'Minecraft' Hits 25 Million Users: From Pocket Edition To Xbox, Creator Doesn't Want To Be Like EA

Minecraft, the pioneer title for indie video game developers, has continued to expand since its inception in 2009. On March 26th the game hit 25 million registered users, in addition to selling 5.3 million copies. The popular sandbox games hinges on the idea of placing blocks to build anything imaginable, mining and crafting terrain in a 3-D world.

Creator Markus Persson, known as Notch, prefers to stay in the independent gaming realm rather than commercialized developers, which he expressed when taking a jab at Electronic Arts on Twitter.

I'm sure EA is very successful at monetizing games, but the more we don't do what they would do, the happier I am. #nooffense, he tweeted on March 26th.

Gaming publication Gamasutra recently spoke with EA's creative chief director Rich Hilleman, who hinted that Minecraft developer Mojang could benefit from working with a larger company such as EA. Referring to an instance where his son's PC crashed while installing the game's Mod Manager, Hilleman said that Minecraft should venture into a more commercial and predictable product.

And those are the kinds of things that Notch needs help with, he said to Gamasutra. And that without the help of a publisher or other support, he's probably not going to get there completely by himself.

With recent releases including new types of terrain and blocks, different animals and new AI for the enemies, Minecraft seems to be flourishing just fine on its own. In addition to the PC version, the game's iOS and Android port known as Minecraft: Pocket Edition, has sold over 1.1 million copies, reported Forbes.

An Xbox 360 version of the block-based game will be hitting consoles soon, expanding the phenomenon even further. The game will be available for the Microsoft video game system on May 9th, and a LEGO edition of Minecraft will launch this summer. Fans will be able to preview Minecraft on Xbox at this year's PAX East 2012 convention, set to begin on April 6th.

However, this new Minecraft release may be a little different than what fans are used to. Notch said that his studio will not be developing the console edition, reported Kotaku back in June. The development studio hasn't been announced, but it is said to be a company that has done several console games before. Persson will still be acting as game designer.