Nintendo Minecraft – Nintendo Switch – 802115980

Minecraft is a 2011 sandbox game developed and published by Swedish video game developer Mojang Studios. Originally created by Markus "Notch" Persson using the Java programming language, the first public alpha build was released on 17 May 2009. The game was continuously developed from then on, receiving a full release on 18 November 2011. Afterwards, Persson left Mojang and gave Jens "Jeb" Bergensten control over development. In the years since its release, it has been ported to several platforms, including smartphones, tablets, and various video game consoles. In 2014, Mojang and the Minecraft intellectual property were purchased by Microsoft for US$2.5 billion.

In Minecraft, players explore a procedurally generated, three-dimensional world with virtually infinite terrain made up of voxels. Players can discover and extract raw materials, craft tools and items, and build structures, earthworks, and machines. Depending on their chosen game mode, players can fight hostile mobs, as well as cooperate with or compete against other players in multiplayer. The game has two main modes: survival mode, where players must acquire resources to survive, and a creative mode where players have unlimited resources and the ability to fly. Three more game modes exist: the spectator mode allows players to spectate others, the adventure mode forbids players from mining blocks, and the hardcore mode plays identically to survival mode on hard difficulty but features permadeath. The game's large community offers a wide variety of user-generated content, such as modifications, servers, skins, texture packs, and custom maps, which add new game mechanics and possibilities. Speedrunning is another popular community activity.

Minecraft is the best-selling video game of all time, with over 300 million copies sold and nearly 170 million monthly active players as of 2024. In addition, it has received critical acclaim, winning several awards and being cited as one of the greatest video games of all time; social media, parodies, adaptations, merchandise, and the annual Minecon conventions have played prominent roles in popularizing the game. Minecraft has been used in educational environments to teach chemistry, computer-aided design, and computer science. The game spawned a franchise, which includes several spin-off games including Minecraft: Story Mode, Minecraft Earth, Minecraft Dungeons, and Minecraft Legends. A live-action film adaptation, titled A Minecraft Movie, was released in theaters on 4 April 2025.

Nintendo Co., Ltd. is a Japanese multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles.

The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi founded the company to produce handmade hanafuda playing cards. After venturing into various lines of business and becoming a public company, Nintendo began producing toys in the 1960s, and later video games. Nintendo developed its first arcade games in the 1970s, and distributed its first system, the Color TV-Game in 1977. The company became internationally dominant in the 1980s after the arcade release of Donkey Kong (1981) and the Nintendo Entertainment System, which launched outside of Japan alongside Super Mario Bros. in 1985.

Since then, Nintendo has produced some of the most successful consoles in the video game industry, including the Game Boy (1989), the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (1991), the Nintendo DS (2004), the Wii (2006), and the Nintendo Switch (2017). It has created or published numerous major franchises, including Mario, Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, Animal Crossing, and Pokémon. The company's mascot, Mario, is among the most famous fictional characters, and Nintendo's other characters—including Luigi, Donkey Kong, Samus, Link, Kirby, and Pikachu—have attained international recognition. Several films and a theme park area based on the company's franchises have been created.

Nintendo's game consoles have sold over 836 million units worldwide as of March 2023, of which 5.6 billion individual games have been sold. The company has numerous subsidiaries in Japan and worldwide, in addition to second-party developers including HAL Laboratory, Intelligent Systems, Game Freak, and The Pokémon Company. It is one of the wealthiest and most valuable companies in the Japanese market.

In electrical engineering, a switch is an electrical component that can disconnect or connect the conducting path in an electrical circuit, interrupting the electric current or diverting it from one conductor to another. The most common type of switch is an electromechanical device consisting of one or more sets of movable electrical contacts connected to external circuits. When a pair of contacts is touching current can pass between them, while when the contacts are separated no current can flow.

Switches are made in many different configurations; they may have multiple sets of contacts controlled by the same knob or actuator, and the contacts may operate simultaneously, sequentially, or alternately. A switch may be operated manually, for example, a light switch or a keyboard button, or may function as a sensing element to sense the position of a machine part, liquid level, pressure, or temperature, such as a thermostat. Many specialized forms exist, such as the toggle switch, rotary switch, mercury switch, push-button switch, reversing switch, relay, and circuit breaker. A common use is control of lighting, where multiple switches may be wired into one circuit to allow convenient control of light fixtures. Switches in high-powered circuits must have special construction to prevent destructive arcing when they are opened.