the 2019 Golden Joystick Awards, as well as the "Favorite Video Game" award at the 2020 Kids' Choice Awards. Minecraft also won "Stream Game of the Year" at inaugural Streamer Awards in 2021. The game later garnered a Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Award nomination for Favorite Video Game in 2021, and won the same category in 2022 and 2023. At the Golden Joystick Awards 2025, it won the Still Playing Award - PC and Console. Minecraft has been subject to several notable controversies. In June 2014, Mojang announced that it would begin enforcing the portion of Minecraft's end-user license agreement (EULA) which prohibits servers from giving in-game advantages to players in exchange for donations or payments. Spokesperson Owen Hill stated that servers could still require players to pay a fee to access the server and could sell in-game cosmetic items. The change was supported by Persson, citing emails he received from parents of children who had spent hundreds of dollars on servers. The Minecraft community and server owners protested, arguing that the EULA's terms were more broad than Mojang was claiming, that the crackdown would force smaller servers to shut down for financial reasons, and that Mojang was suppressing competition for its own Minecraft Realms subscription service. The controversy contributed to Notch's decision to sell Mojang. In 2020, Mojang announced an eventual change to the Java Edition to require a login from a Microsoft account rather than a Mojang account, the latter of which would be sunsetted. This also required Java Edition players to create Xbox network Gamertags. Mojang defended the move to Microsoft accounts by saying that improved security could be offered, including two-factor authentication, blocking cyberbullies in chat, and improved parental controls. The community responded with intense backlash, citing various technical difficulties encountered in the process and how account migration would be mandatory, even for those who do not play on servers. As of 10 March 2022, Microsoft required that all players migrate in order to maintain access the Java Edition of Minecraft. Mojang announced a deadline of 19 September 2023 for account migration, after which all legacy Mojang accounts became inaccessible and unable to be migrated. In June 2022, Mojang added a player-reporting feature in Java Edition. Players could report other players on multiplayer servers for sending messages prohibited by the Xbox Live Code of Conduct; report categories included profane language,[l] substance abuse, hate speech, threats of violence, and nudity. If a player was found to be in violation of Xbox Community Standards, they would be banned from all servers for a specific period of time or permanently. The update containing the report feature (1.19.1) was released on 27 July 2022. Mojang received substantial backlash and protest from community members, one of the most common complaints being that banned players would be forbidden from joining any server, even private ones. Others took issue to what they saw as Microsoft increasing control over its player base and exercising censorship, leading some to start a hashtag #saveminecraft and dub the version "1.19.84", a reference to the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. The "Mob Vote" was an online event organized by Mojang in which the Minecraft community voted between three original mob concepts; initially, the winning mob was to be implemented in a future update, while the losing mobs were scrapped, though after the first mob vote this was changed, and losing mobs would now have a chance to come to the game in the future. The first Mob Vote was held during Minecon Earth 2017 and became an annual event starting with Minecraft Live 2020. The Mob Vote was often criticized for forcing players to choose one mob instead of implementing all three, causing divisions and flaming within the community, and potentially allowing internet bots and Minecraft content creators with large fanbases to conduct vote brigading. The Mob Vote was also blamed for a perceived lack of new content added to Minecraft since Microsoft's acquisition of Mojang in 2014. The 2023 Mob Vote featured three passive mobs—the crab, the penguin, and the armadillo—with voting scheduled to start on 13 October. In response, a Change.org petition was created on 6 October, demanding that Mojang eliminate the Mob Vote and instead implement all three mobs going forward. The petition received approximately 445,000 signatures by 13 October and was joined by calls to boycott the Mob Vote, as well as a partially tongue-in-cheek "revolutionary" propaganda campaign in which sympathizers created anti-Mojang and pro-boycott posters in the vein of real 20th century propaganda posters. Mojang did not release an official response to the boycott, and the Mob Vote otherwise proceeded normally, with the armadillo winning the vote. In September 2024, as part of a blog post detailing their future plans for Minecraft's development, Mojang announced the Mob Vote would be retired. Cultural impact In September 2019, The Guardian classified Minecraft as the best video game of the 21st century to date, and in November 2019, Polygon called it the "most important game of the decade" in its 2010s "decade in review". In June 2020, Minecraft was inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame. Minecraft is recognized as one of the first successful games to use an early access model to draw in sales prior to its full release version to help fund development. As Minecraft helped to bolster indie game development in the early 2010s, it also helped to popularize the use of the early access model in indie game development. Social media sites such as YouTube, Facebook, and Reddit have played a significant role in popularizing Minecraft. Research conducted by the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania showed that one-third of Minecraft players