Minecraft Timeline

Development of Minecraft over the years 

2009: 

April: 29- Infinminer is released, a game by Zachtronics Industries, whose concept mainly inspired Notch of Minecraft. It was regularly updated and became open-source less than a month later.

May (Birth of Minecraft): 10- Development on "Cave Game" started using RubyDung, an abandoned game project of Notch, and Infiniminer as bases for the code.

May: 13- Java: First video of "Cave Game", Block placement, first Mobs (Humans), physics created.

May: 14- Java: "Cave Game" renamed to "Minecraft: Order of the Stone" after a suggestion by RinkuHero from The Independant Games Wiki on an IRC with Notch, "Minecraft" being an analogy to the famous real-time strategy game StarCraft.

May: 17- First release of the game. Game name shortened to simply "Minecraft".

May: 21/24-  Accounts can now be registered. An official Minecraft Forum is opened.

June: 1- Java: First Multiplayer test. Notch starts his new job at Jalbum.

June: 8- Java: Multiplayer released.

June: 14- Custom Skins released.

August: 4- First elements of Survival.

August: 18- Introduction of Health.

October: 9- Passwords can now be changed.

October: 20- Beginning of SURVIVAL TEST.

December: 22- Hayden Scott becomes Minecraft artist.

2010:

January: 13- Minecraft passes 100,000 registered users.

January: 21- Minecraft can now be gifted to non-premium players.

February: 5- Hayden Scott leaves the Minecraft development.

June: 1- Notch gets back to work 100% on Minecraft after a pause after having left his job at Jalbum a few weeks before.

June: 17- Minecraft passes 20,000 sales. 

June 30-  price raised from 5.00 € to 10.00 €, it is now possible to play on a client window.

July: 22- First over-the-internet test of Survival Mode Multiplayer.

August: 4-First release of Survival Multiplayer.

August: 30- Notch, JahKob and Carl Manneh get on an employment trip to Washington D.C. offered by VALVe Corporation.

September: 18- Minecraft technically becomes free-to-play for the weekend, due to the login server not working correctly.

December: 20- Minecraft for Java passes to Beta development stage, price raised from €10.00 to €15.00.

2011:

January: 12- Minecraft surpasses 1 million sales.

May: 25-  Kappische reveals Minecraft: Pocket Edition on Mojang's site.

June: 1- Minecraft passes 10 million registered users.

June: 6- Microsoft reveal Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition at the E3 conference.

July: 1- Minecraft surpasses 10 million registered users.

August: 5- Notch receives a 15-page letter from Bethesda Softworks, threatening him with a lawsuit if he doesn't change the name "Scrolls" (which is too close to "The Elder Scrolls", according to Bethesda) for his next game. A little while before this, Notch had already been warned by Bethesda's lawyers about this problem, and had suggested a compromise in which he would never put any word before "Scrolls"

November: 18-  MineCon 2011 is held at Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, Nevada. Over 4,500 people from 24 countries attend to it. On the same day, Minecraft 1.0.0 for Java edition is officially released, price is now €20.00.

December: 6- Notch first evokes the possibility of Minecraft-themed LEGO sets as part of the LEGO CUUSOO project.

2012:

January: 24- LEGO announces that the LEGO Minecraft project has passed 10,000 required votes.

February: 15- LEGO reveals the final design for the Minecraft set.

May: 9- Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition TU1 officially released.

June: 1- "Micro World", the first LEGO Minecraft set, is released (coincidentally with Notch's birthday) and available on the LEGO online shop.

August: 2- Minecon officially announce Minecon will be in Paris.

November: 6- Minecraft gift cards are available in physical stores.

November: 24- Minecon takes place at Disneyland Paris, France.

2014:

April: 1- Minecraft realms is launched in Canada.

April: 2- Minecraft Pocket edition released for the Amazon Fire TV.

April: 24- Realms is released in USA.

May: 6- Realms is released in Asia and Europe

May: 9-Realms released in the Oceanic region.

May: 19- Released to the rest of the world.

September: 4- PlayStation 4 edition released.

September: 5- Xbox One edition released.

November: 5- The founders Mojang AB leave the company.

2015:

February: 2- Minecon 2015 is announced for July 4-5.

March: 28- Minecraft wins a Kids’ choice award for ‘Most Addicting Game’.

December: 17- Wii U edition is released.

2016:

February: 2- Minecraft: Story Mode is nominated a Kids’ choice award for favourite video game.

April: 21- Story Mode is nominated for a google play award.

April: 27- An adaption for the Pocket edition is released for Samsung Gear VR.

May: 24- Price raised from €19.95 to €23.

June: 2- Second best-selling game and is sold for 100 million times.

June: 27- Mojang announces the Minecraft Movie for 2019, in IMAX and 3D as well as normal screen.

December: 19- Apple TV and Fire TV have an adaption of the game released.

2017:

February: 2- Nominated for Kids’ choice awards favourite game a second year in a row.

September: 13- New Nintendo 3DS edition released.