After 20,000,000 downloads sold, Minecraft could be on pace to take down the Sims as the top selling PC game. So obviously, people are looking to get their piece of the pie but Mojang cofounder Carl Manneh says they aren’t looking to sell. In a recent interview with Reuters, Manneh explained why he and the rest of the founders of Mojang have no interest in selling.

When discussing the money, Manneh said, “We are living the dream, really… An exit would be huge, but do we really need that money? In our case, we have the cash flow. We have more money than we need.” Currently, the XBox Live version of Minecraft sells for $20 a pop, in addition to the PC, Mac and mobile versions of the game.

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The open world style of Minecraft took both PC and XBox Live Arcade by storm. Now, the 16-bit side scrolling counterpart to Minecraft is making its way to consoles. Coming to both XBox Live Arcade and the PlayStation network, Terraria had sold over 1.5 million downloads via PC by November of 2012. Terreria for consoles will be featuring new content as well as new controls specifically for the new platforms.

Still only listed as “Coming Soon”, Terraria is expected to launch in the first quarter of 2013 for consoles. Whether it is going to be available simultaneously on PlayStation Network and XBox Live Arcade or one of the two will get a timed exclusivity remains to be seen.

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Most people who consider themselves “Real” gamers and are over the age of 20 have probably played Super Mario Bros. more times than they can count and can most likely play through the first level blindfolded and know where every Goomba and Koopa Troopa is. But those Goombas and those Koopas are going to be there every time and noting is going to change, in this game or any other. Or is it?

In fact, the rules of gaming changed and a random element was introduced. While there were still some static NPCs and scripted events that were required for the progress of a game’s story, an open world based on behavioral patterns and the sandbox was born.

One of the greatest early sandbox games was Grand Theft Auto which put players in a city that reacted to their actions. But when it made the shift to a 3D environment the world and the interactions changed along with it. But it still didn’t feel like the world was truly alive.

For the most part, passersby would go without noticing the player or each other with the exception of pathing themselves out of the way of each other or reacting to the actions of the player. There was no fully random aspect to their interactions with each other or the world itself. But then things changed again.

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Now, I’m not going to come on here and pretend I know what every geek in your life is going to want. But if they are anything like me, there is at least something on here that they do want.

The nice thing is that even if they already have it (or you picked the one thing on this list they actually hate), every item is coming from a store they will be able to return it to and buy something they do want.

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To say Minecraft: XBox 360 Edition is already a success is an understatement. The game literally became profitable within the first hour of sales and boasted 400,000 users in its first 24 hours, breaking all XBLA records including the one set by fellow Arcade Next member Trials Evolution with its quarter million first day sales. But does commercial success equal a great game? In the case of Minecraft: XBox 360 Edition, the two are one in the same.

Gameplay

For those who haven’t played Minecraft yet in either its PC or mobile incarnations yet, the game is an open world where players must mine resources around them in order to craft tools and build structures including buildings, mine cart pathways and increasingly complex machines. On the surface, Minecraft looks incredibly simple as players only need to hack away at or place objects in the world around them.

But there are tons of layers of depth. Players literally start in a world with nothing but their fists to punch out sections of a tree. Once they have some wood, they start constructing tools to make these tasks easier. They also can craft weapons and armor to help defend themselves from the world around them.

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It all started with Summer of Arcade before XBox Live came alive with a series of seasonal promotions to help push new titles for their digital download platform. With the Block Party freshly wrapping up with some hits like Warp, Microsoft has already dropped the list of games for the upcoming Arcade Next promotion set to start on April 18th and wrapping up on May 9th.

Of the four games, only one is a wholly original IP with Bloodforge. Trials Evolution is a sequel to XBLA hit Trials HD and Fable Heroes is a new gameplay style set in the Fables world. The most anticipated of all the titles though may be Minecraft: XBox 360 Edition, a port of the unstoppable indy PC sensation making its debut for the first time on any console system.

Also for the first time, the achievement cap on XBLA has been upped. Starting in April, XBLA titles will be allowed up to 400 Achievement Points and up to 30 total achievements per release. This is a drastic increase from the original 200 point / 12 total achievement maximum that had been in place (well, 250 point maximum if you include the possible 50 points that could be added for DLC.

Take a look at all four titles after the jump and stay tuned to the Flickcast for news and reviews on Trials Evolution, Bloodforge, Fable Heroes and Minecraft: XBox 360 Edition as soon as we get our hands on them.

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Take square blocks and build whatever you can imagine, limited only by your own creativity. It’s a description that could fit perfectly with one classic toy franchise as well as one of the most groundbreaking PC games of 2011. For decades, children have put together the little pegged blocks in billions of combinations building castles, cities, vehicles and creatures in ways the creators never could have expected.

For the past year, gamers have dug squares out of a virtual landscape and created everything from replicas of famous landmarks to Godzilla-sized Pokemon recreations. And now, the two franchises which look to be a perfect fit for each other, LEGO and Minecraft, are coming together.

As reported on LEGO’s CUUSOO blog, the Minecraft project has been approved to move on to the product development stages:

Since the Minecraft™ project reached 10,000 supporters on LEGO® CUUSOO, many of you have been eagerly awaiting our update. Until now, the project has been in the LEGO Review—a stage before product development begins where a LEGO Jury evaluates the idea’s feasibility as a product and makes a decision.

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This is it. It’s the big one! Right before the New Year, we posted our awards for the best of gaming in 2011. But there was one all important award that we needed some extra time to deliberate on… The Game of the Year.

In this episode, JC and WallE forgo the usual format of the Bitcast and engage in a conversation where they, along with some input from Flickcasters Matt Raub and Cortney Zamm, decide on what game earns the coveted title of Game of the Year.

And The Nominees Are:

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Podcast: Download

2011 was one heck of a year for gaming. Once again, the Call of Duty franchise set records for the largest entertainment launch in history. A game that was only in Beta was able to sell millions of copies and spawn an ungodly large community to the point they had a convention before the game was officially released. There were tons of critical darlings encouraging developers to rethink how they create games.
Take a look this week at the awards The Flickcast (along with The Bitcast team) are proud to present for gaming in 2011

Think Outside the Box Game: Portal 2

While many may argue that Minecraft may be the most deserving of this award, they need to remember one thing. In Minecraft, there are no rules. The expanses of the box are too extreme to find the outer boundaries of. Within Portal 2, players are asked to explore new viewpoints of physics, matter and… well, portals. The puzzles in Portal 2 completely overtake the complexity and creativity of the original, which in itself was groundbreaking. With additional toys at their disposal and the introduction of a cooperative mode, the team at Valve came up with a game that redefined both the puzzle solving and FPS genres all at once.

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