learned about the game via Internet videos. In 2010, Minecraft-related videos began to gain influence on YouTube, often made by commentators. The videos usually contain screen-capture footage of the game and voice-overs. Common coverage in the videos includes creations made by players, walkthroughs of various tasks, and parodies of works in popular culture. By May 2012, over four million Minecraft-related YouTube videos had been uploaded. The game would go on to be a prominent fixture within YouTube's gaming scene during the entire 2010s; in 2014, it was the second-most searched term on the entire platform. By 2018, it was still YouTube's biggest game globally. Some popular commentators have received employment at Machinima, a now-defunct gaming video company that owned a highly watched entertainment channel on YouTube. The Yogscast is a British company that regularly produces Minecraft videos; their YouTube channel has attained billions of views, and their panel at Minecon 2011 had the highest attendance. Another well-known YouTube personality is Jordan Maron, known online as CaptainSparklez, who has also created many Minecraft music parodies, including "Revenge", a parody of Usher's "DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love". Minecraft's popularity on YouTube was described by Polygon as quietly dominant, although in 2019, thanks in part to PewDiePie's playthroughs of the game, Minecraft experienced a visible uptick in popularity on the platform. Longer-running series include Far Lands or Bust, dedicated to reaching the obsolete "Far Lands" glitch by foot on an older version of the game. YouTube announced that on 14 December 2021 that the total amount of Minecraft-related views on the website had exceeded one trillion. Minecraft has been referenced by other video games, such as Torchlight II, Team Fortress 2, Borderlands 2, Choplifter HD, Super Meat Boy, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, The Binding of Isaac, The Stanley Parable, and FTL: Faster Than Light. Minecraft is officially represented in downloadable content for the crossover fighter Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, with Steve as a playable character with a moveset including references to building, crafting, and redstone, alongside an Overworld-themed stage. It was also referenced by electronic music artist Deadmau5 in his performances. The game is also referenced heavily in "Informative Murder Porn", the second episode of the seventeenth season of the animated television series South Park. In 2025, A Minecraft Movie was released. It made $313 million in the box office in the first week, a record-breaking opening for a video game adaptation. Minecraft has been noted as a cultural touchstone for Generation Z, as many of the generation's members played the game at a young age. The possible applications of Minecraft have been discussed extensively, especially in the fields of computer-aided design (CAD) and education. In a panel at Minecon 2011, a Swedish developer discussed the possibility of using the game to redesign public buildings and parks, stating that rendering using Minecraft was much more user-friendly for the community, making it easier to envision the functionality of new buildings and parks. In 2012, a member of the Human Dynamics group at the MIT Media Lab, Cody Sumter, said: "Notch hasn't just built a game. He's tricked 40 million people into learning to use a CAD program." Various software has been developed to allow virtual designs to be printed using professional 3D printers or personal printers such as MakerBot and RepRap. In September 2012, Mojang began the Block by Block project in cooperation with UN Habitat to create real-world environments in Minecraft. The project allows young people who live in those environments to participate in designing the changes they would like to see. Using Minecraft, the community has helped reconstruct the areas of concern, and citizens are invited to enter the Minecraft servers and modify their own neighborhood. Carl Manneh, Mojang's managing director, called the game "the perfect tool to facilitate this process", adding "The three-year partnership will support UN-Habitat's Sustainable Urban Development Network to upgrade 300 public spaces by 2016." Mojang signed Minecraft building community, FyreUK, to help render the environments into Minecraft. The first pilot project began in Kibera, one of Nairobi's informal settlements and is in the planning phase. The Block by Block project is based on an earlier initiative started in October 2011, Mina Kvarter (My Block), which gave young people in Swedish communities a tool to visualize how they wanted to change their part of town. According to Manneh, the project was a helpful way to visualize urban planning ideas without necessarily having a training in architecture. The ideas presented by the citizens were a template for political decisions. In April 2014, the Danish Geodata Agency generated all of Denmark in fullscale in Minecraft based on their own geodata. This is possible because Denmark is one of the flattest countries with the highest point at 171 meters (ranking as the country with the 30th smallest elevation span), where the limit in default Minecraft was around 192 meters above in-game sea level when the project was completed. Taking advantage of the game's accessibility where other websites are censored, the non-governmental organization Reporters Without Borders has used an open Minecraft server to create the Uncensored Library, a repository within the game of journalism by authors from countries (including Egypt, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam) who have been censored and arrested, such as Jamal Khashoggi. The neoclassical virtual building was created over about 250 hours by an international team of 24 people. Despite its unpredictable nature, Minecraft speedrunning, where players time themselves from spawning into a new world to reaching