Video games have become a part of pop culture. With many titles gaining worldwide recognition and a rapid fanbase.
So let’s dive into some trivia and facts about these video game franchises.
- Minecraft is a sandbox video game developed by Mojang Studios
- It was created by Markus “Notch” Persson in the Java programming language
- It was released as a public alpha for personal computers in 2009
- The game was officially released in November 2011
- With Jens Bergensten taking over development around then
- Minecraft has since been ported to various platforms
- It became the best-selling video game of all time
- With 200 million copies sold across all platforms
- 126 million monthly active users as of 2020
- In Minecraft, players explore a blocky, procedurally-generated 3D world with infinite terrain, and may discover and extract raw materials, craft tools and items, and build structures or earthworks
- Depending on game mode, players can fight computer-controlled “mobs”, as well as cooperate with or compete against other players in the same world
- Game modes include a survival mode, in which players must acquire resources to build the world and maintain health, and a creative mode, where players have unlimited resources
- Players can modify the game to create new gameplay mechanics, items, and assets
- Minecraft has been critically acclaimed
- It has won several awards
- It has being cited as one of the greatest and most influential video games of all time
- Minecraft has been being inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame in June 2020
- Social media, parodies, adaptations, merchandise, and the annual MineCon conventions played large roles in popularizing the game
- It has also been used in educational environments, especially in the realm of computing systems, as virtual computers and hardware devices have been built in it
- In 2014, Mojang and the Minecraft intellectual property were purchased by Microsoft for US$2.5 billion
- A number of spin-off games have also been produced
- These are Minecraft: Story Mode, Minecraft Dungeons, and Minecraft Earth
- Mortal Kombat is an American media franchise
- The series is centered on a series of video games
- The video games were originally developed by Midway Games in 1992
- The development of the first game was originally based on an idea that Ed Boon and John Tobias had of making a video game starring Jean-Claude Van Damme
- The idea fell through and a fantasy-themed fighting game was created instead
- Nonetheless paying homage to Jean-Claude Van Domme with nut-cracking movie star character Johnny Cage, whose initials and personal style echo Van Damme’s
- Mortal Kombat was the first ever fighting game to introduce a secret fighter, reached if the player fulfilled a set of requirements
- The original game has spawned many sequels and spin-offs consisting of several action-adventure games
- As well as a comic book series and a card game
- Film producer Lawrence Kasanoff licensed the rights to the game in the early 1990s
- He produced the first hit film ever made from a video game
- Lawrence also produced the second film, animated TV series, live-action TV series films, the first one million platinum-selling album and a live-action tour
- Mortal Kombat has become one of the most successful fighting franchises in the history of video games
- It is one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time
- The series has a reputation for high levels of graphic violence, including, most notably, its Fatalities
- Fatalities in the games’ language is finishing moves allowing the player to finish off their defeated opponent
- Controversies surrounding Mortal Kombat, in part, led to the creation of the ESRB video game rating system
- Early games in this series were also noted for their realistic digitized sprites and an extensive use of palette swapping to create new characters
- Following Midway’s bankruptcy, the Mortal Kombat development team was acquired by Warner Bros. Entertainment
- Then, it was turned into NetherRealm Studios
- Need for Speed (NFS) is a racing video game franchise
- It is published by Electronic Arts
- It is currently developed by Criterion Games, the developers of Burnout
- The series centers around illicit street racing and in general tasks players to complete various types of races while evading the local law enforcement in police pursuits
- The series released its first title, The Need for Speed, in 1994
- The most recent game, Need for Speed Heat, was released on November 8, 2019
- The series has been overseen and had games developed by multiple notable teams over the years
- These companies include EA Canada, EA Black Box, Slightly Mad Studios, and Ghost Games
- The franchise has been critically well received
- It is one of the most successful video game franchises of all time
- Selling over 150 million copies of games
- Due to its strong sales, the franchise has expanded into other forms of media including a film adaptation and licensed Hot Wheels toys
- Pac-Man is a Japanese video game franchise
- It is published, developed and owned by Bandai Namco Entertainment
- Entries have been developed by a wide array of other video game companies, including Midway Games, Atari and Mass Media, Inc.
- The eponymous first entry was released in arcades in 1980 by Namco
- It was published by Midway Games in North America
- Most Pac-Man games are maze chase games, however it has also delved into other genres, such as platformers, racing, and sports
- Several games in the series have been released for a multitude of home consoles and are included in many Namco video game compilations
- Pac-Man is one of the longest-running, best-selling, and highest-grossing video game franchises in history
- It has seen regular releases for over 40 years
- It has sold nearly 48 million copies across all platforms
- It has grossed over US$14.107 billion
- Most of which has been from the original arcade game
- The character of Pac-Man is the official mascot of Bandai Namco
- Pac-Man remains one of the most recognizable video game characters in history
- The franchise is seen as important and influential
- It is often used as a representation for 1980’s popular culture and video games as a whole
- Pokémon is a series of video games
- They are developed by Game Freak
- They are published by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company as part of the Pokémon media franchise
- Pokemon was created by Satoshi Tajiri with assistance from Ken Sugimori
- The first games released in 1996 in Japan for the Game Boy
- The main series of role-playing video games (RPGs) have continued on each generation of Nintendo’s handhelds
- They are referred as the “core series” by their developers
- The games are commonly released in trios, later pairs, each with different Pokémon
- A remake of the games usually released around a decade after the original versions for another console
- While the main series consists of RPGs developed by Game Freak, many spin-off games based on the series have been developed by various companies
- These spin-offs encompass other genres such as action role-playing, puzzle, fighting, and digital pet games
- Including spin-offs, as of November 24, 2017, more than 300 million Pokémon games have been sold worldwide on handheld and home consoles, across 76 titles
- This makes Pokémon the second best-selling video game franchise, behind Nintendo’s own Mario franchise
- In addition, Pokémon is the world’s largest media franchise
- With successful anime series, movies, and merchandise, with spin-off game Pokémon Go
- Pokemon Go have crossed 1 billion mobile game downloads worldwide
- Prince of Persia is a video game franchise
- It was created by Jordan Mechner
- The franchise is built around a series of action-adventure games focused on various incarnations of the eponymous Prince from ancient Iran
- The games have been developed and published by several different companies
- The first two games in the series, Prince of Persia and Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame, were published by Brøderbund
- Prince of Persia 3D, the first to use 3D computer graphics, was developed by Red Orb Entertainment and published by The Learning Company on PC
- Prince of Persia 3D wad developed by Avalanche Software and published by Mattel Interactive on Sega Dreamcast
- Ubisoft began developing and publishing the series in 2003 with Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
- The series has been rebooted twice since its acquisition by Ubisoft
- It has, also, been made into a film, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
- The film was penned in part by Mechner
- It was released by Walt Disney Pictures in 2010
- The franchise also includes Prince of Persia: The Graphic Novel and the Lego line Lego Prince of Persia
- The Assassin’s Creed video game series is the spiritual successor to Prince of Persia
Video games trivia | 100 did you know facts about famous series (part 6)
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