Minecon

Minecon (alternatively capitalised as MineCon or MINECON) is an annual interactive live stream and previous fan convention about the video game Minecraft, hosted by Mojang.[1] The first gathering in 2010 was known as MinecraftCon. The MINECON 2011 convention was held in Las Vegas and celebrated the launch of the game with Minecraft-related discussion panels and gaming areas. The most recent convention, held in Anaheim, had 12,000 attendees. Since 2017, MINECON has taken the form of an interactive live stream, and as such MINECON 2016 was the last full MineCon convention currently. However, similar conventions, now to be known as Minecraft Festival, will be held in the future as announced in MINECON Live 2019.

Minecon
StatusActive
GenreVideo games
FrequencyAnnual
VenueVarious
Inaugurated18 November 2011 (2011-11-18)
Organised byMojang
WebsiteOfficial website

Events by year

2010

MinecraftCon 2010 was a gathering of more than 30 people at Bellevue, Washington on 31 August. Markus Persson made an appearance at the meet-up when several requests were made for a community meet-up, so he called on the community to pick no specific venue.[2] This was not technically a convention, but some count it as the first Minecraft convention.

2011

5,000 people attended the first official MineCon convention held in Las Vegas on 18 November 2011.[3] The convention focused on celebrating the game's release and hosted Minecraft-related discussion panels, and invited people to play the game with others while at the convention.[3] There were keynote speeches from members of the community, building contests, costume contests and exhibits. One of the many events at MINECON was the "Nether Party", an event for those aged 21 and over, featuring deadmau5. This event also marked the release of Minecraft 1.0 to the public, officially taking the game out of beta.

2012

On 2 August 2012, Mojang announced that the 2012 MineCon convention would take place in the Paris Disneyland Park on 24 and 25 November.[4][5] The announcement was made over the social networking platform Twitter when the game's creator, Markus Persson, posted a short trailer revealing the new convention location.[4] The video shows Mojang team members wearing Disney paraphernalia, and Persson comments to lead developer Jens Bergensten, "I think they are trying to tell us something".[6][7] Joystiq's JC Fletcher said that the site was a "step up" from the first MINECON's location in Las Vegas.[5] The second annual convention was the first held outside of the United States, making it available to European fans who might not have been able to attend the first.[8] It was held in the wake of Minecraft's growing popularity as the Xbox 360 version of the game sold 3 million copies.[8] 2012 was also the start of several in-game unofficial MINECONs, notably a Virtual MINECON,[9] which although an unofficial event, was attended by a member of the Mojang Team.[10] Many in-game MINECONs have announced an intent to return with the start of the next MINECON.[11]

The convention in 2012 was attended by 4,500 fans.[1] Mojang made several announcements at the 2012 convention. Details about the 1.5 "Redstone" update were revealed as well as information on the game's modding API.[12]

2013

In April 2013, Lydia Winters revealed that MINECON 2013 would be held in the United States.[13] Jens Bergensten later said that it would be on the east coast.[14] On 27 June, it was announced on Mojang's YouTube Channel that MINECON 2013 will be held in Orlando, Florida.[15] The website for the Orange County Convention Center had listed MineCon as an upcoming event in November, with an attendance of 7,500,[16] but then removed the event from the web page.[16] Tickets went on sale in three batches each of 2,500 tickets on 31 July 2 August, and 3 August. The first batch of 2,500 tickets was sold out in three seconds, according to Mojang COO Vu Bui.[17] The event took place on 2 and 3 November.

2014 (cancelled)

On 30 March 2014, Lydia Winters revealed in a tweet that MINECON 2014 would be held in Europe.[18] However, on 21 August 2014, Vu Bui created a blog post, stating that there would be no MineCon 2014, but instead the next MineCon would be in Spring 2015 in London.[19]

2015
External video
MineCon 2015 Opening Ceremony Animation
The Expo Hall at MineCon 2015

On 2 February 2015, Vu Bui announced MINECON 2015 would be held in London, at the ExCeL London Exhibition and Conference Centre on 4 and 5 July 2015.[20] Ticket prices were announced on 18 March 2015 and were set at £129. During the opening ceremony on 4 July 2015 it was announced by Guinness World Records that MineCon won the world record for the most attendance for a convention that is solely for one game, selling 10,000 tickets.[21][22]