The End and defeating the Ender Dragon boss, is popular. Some speedrunners use a combination of mods, external programs, and debug menus, while other runners play the game in a more vanilla or more consistency-oriented way. Minecraft has been used in educational settings through initiatives such as MinecraftEdu, founded in 2011 to make the game affordable and accessible for schools in collaboration with Mojang. MinecraftEdu provided features allowing teachers to monitor student progress, including screenshot submissions as evidence of lesson completion, and by 2012 reported that approximately 250,000 students worldwide had access to the platform. Mojang also developed Minecraft: Education Edition with pre-built lesson plans for up to 30 students in a closed environment. Educators have used Minecraft to teach subjects such as history, language arts, and science through custom-built environments, including reconstructions of historical landmarks and large-scale models of biological structures such as animal cells. The introduction of redstone blocks enabled the construction of functional virtual machines such as a hard drive and an 8-bit computer. Mods have been created to use these mechanics for teaching programming. In 2014, the British Museum announced a project to reproduce its building and exhibits in Minecraft in collaboration with the public. Microsoft and Code.org have offered Minecraft-based tutorials and activities designed to teach programming, reporting by 2018 that more than 85 million children had used their resources. In 2025, the Musée de Minéralogie in Paris held a temporary exhibition titled "Minerals in Minecraft." Following the initial surge in popularity of Minecraft in 2010, other video games were criticised for having various similarities to Minecraft, and some were described as being "clones", often due to a direct inspiration from Minecraft, or a superficial similarity. Examples include Ace of Spades, CastleMiner, CraftWorld, FortressCraft, Terraria, BlockWorld 3D, Total Miner, and Luanti (formerly Minetest). David Frampton, designer of The Blockheads, reported that one failure of his 2D game was the "low resolution pixel art" that too closely resembled the art in Minecraft, which resulted in "some resistance" from fans. A homebrew adaptation of the alpha version of Minecraft for the Nintendo DS, titled DScraft, has been released; it has been noted for its similarity to the original game considering the technical limitations of the system. In response to Microsoft's acquisition of Mojang and their Minecraft IP, various developers announced further clone titles developed specifically for Nintendo's consoles, as they were the only major platforms not to officially receive Minecraft at the time. These clone titles include UCraft (Nexis Games), Cube Life: Island Survival (Cypronia), Discovery (Noowanda), Battleminer (Wobbly Tooth Games), Cube Creator 3D (Big John Games), and Stone Shire (Finger Gun Games). Despite this, the fears of fans were unfounded, with official Minecraft releases on Nintendo consoles eventually resuming. Markus Persson made another similar game, Minicraft, for a Ludum Dare competition in 2011. In 2025, Persson announced through a poll on his X account that he was considering developing a spiritual successor to Minecraft. He later clarified that he was "100% serious", and that he had "basically announced Minecraft 2". Within days, however, Persson cancelled the plans after speaking to his team. In November 2024, artificial intelligence companies Decart and Etched released Oasis, an artificially generated version of Minecraft, as a proof of concept. Every in-game element is completely AI-generated in real time and the model does not store world data, leading to "hallucinations" such as items and blocks appearing that were not there before. In January 2026, indie game developer Unomelon announced that their voxel sandbox game Allumeria would be playable in Steam Next Fest that year. On 10 February, Mojang issued a DMCA takedown of Allumeria on Steam through Valve, alleging the game was infringing on Minecraft's copyright. Some reports suggested that the takedown may have used an automatic AI copyright claiming service. The DMCA was later withdrawn. Minecon was an annual official fan convention dedicated to Minecraft. The first full Minecon was held in November 2011 at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The event included the official launch of Minecraft; keynote speeches, including one by Persson; building and costume contests; Minecraft-themed breakout classes; exhibits by leading gaming and Minecraft-related companies; commemorative merchandise; and autograph and picture times with Mojang employees and well-known contributors from the Minecraft community. In 2016, Minecon was held in-person for the last time, with the following years featuring annual "Minecon Earth" livestreams on minecraft.net and YouTube instead. These livestreams, later rebranded to "Minecraft Live", included the mob/biome votes, and announcements of new game updates. In 2025, "Minecraft Live" became a biannual event as part of Minecraft's changing update schedule.[citation needed] Notes References External links |
