Microsoft’s acquisition of Minecraft all those moons ago may have seemed like a bit of a daft move by the platform holder, but in the end it’s ended up being a great decision. Minecraft has continued to grow as a brand and has even been given a release on the Nintendo Wii U – something that looked awfully unlikely before Microsoft stepped up to the table with 4 billion reasons.
At this year’s China Game Billboard show, Minecraft (Xbox One Edition) was crowned the nation’s Console Game of the Year. It’s a bit of a surprise, really, when you consider the sheer amount of top game that have released over the last 12 months.
China is a relatively new market for consoles. It was only recently that video-game consoles were made legal again in China. For more than a decade, consoles were illegal due to fears of them tampering with the brains of the country’s youth, something the Chinese government wants to have a strict monopoly for itself, we assume…
[Update, we have since been informed that the reason games such as The Witcher III weren’t included is that the nominations were only for games that release in mainland China during 2015, of which there weren’t a vast amount – at least not AAA blockbusters. – Thanks, Zhugeex.]