Minecraft ends beta with 4m customers in tow

The indie games sensation Minecraft is days away from going gold, bringing an end to 31 months in public beta.

The Lego-like sandbox building game was first released to the public on May 19th 2009, and has since undergone numerous iterations and updates in response to fan feedback.

More than 16 million people have registered their details on Minecraft’s official website, where a free browser edition of the game remains, while more than four million customers have purchased a full edition of the title.

The master edition of the game will go live this Friday during a special MinecraftCon event in Las Vegas.

The game’s creator, Markus Persson, will take stage at the event and personally launch the master edition in front of thousands of fans. The event has sold out.

Next year, a full Xbox 360 edition of the game will go Live.

In the intervening months between Minecraft’s first and master release, Persson himself has become one of the most recognised games developers in history. His studio, Mojang, is based in Sweden and remains independent despite many advances from publishing giants.