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Zuckerberg defends Meta in landmark social media addiction trial2 days agoShareSaveKali Hays,Technology reporterandNatalie ShermanShareSaveWatch: BBC at court as Mark Zuckerberg testifies in social media addiction caseMark Zuckerberg, the boss of Instagram-owner Meta Platforms, struggled in court on Wednesday to defend his firm from claims it targeted young users as he was confronted with internal documents on its practices. He maintained that lawyers were "mischaracterising" the communications, which were presented as part of a landmark trial in Los Angeles over whether social media platforms like Instagram are addictive for children.It was Zuckerberg's first appearance before a jury, after years of rising backlash against Meta, which also owns WhatsApp and Facebook.The trial, in which Google's YouTube is also a defendant, is being closely watched for its implications for thousands of similar lawsuits.TikTok and Snapchat, also named in the lawsuit, settled shortly before trial was scheduled to begin. Terms of the settlements were not disclosed.Meta repeatedly maintained that the company has taken action to protect young users and bars people under the age of 13.But in court, Mark Lanier, the lawyer for the lead plaintiff in the case - known by her initials K.G.M - repeatedly presented internal emails, messages, and research showing Zuckerberg and other Meta employees discussing usage of Instagram and Facebook by teenagers and younger.One email from 2019, sent to Zuckerberg and three top Meta executives, took issue with the company's "unenforced" age limitations.That made it "difficult to claim we're doing all we can", according to the email from Nick Clegg, who worked as Meta's head of global affairs for several years after the former Liberal Democrat MP served as the UK's deputy prime minister.Lanier asked Zuckerberg about a 2019 research report from an outside company done on behalf of Instagram, which found that teens using the platform felt "hooked despite how it makes them feel", adding that teen users had "an addicts' narrative about their Instagram use.""It can make them feel good, it can make them feel bad, they wish they could spend less time caring about it," the report said.Zuckerberg noted that the research was not conducted inside Meta.When Paul Schmidt, Meta's lawyer, questioned Zuckerberg on the same report, he said that it also mentioned "positive" aspects of Instagram use that came from the research.Schmidt positioned the report as part of Meta's ongoing efforts to conduct research on how its platforms are used and continuously improve them.Another presentation from 2018 showed the firm discussing the successful retention of "tweens" on the platform, despite the company's claims that such users were not allowed.Zuckerberg said he "always" regretted not making faster progress to identify users under 13, but he believed the company had reached the "right place over time".He noted that teen users represented "less than 1%" of ad revenue for the company and accused Lanier of taking the tween document out of context. Zuckerberg said his company had had "various discussions" about building versions of its products that could be used by children under 13 "in a regulated way".He pointed to his company's Messenger Kids service, which he said was "not very popular" but that he uses it "with my own kids." Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have three children."You're mischaracterising what I'm saying," Zuckerberg added. "I'm not surprised that people internally were studying this."Lanier also confronted Zuckerberg about efforts to get teens to use the platform. He presented emails from Zuckerberg as well as other internal messages, in which employees discussed in clear terms "teen usage" and how to increase it.In one from 2015, Zuckerberg told a group of executives that his goals for the year included seeing "time spent increase by 12%" and the "teen trend be reversed."A separate 2017 email from an executive stated that "Mark has decided the top priority for the company is teens". Zuckerberg said that "at an earlier point in the company" he gave executives goals to increase time spent, but insisted that was no longer how the company operated.Under Schmidt's questioning, Zuckerberg explained that had Meta only focused on metrics like time spent on its platforms, they would not have lasted this many years.Zuckerberg noted that he'd worked for years to address "problematic use" of platforms like Instagram "because it's the right thing to do."Schmidt referenced Instagram tools released in 2018 that allow an Instagram user to set up daily use limits, alerts for time spent, and turn off notifications at night.Lanier later pointed to an internal Meta document that showed how scarcely teens had elected to use these tools. Only 1.1% of teen users used the daily use limit, for instance. Lori Schott's daughter Annalee Schott killed herself at the age of 18K.G.M., who started using Instagram when she was nine years old, attended the proceedings on Wednesday, sitting directly across from Zuckerberg, who arrived at court with an entourage of security and associates. Bereaved parents were also among those in the courtroom to watch the proceedings, although only a small number were allowed seats.More parents and family members were gathered outside the courthouse to show their support for others who had seen children suffer from what they deemed the ill effects of social media use and addiction.Lori Schott was one such parent. She wore a large badge showing a photo of her daughter Annalee Schott who killed herself at the age of 18."These platforms can change," Schott said outside court. "It wouldn't take long to change the algorithmic content so kids aren't killing themselves. Is it that hard to do, Mr. Zuckerberg?" The trial is expected to last several weeks. It will include testimony from former Meta employees who have since spoken out about on the company's practices.YouTube boss Neal Mohan had also been expected to appear but is no longer being called for testimony, the BBC has learned.In questioning last week, Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, challenged the idea of social media addiction, arguing that even 16-hours of Instagram use in a single day did not show an addiction.In his own testimony, Zuckerberg said that if something is of value, "people tend to use it more."Lanier noted that people who are addicted to something also tend to increase their use."I don't know what to say to that," Zuckerberg replied. "I think that may be true but I don't know if that applies here."If you've been affected by issues involving suicide or feelings of