UK publisher building Minecraft cottage industry
Minecraft continues to prove its status as a genuine cultural phenomenon, with UK children's publisher Egmont announcing plans to publish four handbooks, two other books, and a magazine, all about that one game.
Planned for release in Europe this September, the range includes books focused on individual activities and items withing Minecraft: The Beginner's Handbook, The Redstone Handbook, The Combat Handbook, and The Construction Handbook. Those things could probably all be part of one Minecraft handbook, but what do we know?
The Minecraft Annual is more of a general book about enjoying Minecraft, "packed with step-by-step instructions for exciting builds and projects, tips from the experts, cool things to make, games to test your brain power and codes to unravel." The Poster Book is self-explanatory, and the All About Minecraft magazine should be as well.
So, Minecraft is the new Pokémon?
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MINECRAFT PUBLISHING UNVEILED
Master publisher Egmont announce hugely anticipated launch programme
London 25th
March 2013 - Egmont announce its hugely anticipated launch programme
for the online gaming sensation Minecraft. The specialist children's publisher acquired global
excl. USA publishing rights for the BAFTA award-winning gaming brand back in November
of last year.
Launching in September this year, fans won't have to wait long to get their hands on the first
official Minecraft books which will include: 4 handbooks: The Beginner's Handbook, The
Redstone Handbook, The Combat Handbook and The Construction Handbook, plus a
Minecraft Annual, Minecraft Poster Book, and an All About Minecraft Magazine.
David Riley, Managing Director of Egmont's licensed character division, Egmont Publishing
Group said: "We are extremely excited to be revealing our publishing range to fans and to
the industry. The excitement about Minecraft publishing has been huge, and we're confident
we have the right content in the best formats. There really is something to satisfy both eager
beginners and expert fans, with even more titles coming next year."
Sarah Bates, Publishing and Marketing Director of Egmont's licensed character division,
Egmont Publishing Group added: "We knew whatever we created needed to be fun,
informative and centre on the Minecraft community. The fans are extremely important to us
and we want our publishing to both feed their thirst for gaming knowledge through an
engaging reading experience, whilst also offer exclusive content from the developers which
they can't get online."
She continues: "As well as working closely with Mojang developers on the publishing we are
also in discussion with a number of superfans about them contributing to our titles and next
month we will be launching a competition for fans to win the chance for their design to
feature as a page in our Minecraft Poster Book. Interest from retailers has been extremely
strong and we can't wait to bring these books to market."
Carl Manneh, CEO, Mojang added: "We are thrilled to be working with Egmont to create
exclusive and engaging content for our fans."
All four handbooks will be available for £5.99 and will be suitable for children aged 9+. The
annual will retail for £7.99 and the poster book for £9.99.
