Minecraft Overtakes Call of Duty as Most-Played Game on Xbox Live!

Xbox Live's Major Nelson is reporting that Minecraft, the weird pixelated exploration game, is the most played game on Xbox Live. And that doesn't take into account the game's PC player base, which is certainly even larger. Minecraft is really on its way to becoming a thing, crossing over into the mass market in a big way. Who knows how big Minecraft is going to get?

I'll be excited for the Minecraft tribute episode.
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Conventional wisdom would have said that spot belonged to Call of Duty, the biggest, brawniest series in video games today. The idea that Minecraft can dethrone Modern Warfare 3, if only for a little while, hopefully implies that some Call of Duty players gave Minecraft a chance. And what they discovered must have been breathtaking.

"Since when are games allowed to use color?"
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As games become more expensive and challenging to develop, it's amazing to see a fun, quirky little title with simple graphics and fun gameplay make such an impact. It really challenges some base assumptions about game developement — that they need competetive multiplayer, mind-blowing graphics, and an M for Mature rating to be sucessful. Turns out, all a game needs to be successful is to be fun — it doesn't necessarily have to be about killing people who are different than you.

And you know what? I've been playing a lot of Modern Warfare 3 lately, and I'm starting to think that maybe games shouldn't be about killing people who are different than you.

Anone else feeling a little bit overwhelmingly depressed lately?
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This whole scenario reminds me a lot of presidential politics, as long as we think of the top spot on Xbox Live like the presidency. In 2008, when a young upstart (Barack Obama/ Minecraft), took on the establishment (Hillary Clinton/ Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3) and shocked EVERYONE by coming away with the win. Of course, said upstart is about to be clobbered by an undeserving challenger (Mitt Romney/ Halo 4), leading us to the next battle which is just going to be won by the establishment we thought was going to win all along (Hillary Clinton/ Call of Duty Black Ops 2).