Even though the game has been available in some form or another since 2009, and has racked up over four million users, until now indie smash Minecraft has been in alpha, then beta, as first creator Markus Persson and then his development team at Mojang tinkered with the thing.
By the end of this week, though, that gestation period will be over. Minecraft will be finished. Done. Complete.
Persson tweeted yesterday that the game had "gone gold", meaning development on a "final" version was in the can and that it was ready for its big unveiling at the end of the week at the first Minecon, a gathering of Minecraft fans.
This of course doesn't mean the game is over. There'll be more updates and new content for Minecraft as the weeks and months go by. But for the first time, that stuff won't simply be new content for an alpha or beta version of a game. It'll be post-release content!
Notch [Twitter]
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