The Minecraft annual is the bestselling book of its kind in the UK this week. Not Lego, nor Simon Cowell’s most technologically advanced boyband-borgs, nor his backup troupe, whatever they’re called. No: publisher Egmont have announced that their book about blocks has gone straight to the top of the annuals chart.
“We knew that the game was huge, but we could not have imagined the appetite for the Minecraft books,” Egmont UK’s Gillian Laskier told GamesIndustry.
“Their enormous success is down to a uniquely on-brand design and editorial that is written with the Minecraft fan firmly in mind. Our customers have been fast to recognise that copies were selling out at a rate not seen for many years – and we have had to ration copies as more and more print runs have been authorised, printed and dispatched. And this is only the start…”
Between their annual, Beginner’s Handbook and upcoming Redstone Handbook, Egmont have printed more than a million copies of words and pictures about Minecraft ahead of Christmas.
The Beginner’s Handbook has been published in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Poland, Finland, Norway, Croatia, Germany, Estonia, Romania, Turkey, Wales, Argentina and Uruguay to date, and Egmont say new countries have been signing up at a weekly rate.
“This is truly a global gaming phenomenon and pre-orders are building for the The Redstone Handbook which launches next month,” added publishing and marketing director Sarah Bates.
I had a flick through the Minecraft annual in a WHSmith’s a few weeks back, and learned that Mojang AB translates simply as Gadjet Inc. The preview ends here, but I’m sure within every one of its pages are buried similar nuggets of insight. There’s also a wordsearch in there.
Incidentally, Egmont translates literally as ‘a mountain of eggs’. Sounds good right now, no?