In hit games, tech giants see more than fun

Parents like Minecraft because it can be a creative outlet for their children. Teachers like the game because it can bring lessons to life. And Microsoft likes the game so much that the tech giant wants to buy its parent company for more than $2 billion.

It is not flashy graphics or an intricate story line luring these groups to the game, however. Minecraft has become a global phenomenon by breaking with those conventions. The point of the game is building things — and tens of millions of people spend hours constructing elaborate structures with digital pickaxes and other tools — and helping others make their own creations.

The game’s popularity has been clear for a couple of years. But the possible deal with Microsoft is the clearest sign yet how important tech giants view games like Minecraft and their growing fan bases. Already, Facebook bought a virtual reality headset maker for $2 billion, and SoftBank of Japan spent $1.5 billion for a stake in a mobile game developer. Last month, Amazon agreed to buy Twitch, a streaming video site, for more than $1 billion.

More than any of those other deals, though, buying Minecraft for billions would be an acknowledgment that gaming is central to many people’s lives. The rise of mobile devices has put games at the fingertips of practically everyone, an engaging mode of entertainment or merely a time killer.

Minecraft, created in Sweden, has been a hit on nearly every digital device. It ranks as the top paid app for the iPhone and second for the iPad. Mojang, the game’s parent company, said in June that nearly 54 million copies had been sold.

Minecraft has succeeded partly by demolishing generational and gender boundaries thatusually carve the games business into separate categories.

In addition, Mojang lets its users create their own game servers on their computers so they can meet up with friends in their own private online worlds.

Joel Levin was a teacher at the Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School in New York in the summer of 2010 when he began playing Minecraft with his daughter, who was then 5. Levin was so excited about the educational potential for Minecraft that he began using it as a teaching tool in his second-grade technology class.

He eventually quit to co-found a start-up, TeacherGaming, that sells custom-made versions of Minecraft to classrooms for educational purposes.