despair, details of organisations offering advice and support for people in the UK are available from BBC Action Line. Help and support outside the UK can be found at Befrienders Worldwide.The case is one of thousands of similar lawsuits brought by families, state prosecutors and school districts currently winding their way through US courts.The lawsuits accuse Meta and other social media platforms, including TikTok, Snapchat and Youtube, of functioning in an addictive manner that ultimately has harmed many children.In one such case, 29 state attorney generals are pushing a California federal court to demand that the platforms make a number of changes immediately, before any trial, including forcing Meta to remove all accounts known to belong to users under 13 years of age.A growing number of countries are moving to restrict social media use by young people. Australia late last year implemented a ban on social media accounts for people under age 16. The UK, Denmark, France and Spain are considering similar measures.Instagram boss says 16 hours of daily use is 'problematic' not addictionFacebook-owner Meta to nearly double AI spendingWhy are parents flooding MPs with demands to ban social media?Social mediaInternational BusinessLos AngelesMetaInstagramMark ZuckerbergFacebookYoung people Zuckerberg defends Meta in landmark social media addiction trial Mark Zuckerberg, the boss of Instagram-owner Meta Platforms, struggled in court on Wednesday to defend his firm from claims it targeted young users as he was confronted with internal documents on its practices. He maintained that lawyers were "mischaracterising" the communications, which were presented as part of a landmark trial in Los Angeles over whether social media platforms like Instagram are addictive for children. It was Zuckerberg's first appearance before a jury, after years of rising backlash against Meta, which also owns WhatsApp and Facebook. The trial, in which Google's YouTube is also a defendant, is being closely watched for its implications for thousands of similar lawsuits. TikTok and Snapchat, also named in the lawsuit, settled shortly before trial was scheduled to begin. Terms of the settlements were not disclosed. Meta repeatedly maintained that the company has taken action to protect young users and bars people under the age of 13. But in court, Mark Lanier, the lawyer for the lead plaintiff in the case - known by her initials K.G.M - repeatedly presented internal emails, messages, and research showing Zuckerberg and other Meta employees discussing usage of Instagram and Facebook by teenagers and younger. One email from 2019, sent to Zuckerberg and three top Meta executives, took issue with the company's "unenforced" age limitations. That made it "difficult to claim we're doing all we can", according to the email from Nick Clegg, who worked as Meta's head of global affairs for several years after the former Liberal Democrat MP served as the UK's deputy prime minister. Lanier asked Zuckerberg about a 2019 research report from an outside company done on behalf of Instagram, which found that teens using the platform felt "hooked despite how it makes them feel", adding that teen users had "an addicts' narrative about their Instagram use." "It can make them feel good, it can make them feel bad, they wish they could spend less time caring about it," the report said. Zuckerberg noted that the research was not conducted inside Meta. When Paul Schmidt, Meta's lawyer, questioned Zuckerberg on the same report, he said that it also mentioned "positive" aspects of Instagram use that came from the research. Schmidt positioned the report as part of Meta's ongoing efforts to conduct research on how its platforms are used and continuously improve them. Another presentation from 2018 showed the firm discussing the successful retention of "tweens" on the platform, despite the company's claims that such users were not allowed. Zuckerberg said he "always" regretted not making faster progress to identify users under 13, but he believed the company had reached the "right place over time". He noted that teen users represented "less than 1%" of ad revenue for the company and accused Lanier of taking the tween document out of context. Zuckerberg said his company had had "various discussions" about building versions of its products that could be used by children under 13 "in a regulated way". He pointed to his company's Messenger Kids service, which he said was "not very popular" but that he uses it "with my own kids." Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have three children. "You're mischaracterising what I'm saying," Zuckerberg added. "I'm not surprised that people internally were studying this." Lanier also confronted Zuckerberg about efforts to get teens to use the platform. He presented emails from Zuckerberg as well as other internal messages, in which employees discussed in clear terms "teen usage" and how to increase it. In one from 2015, Zuckerberg told a group of executives that his goals for the year included seeing "time spent increase by 12%" and the "teen trend be reversed." A separate 2017 email from an executive stated that "Mark has decided the top priority for the company is teens". Zuckerberg said that "at an earlier point in the company" he gave executives goals to increase time spent, but insisted that was no longer how the company operated. Under Schmidt's questioning, Zuckerberg explained that had Meta only focused on metrics like time spent on its platforms, they would not have lasted this many years. Zuckerberg noted that he'd worked for years to address "problematic use" of platforms like Instagram "because it's the right thing to do." Schmidt referenced Instagram tools released in 2018 that allow an Instagram user to set up daily use limits, alerts for time spent, and turn off notifications at night. Lanier later pointed to an internal Meta document that showed how scarcely teens had elected to use these