2016

On 7 March 2016, Mojang announced in a blog post that MINECON 2016 would be held in Anaheim, California, at the Anaheim Convention Center on 24 and 25 September 2016.[23] They announced new features during that time, such as the Minecraft novel, Minecraft: The Island, and an update coming to the console versions of the game.[24]

2017

On 8 August 2017, Mojang announced that MINECON would be taking the form of an interactive livestream on 18 November 2017, dubbed "MINECON Earth".[25] The host of MINECON Earth is Will Arnett, a Canadian actor. After this announcement came the introduction of 'Official Community Events', which allow events such as Minefaire, Minevention and Multiplay's BlockFest to be considered 'Official Minecraft Conventions'. During MINECON Earth, developers announced the next major update, the "Update Aquatic"; this update was released in July 2018. Vu Bui, COO of Mojang, also announced the winning mob based on a community vote: "The Monster of The Night Skies", later named the "phantom".[26]

2018

On 10 April 2018, Mojang announced that MINECON Earth would be taking place on 29 September 2018 for 90 minutes on stream.[27][28] During the event, Mojang announced Minecraft: Dungeons, a dungeon-crawler spin-off of Minecraft, and features of the upcoming "Village & Pillage" update, which was released in April 2019. Viewers voted for one of three in-game biomes to be updated in the next update;[29] the Taiga biome won the vote.

2019

On 17 May 2019, MINECON Live 2019 was announced to be held on 28 September of that year, changing the name of the event from "MINECON Earth" to "MINECON Live" to avoid confusion with their new game Minecraft Earth.[30][31] Like the previous year, viewers were able to vote for new features to be added to one of three in-game biomes in a following update;[32] the Mountains biome won the vote. During the livestream, developers of the game announced the "Nether Update". An early access release date of Minecraft Earth was also announced to be for October 2019.[33]

2020

On 28 September 2019, Mojang announced Minecraft Festival, an in-person event that was to be held in Orlando, Florida, on 25–27 September 2020.[34] Due to the fears surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic the event was postponed to 2021. Minecraft Live, the livestream portion of the event, still ongoing.[35]

2021

Minecraft Festival is planned to be held in Orlando, Florida, in late 2021, after being postponed from 2020 due to coronavirus fears.[35]

gollark: It's *a* phone.
gollark: Climatic whatevers don't really seem to be an immediate (significant problem within 10-years) issue.
gollark: I also doubt *that*.
gollark: I doubt it'll actually do enough to be very problematic in 10-ish years.
gollark: https://hackaday.io/project/19035-zerophone-a-raspberry-pi-smartphone

