If you do not have any idea of what Minecarft is, you should probably go and take a look. It is a fairly easy (in terms of design and game mechanics) indie game, originally developed by a man known as Notch (he has nothing to do with the game as of now, though). Recently, Microsoft has bought this franchise for some astronomical amount of money. To be more exact, they bought Mojang- the company which developed this game. Another thing that everyone seems to be focusing on is the Minecraft Pocket Edition. The mobile version of the game was practically announced (because both the Windows Phone and Minecraft belong to Microsoft now).
So, in order to make sure that everybody is on the same page here, I want to talk a little bit about Minecraft and try to explain why it became so popular. First of all, if you have never seen the game, just do a quick search on Youtube. There are tons of Minecraft related videos coming out every day and some people even have channels which are dedicated to this game exclusively (they make quite a lot of money out of it, too). It is a very simplistic game in terms of its graphics but it does provide a player with nearly limitless possibilities regarding what you can actually do in the game. The gameplay is based on the player character trying to survive attacks from various monsters that inhabit the world while trying to build a shelter. Once you have done that the game opens up and you are free to experiment and do what you want, basically.
About a month after the official announcement that Microsoft has acquired Minecraft, its lead developer called Jens Bergensten has announced that Minecraft Pocket Edition is being supported by Windows Phone. In his Tweet Bergensten also mentioned that there already is a working port for the Windows Phone. However, there is still a long way to go to actually announcing a release date.
Porting such a successful game may be just the thing that Windows Phone needs in order to gain some popularity. Otherwise, it does not stand much of a chance against its tough competition, which is Android and iOS. People consider Windows Phone’s biggest problem to be its apps and the developer support of said apps. It does, however, have some traits going for it regardless.
In regards to Minecarft’s financial success: this game generates multiple billions of dollars in revenue each year and its popularity still continues to increase to this day. It was released back in 2009 and there has been countless Minecons and fan meetings for this game ever since. It was originally released as a PC exclusive title. However, it managed to find its way onto various consoles and mobile gaming devices (such as Xbox 360 and Windows Phone, for example).
In my opinion, this was a very smart move by Microsoft. Not only it guarantees Minecraft’s Pocket Edition exclusivity but it may also give consumers that little push in the direction of Windows Phone and make it more popular.