tools. Only 1.1% of teen users used the daily use limit, for instance. K.G.M., who started using Instagram when she was nine years old, attended the proceedings on Wednesday, sitting directly across from Zuckerberg, who arrived at court with an entourage of security and associates. Bereaved parents were also among those in the courtroom to watch the proceedings, although only a small number were allowed seats. More parents and family members were gathered outside the courthouse to show their support for others who had seen children suffer from what they deemed the ill effects of social media use and addiction. Lori Schott was one such parent. She wore a large badge showing a photo of her daughter Annalee Schott who killed herself at the age of 18. "These platforms can change," Schott said outside court. "It wouldn't take long to change the algorithmic content so kids aren't killing themselves. Is it that hard to do, Mr. Zuckerberg?" The trial is expected to last several weeks. It will include testimony from former Meta employees who have since spoken out about on the company's practices. YouTube boss Neal Mohan had also been expected to appear but is no longer being called for testimony, the BBC has learned. In questioning last week, Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, challenged the idea of social media addiction, arguing that even 16-hours of Instagram use in a single day did not show an addiction. In his own testimony, Zuckerberg said that if something is of value, "people tend to use it more." Lanier noted that people who are addicted to something also tend to increase their use. "I don't know what to say to that," Zuckerberg replied. "I think that may be true but I don't know if that applies here." The case is one of thousands of similar lawsuits brought by families, state prosecutors and school districts currently winding their way through US courts. The lawsuits accuse Meta and other social media platforms, including TikTok, Snapchat and Youtube, of functioning in an addictive manner that ultimately has harmed many children. In one such case, 29 state attorney generals are pushing a California federal court to demand that the platforms make a number of changes immediately, before any trial, including forcing Meta to remove all accounts known to belong to users under 13 years of age. A growing number of countries are moving to restrict social media use by young people. Australia late last year implemented a ban on social media accounts for people under age 16. The UK, Denmark, France and Spain are considering similar measures. Instagram boss says 16 hours of daily use is 'problematic' not addiction Facebook-owner Meta to nearly double AI spending Why are parents flooding MPs with demands to ban social media? Why fake AI videos of UK urban decline are taking over social media Starmer 'appeasing' big tech firms, says online safety campaigner Parents angered by lack of online safety strategy How will Trump's new 10% global tariffs work and what's next? The Supreme Court's decision has led questions over whether people can get a refund over the unlawful tariffs. What tariffs has Trump announced and why? Trump's volatile trade policy has thrown the world economy into chaos, and put some US prices up. Asos co-founder dies after Thailand apartment block fall Quentin Griffiths co-founded Asos in 2000 and remained a significant shareholder after leaving the firm five years later. Urgent research needed to tackle AI threats, says Google AI boss But the head of the US delegation at the AI Impact Summit in Delhi says: "We totally reject global governance of AI." UK doctor stuck in India after police case over Facebook post Sangram Patil is accused of posting "objectionable content" about a top Indian leader. He denies the allegation. Copyright 2026 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking. |
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[SOURCE: https://www.fast.ai/posts/2021-09-25-new-yorker.html] | [TOKENS: 961] |
Inaccuracies, irresponsible coverage, and conflicts of interest in The New Yorker Rachel Thomas September 25, 2021 On this page If you haven’t already read the terrible New Yorker long covid article, I don’t recommend doing so. Here is the letter I sent to the editor. Feel free to reuse or modify as you like. The below are just a subset of the many issues with the article. If you are looking for a good overview of long covid and patient advocacy, please instead read Ed Yong’s Long-Haulers Are Fighting for their Future. Dear New Yorker editors, I was disturbed by the irresponsible description of a suicide (in violation of journalism guidelines), undisclosed conflicts of interest, and omission of relevant medical research and historical context in the article, “The Struggle to Define Long Covid,” by Dhruv Khullar. Irresponsible description of a suicide The article contained a description of a patient’s suicide with sensationalistic details, including about the method used. This is a violation of widely accepted journalism standards on how to cover suicide. Over 100 studies worldwide have found that risk of suicide contagion is real and responsible reporting can help mitigate this. Please consider these resources developed in collaboration with a host of organizations, including the CDC: Recommendations – Reporting on Suicide Conflicts of Interest Both Khullar and one of his sources, oncologist Vinay Prasad, have funding from Arnold Ventures, the private investment fund created by ex-Enron hedge fund billionaire John Arnold, for projects that help hospitals reduce costs by cutting care. At a minimum, your article should be updated to note this conflict of interest. Omission of relevant history Khullar repeatedly discussed how patients distrust doctors and may accuse doctors of “gaslighting,” yet he never once mentioned why this would be the case: the long history of medical racism, sexism, and ableism, all of which are ongoing problems