Minecraft Development Timeline

Timeline of the development of Minecraft

2009

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

May 14- Java: "Cave Game" renamed to "Minecraft: Order of the Stone" after a suggestion by RinkuHero from The Independent Games Wiki on an IRC with Notch, "Minecraft" being an analogy to the famous real-time strategy game StarCraft
May 16 – Java: Early private testing, among TIGSource members
May 17 – First release of the game. Game name shortened to simply "Minecraft".
May 21 – Accounts can now be registered.
May 24 – An official Minecraft Forum is opened.
June 1 – Java: First Multiplayer test. Notch starts his new job at Jalbum
June 8 – Java: Multiplayer released
August 4 – Java: First elements of Survival
August 18 – Java: Introduction of Health
August 9 – Passwords can now be changed.
August 20 – Beginning of SURVIVAL TEST
December 22 – Hayden Scott-Baron becomes the Minecraft Artist.

2010

January 13- Minecraft passes 100,000 registered users
Jan 21- Minecraft can now gifted to non-premium players
Feb 5- Hayden Scott- Baron leaves Minecraft development
Jun 1 – Notch gets back to work 100% on Minecraft after a pause after having left his job at Jalbum a few weeks before.
Jun 17 – Minecraft passes 20,000 sales
Aug 4- First release of survival Multiplayer
Oct 16- Mojang is founded

2011

Jan 12- Minecraft surpasses 1 million sales
Jun 1- Minecraft pocket edition is first shown on Youtube
Jun 6- Microsoft reveal Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition at the E3 conference
Jul 30- Minecraft passes 10 million registered users
Aug 5 – Notch receives a 15-page letter from Bethesda Soft works, 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

2012

Feb 24 – LEGO announces that the LEGO Minecraft project has passed the 10,000 required votes
May 9 – Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition TU1 officially released
Apr 5- Minecraft for Java surpasses 10 million sales
Jul 31- Minecon 2013 tickets went on sale
Sep 2- Minecraft for Java surpasses 12 million sales
May 6 – Minecraft Realms is launched in more countries in Asia and Europe.
May 9 – Minecraft Realms is launched in the Oceania region.
May 19 – Minecraft Realms is launched globally in all remaining countries
Dec 7- Minecraft announced for the Wii U

2016

Jan 19- Minecraft: Education Edition announced
June 2- Minecraft is sold for all platform 100 million times and makes the second best-selling games
Oct 27- 27 – Apple CEO Tim Cook announced an edition of Minecraft for the Apple TV, featuring cross-play between that platform and iOS devices, to be released by the end of year 2016

2017

Jan 13- Minecraft announced for Nintendo Switch

Jan 27- Minecraft: New Nintendo 3DS Edition officially released

Nov 7-9 - Minecraft: Story Mode - Season Two: Episode 4 - Below the Bedrock released.
Nov 18 - MineCon Earth event.
Dec ?- Minecraft hits 74 million active players and 144 million total sales