References
  1. Francis, Tom (January 2013). "MINECON celebrates a vast community". PC Gamer UK. UK (248): 11.
  2. Persson, Markus (25 August 2010). "How about a somewhat spontaneous MinecraftCon 2010 in Bellevue in one week?". Tumblr. Archived from the original on 27 April 2014. Retrieved 16 May 2014.
  3. Wainwright, Lauren (2 August 2012). "MINECON 2012 will be at Disneyland Paris". MCV. Archived from the original on 27 November 2012. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
  4. Purchese, Robert (2 August 2012). "MINECON 2012 will be held at Disneyland Paris". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on 11 December 2012. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
  5. Fletcher, JC (2 August 2012). "MINECON 2012 going to Disneyland Paris this November". Joystiq. Archived from the original on 31 January 2015. Retrieved 27 December 2012.
  6. Pearson, Dan (2 August 2012). "MINECON 2012 to be held at Disneyland Paris". GamesIndustry.biz. Eurogamer. Archived from the original on 8 November 2012. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
  7. Persson, Markus; Bergensten, Jens (2 August 2012). MINECON 2012 Announcement!. Archived from the original on 8 November 2012. Retrieved 2 October 2019.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. Karmali, Luke (2 August 2012). "MINECON 2012 Dates and Venue Revealed". IGN. Archived from the original on 28 November 2012. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
  9. "CREEPEREVENTS 2013 Virtual MINECON - RECRUITMENT WEEK!". PlanetMinecraft. 9 September 2012. Archived from the original on 18 May 2013. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
  10. Pettersson, Henrik (10 November 2012). "carnalizer: In a VIP area at Virtual MINECON". Twitter. Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
  11. "Virtual MINECON 2013". Creeperevents.com. Archived from the original on 5 June 2013. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
  12. Nylund, Mats (27 November 2012). "MINECON 2012 is over". MCV. Archived from the original on 22 September 2017. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
  13. Winters, Lydia (7 April 2013). "LydiaWinters: MINECON will be in the US this year. Sorry dear Brits. I'm not coming to scout locations!". Twitter. Archived from the original on 26 October 2013. Retrieved 20 June 2013.
  14. Bergensten, Jens (18 April 2013). "jeb_: Sorry it's gonna be on the US east coast". Twitter. Archived from the original on 26 October 2013. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
  15. Persson, Markus; Geuder, Patrick (27 July 2013). Where in the World is MINECON 2013?. Archived from the original on 13 August 2013. Retrieved 2 October 2019.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  16. "OCCC Calendar Of Events - July 2013 Through December 2013". Orange County Convention Center. Archived from the original on 5 August 2013. Retrieved 4 July 2013.
  17. Bui, Vu (31 July 2013). "vubui: Official numbers now in. #MINECON tickets, batch 1... 2500 tickets sold in 3 seconds". Twitter. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 16 May 2014.
  18. Winters, Lydia (30 March 2014). "LydiaWinters: It's in Europe this year... but maybe next year". Twitter. Archived from the original on 3 May 2014. Retrieved 3 May 2014.
  19. "MINECON 2015". mojang.com. Archived from the original on 5 September 2014. Retrieved 4 July 2016.
  20. "MINECON 2015 announced!". mojang.com. Archived from the original on 27 July 2016. Retrieved 4 July 2016.
  21. "Largest convention for a single videogame". Guinness World Records. Archived from the original on 23 July 2015. Retrieved 23 July 2015.
  22. Moser, Cassidee (6 July 2015). "MINECON 2015 Sets World Record for Being Biggest Convention for a Single Game". IGN.com. Archived from the original on 1 August 2017. Retrieved 22 September 2017.
  23. "WHERE IN THE WORLD IS MINECON?". Mojang.com. Archived from the original on 8 March 2016. Retrieved 8 March 2016.
  24. Weinberger, Matt. "Spending the weekend with 12,000 Minecraft fanatics helped me understand why Microsoft paid $2.5 billion for it". Business Insider. Archived from the original on 18 February 2018. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
  25. "Microsoft is changing MINECON 2017 to make it more inclusive". MSPoweruser. 8 August 2017. Archived from the original on 22 August 2019. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
  26. Wales, Matt (16 November 2017). "Fans can decide Minecraft's newest mob during the MineCon Earth livestream this weekend". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on 22 August 2019. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
  27. "Minecraft announces Minecon Earth 2018 for September 29th". OnMSFT.com. 10 April 2018. Archived from the original on 22 August 2019. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
  28. Parrish, Karin. "Get your pickaxe ready: The next MineCon Earth show streams in September". DigitalTrends.com. Archived from the original on 22 August 2019. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
  29. "MineCon Earth 2018 allows viewers to vote for next biome update". Shacknews. 17 September 2018. Archived from the original on 24 September 2019. Retrieved 24 September 2019.
  30. "Minecon Live 2019 - Here's What To Expect". Player.One. 20 May 2019. Archived from the original on 23 May 2019. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
  31. "Minecraft's Big MineCon Event Gets a New Name and a September Date". ComicBook.com. Archived from the original on 19 May 2019. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
  32. Wales, Matt (26 September 2019). "Minecraft is letting players vote for the biome they want to see spruced up next". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on 26 September 2019. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
  33. "Minecon 2019 roundup: Everything Mojang revealed for Minecraft". Windows Central. 28 September 2019. Archived from the original on 29 September 2019. Retrieved 29 September 2019.
  34. @Minecraft (28 September 2019). "ANNOUNCING: Minecraft Festival – an in-person celebration of everything Minecraft in Orlando, Florida, Sept 25-27th, 2020" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  35. DeAngelis, Marc. "Minecraft Festival is postponed due to coronavirus fears". Engadget. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.