12 Most Impactful Games Of The PS4, Xbox One And Nintendo Switch Era

Although Minecraft’s official release was in 2011, it was what happened to Minecraft in the first year of the PS4, Xbox One and Switch era that cemented its place in gaming history forever.

In 2014, Microsoft purchased Minecraft and the studio behind the game, Mojang, for a staggering $2.5 billion. To put that into context, Amazon purchased streaming site Twitch in the same year for just under $1 billion while Disney purchased Star Wars and Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion in cash and stocks in 2012. This was further proof at how popular and influential the indie game had become amongst the gaming community as well as in mainstream media.

Since this acquisition, Minecraft has continued to have an impact upon the industry with multiple spinoff games, a potential movie in development, and it was reported in just the year 2020 alone to have had 126 million monthly active users.

Minecraft stands as an example as to how successful one indie game can become but could also be seen as an early sign of what was to come from console manufacturers Microsoft and Sony, as they would both go on the purchase multiple studios as console exclusives in the next few years.