in medicine and well-documented in dozens of peer-reviewed studies. He also failed to mention the history of many other physiological conditions (such as multiple sclerosis) being dismissed as psychological until scientists caught up and found the physiological origins. His description of the AIDS activist group ACT UP didn’t acknowledge that AIDS research would not have progressed in the incredible way that it has if ACT UP had not “clashed with scientists.” Omission of relevant medical research Khullar omitted the extensive medical research on how long covid patients, including those with mild or no symptoms, have been shown to suffer physiological issues including neurological damage, complement-mediated thrombotic microangiopathy, GI immune system damage, corneal nerve fibre loss, immunological dysfunction, increased risk of kidney outcomes, dysfunction in T cell memory generation, cognitive dysfunction and deficits possibly setting the stage for Alzheimer’s, and ovarian failure. Khullar tries to portray his main subject (and by extension, long covid patients in general) as unscientific, focusing on statements that are not substantiated by academic research, rather than highlighting the many aspects of long covid that are already well researched and well supported (or the research on related post-viral illnesses, including POTS and ME/CFS), or even all the long covid patients who have published in peer-reviewed journals. For example, when his main subject talks about long covid impacting the brain, Khullar hyper focuses on explaining that there is no evidence of covid crossing the blood-brain barrier, ignoring the larger point (which is supported by numerous studies) that long covid causes changes to the brain, even if the exact mechanism is unknown. This is a tactic commonly used by those trying to make science appear murkier than it is, and a general audience will leave this article with harmful misunderstandings. I hope that you will update Khullar’s article to address these inaccuracies, financial conflicts of interest, and irresponsible suicide coverage. In its current state, many readers of this article will walk away with misconceptions about long covid, causing them to underestimate its severity and how much has already been confirmed by research. Sincerely, Rachel Thomas, PhD To contact the New Yorker for yourself Feel free to reuse or modify my post above if it is helpful to you. From the New Yorker website: Please send letters to [email protected], and include your postal address and daytime phone number. Letters may be edited for length and clarity, and may be published in any medium. All letters become the property of The New Yorker. Medicine is Political Medicine, like all of science, is political:- which questions get asked- which projects get funded- how debates get framed- who the researchers are- context of data (what categories, what labels, which biases, what is left out)- whose suffering is counted 1/ This article was updated on 9/26 to correct information about Arnold Ventures. |
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_model#cite_ref-6] | [TOKENS: 1793] |
Contents Language model A language model is a computational model that predicts sequences in natural language. Language models are useful for a variety of tasks, including speech recognition, machine translation, natural language generation (generating more human-like text), optical character recognition, route optimization, handwriting recognition, grammar induction, and information retrieval. Large language models (LLMs), currently their most advanced form as of 2019, are predominantly based on transformers trained on larger datasets (frequently using texts scraped from the public internet). They have superseded recurrent neural network-based models, which had previously superseded the purely statistical models, such as the word n-gram language model. History Noam Chomsky did pioneering work on language models in the 1950s by developing a theory of formal grammars. In 1980, statistical approaches were explored and found to be more useful for many purposes than rule-based formal grammars. Discrete representations like word n-gram language models, with probabilities for discrete combinations of words, made significant advances. In the 2000s, continuous representations for words, such as word embeddings, began to replace discrete representations. Typically, the representation is a real-valued vector that encodes a word’s meaning such that words closer in vector space are similar in meaning and common relationships between words, such as plurality or gender, are preserved. Pure statistical models In 1980, the first significant statistical language model was proposed, and during the decade IBM performed 'Shannon-style' experiments, in which potential sources for language modeling improvement were identified by observing and analyzing the performance of human subjects in predicting or correcting text. A word n-gram language model is a statistical model of language which calculates the probability of the next word in a sequence from a fixed size window of previous words. If one previous word is considered, it is a bigram model; if two words, a trigram model; if n − 1 words, an n-gram model. Special tokens are introduced to denote the start and end of a sentence ⟨ s ⟩ {\displaystyle \langle s\rangle } and ⟨ / s ⟩ {\displaystyle \langle /s\rangle } . To prevent a zero probability being assigned to unseen words, the probability of each seen word is slightly lowered to make room for the unseen words in a given corpus. To achieve this, various smoothing methods are used, from simple "add-one" smoothing (assigning a count of 1 to unseen n-grams, as an uninformative prior) to more sophisticated techniques, such as Good–Turing discounting or back-off models. Word n-gram models have largely been superseded by recurrent neural network–based models, which in turn have been superseded by Transformer-based models