Today is the day that team Minecraft celebrates the first anniversary of the Windows 10 Edition Beta. Ever since its release last July, the team worked to execute over 12,000 code check-ins, fixed over 6000 bugs and has released 15 game updates.
Minecraft was initially a sandbox game where you hunt and craft in order to survive the dangers of the world. The game was released by Mojang on October 7, 2011 and since then has sold over 106 million copies as of July 2016. Along with the pocket edition for mobile devices as well as the console editions which has sold over millions of copies.
Microsoft recognized the success of the game and on November 6, 2014 Microsoft bought Mojang for $2.5 billion US. Since then Microsoft continuously added new updates to the PC and Pocket Edition of the game, later adding realms which is essentially a paid Minecraft server hosting service.
Microsoft then created the Minecraft Windows 10 Edition beta on July 29, 2015. One of the main changes of the Minecraft Windows 10 Edition is it’s coded in C++ instead of Java, mainly due to the fact that Microsoft does not support Java for universal apps. Microsoft has also allowed the Windows 10 Edition to be played on the Microsoft HoloLens, as a whole new experience.
At Electronic Entertainment Expo 2015, a demo was shown where Lydia Winters and a Microsoft worker using a HoloLens were both in the same world on different devices interacting with each other, this shows one of the main benefits of having the game coded in C++ rather than Java.
Microsoft plans to add Oculus Rift support for VR players to the Windows Edition Beta in a few weeks as a free update, as a way to thank the community for the support given to them since the release of the Windows 10 Edition of Minecraft.