often referred to as large language models. Maximum entropy language models encode the relationship between a word and the n-gram history using feature functions. The equation is P ( w m ∣ w 1 , … , w m − 1 ) = 1 Z ( w 1 , … , w m − 1 ) exp ( a T f ( w 1 , … , w m ) ) {\displaystyle P(w_{m}\mid w_{1},\ldots ,w_{m-1})={\frac {1}{Z(w_{1},\ldots ,w_{m-1})}}\exp(a^{T}f(w_{1},\ldots ,w_{m}))} where Z ( w 1 , … , w m − 1 ) {\displaystyle Z(w_{1},\ldots ,w_{m-1})} is the partition function, a {\displaystyle a} is the parameter vector, and f ( w 1 , … , w m ) {\displaystyle f(w_{1},\ldots ,w_{m})} is the feature function. In the simplest case, the feature function is just an indicator of the presence of a certain n-gram. It is helpful to use a prior on a {\displaystyle a} or some form of regularization. The log-bilinear model is another example of an exponential language model. Skip-gram language model is an attempt at overcoming the data sparsity problem that the preceding model (i.e. word n-gram language model) faced. Words represented in an embedding vector were not necessarily consecutive anymore, but could leave gaps that are skipped over (thus the name "skip-gram"). Formally, a k-skip-n-gram is a length-n subsequence where the components occur at distance at most k from each other. For example, in the input text: the set of 1-skip-2-grams includes all the bigrams (2-grams), and in addition the subsequences In skip-gram model, semantic relations between words are represented by linear combinations, capturing a form of compositionality. For example, in some such models, if v is the function that maps a word w to its n-d vector representation, then v ( k i n g ) − v ( m a l e ) + v ( f e m a l e ) ≈ v ( q u e e n ) {\displaystyle v(\mathrm {king} )-v(\mathrm {male} )+v(\mathrm {female} )\approx v(\mathrm {queen} )} where ≈ is made precise by stipulating that its right-hand side must be the nearest neighbor of the value of the left-hand side. Neural models Continuous representations or embeddings of words are produced in recurrent neural network-based language models (known also as continuous space language models). Such continuous space embeddings help to alleviate the curse of dimensionality, which is the consequence of the number of possible sequences of words increasing exponentially with the size of the vocabulary, further causing a data sparsity problem. Neural networks avoid this problem by representing words as non-linear combinations of weights in a neural net. A large language model (LLM) is a language model trained with self-supervised machine learning on a vast amount of text, designed for natural language processing tasks, especially language generation. The largest and most capable LLMs are generative pre-trained transformers (GPTs) that provide the core capabilities of modern chatbots. LLMs can be fine-tuned for specific tasks or guided by prompt engineering. These models acquire predictive power regarding syntax, semantics, and ontologies inherent in human language corpora, but they also inherit inaccuracies and biases present in the data they are trained on. They consist of billions to trillions of parameters and operate as general-purpose sequence models, generating, summarizing, translating, and reasoning over text. LLMs represent a significant new technology in their ability to generalize across tasks with minimal task-specific supervision, enabling capabilities like conversational agents, code generation, knowledge retrieval, and automated reasoning that previously required bespoke systems. LLMs evolved from earlier statistical and recurrent neural network approaches to language modeling. The transformer architecture, introduced in 2017, replaced recurrence with self-attention, allowing efficient parallelization, longer context handling, and scalable training on unprecedented data volumes. This innovation enabled models like GPT, BERT, and their successors, which demonstrated emergent behaviors at scale, such as few-shot learning and compositional reasoning. Reinforcement learning, particularly policy gradient algorithms, has been adapted to fine-tune LLMs for desired behaviors beyond raw next-token prediction. Reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF) applies these methods to optimize a policy, the LLM's output distribution, against reward signals derived from human or automated preference judgments. This has been critical for aligning model outputs with user expectations, improving factuality, reducing harmful responses, and enhancing task performance. Benchmark evaluations for LLMs have evolved from narrow linguistic assessments toward comprehensive, multi-task evaluations measuring reasoning, factual accuracy, alignment, and safety. Hill climbing, iteratively optimizing models against benchmarks, has emerged as a dominant strategy, producing rapid incremental performance gains but raising concerns of overfitting to benchmarks rather than achieving genuine generalization or robust capability improvements. Although sometimes matching human performance, it is not clear whether they are plausible cognitive models. At least for recurrent neural networks, it has been shown that they sometimes learn patterns that humans do not, but fail to learn patterns that humans typically do. Evaluation and benchmarks Evaluation of the quality of language models is mostly done by comparison to human created sample benchmarks created from typical language-oriented tasks. Other, less established, quality tests examine the intrinsic character of a language model or compare two such models. Since language models are typically intended to be dynamic and to learn from data they see, some proposed models investigate the rate of learning, e.g., through inspection of learning curves. Various data sets have been developed for use in evaluating language processing systems. These include: See also References Further reading |
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