Minecraft’s Expansion: Products, Territories, a Theatrical Feature and More

License Global has extensively covered “Minecraft” over the years. The gaming phenomenon has changed the landscape of both the video gaming community and the licensing community, and as the brand caps off its 15th anniversary year and prepares for a film launch, “Minecraft” is only getting started. As Brand Licensing Europe approaches, License Global caught up with Federico San Martin, senior director, Minecraft Consumer Products, to discuss what the brand has accomplished since we last spoke. 

Federico San Martin, senior director, Minecraft Consumer Products.

License Global: When we last spoke, you were gearing up to expand into new categories. Tell us about those categories and deals. What’s been happening since we last talked? 

Federico San Martin: A lot has happened since we last spoke and we are thrilled with the trajectory of Minecraft’s growth both in the U.S. and internationally.  We have been very focused, specifically, on growing two categories – health and beauty and consumer electronics. In the health and beauty category, earlier this year in March, we launched our partnership with Colgate in the U.S. and Canada for battery-powered toothbrushes, which are now available at Walmart and Amazon. For the upcoming holiday season, Colgate is launching a Minecraft gift set that includes a toothbrush, toothpaste and toothbrush cover. And in spring of 2025, Colgate will debut Minecraft toothpaste. We will also be launching these products in Australia and New Zealand for spring 2025. When considering categories of products to launch, our goal has always been to look at the white space in each territory.   

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Additionally, we also just debuted two very exciting partnerships in August – LUSH and Dr. Squatch. The LUSH x Minecraft collab features multiple, fresh handmade products, including blocky bath and shower bombs, soap, shower jelly and a reusable bubble bar. My favorite is a collectible Minecraft gift box. The partnership inspired our fans to craft a moment of calm. We’re bringing serenity into the game itself by offering a LUSH bath bomb add-on. We’re bringing the digital into the physical and the physical into the digital, which has really appealed to our community. With Dr. Squatch, we launched an exclusive program on Aug. 1 in Walmart as part of our three-star program with them, which includes an end cap with the soap and a sidekick display with the deodorant. Every purchase includes a code for a bespoke bathrobe character creator item. These types of collaborations give not only the physical experience of buying a product, but also a digital experience in-game as well.  

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For the consumer electronics category, we recently launched a Beats by Dre headphone collaboration on Apple.com and Target.com. In the U.K., we launched the program with a retailer called ee.co.uk, and the products are available at select Apple stores both in the U.S. and U.K. There is also a special edition of Solo 4 headphones, and with the purchase of these, consumers receive a unique code to redeem an in-game headphone character creator item. So again, you can see everything we’re doing from a physical point of view, which we are also incorporating in-game. Higround is another exciting partnership that includes keyboards, mouse pads, keycaps, a jelly bag and a T-shirt. The launch included a social media campaign that drove a lot of awareness, and the featured item, the blocky design keyboard, sold out within five minutes.  

Minecraft Beats by Dre.

We also previously discussed your plans for more global expansion. How are those plans going? 

Our international business continues to grow dramatically. We’re very happy about that, and it’s driven by our partnership with CAA, our agent in LATAM, Europe and Japan, and our partnership with Merchantwise in Australia and New Zealand. They have been instrumental in helping us grow this business. For example, in Europe, we recently partnered with PMI, a global novelty toy licensee, and they are going to be launching products later this year that will help us expand that category. In Europe, OTL is a partner that develops headphones, speakers and other electronics. Air-Val and H&A will be launching health and beauty products in Europe. 

Additionally, in Latin America and Mexico, Grupo Ruz just released a new line of plush, and Cartoonia is releasing a line of apparel and accessories. Mays Zona Libre will launch bags and stationery and are focusing on back-to-school for their vision. Japan continues to be a very interesting market for us. We’re launching some publishing items with a partner called Takarajima. We will continue to expand our business in the health and beauty and the consumer electronics categories. While our primary focus is on our current territories where we have representation through our agents, we, of course, will assess opportunities around the world.   

As for product growth, what have your latest launches been? 

While our core business will continue to be very important for us, we are seriously focused on expanding into the new categories previously mentioned, including consumer electronics, health and beauty, and food and beverage, to name a few. Each territory is a unique situation. For the U.S. and some territories in Europe, we are ahead in our expansion plans, but we continue to identify white-space opportunities. Each territory has a different timeline and strategy, but we’re very excited about that, because there’s so much opportunity. And like I said, there’s still so many other territories that we need to go after. In addition, the theatrical release is coming up, and we’re working with Warner Bros. to enter the promotions category in a more formalized way. So be on the lookout for some exciting programs that we’re going to be launching during the movie window, launching April 4 of next year. While I cannot give all the details, there’s a lot of “Minecraft” to come, and you’ll see more this holiday season, and leading up to the movie premiere in 2025. 

Speaking of the film, tell me about how you’re capping off your 15th anniversary and starting 2025, your film launch year. What do you have planned? 

Our 15th-anniversary celebration has been very successful for us. We had a global brand campaign called “Shape Your World,” and a three-star program with Walmart in the U.S. We have had over 30 retail activations internationally, including Hamleys, Copel, Parkour and EB Games, just to name a few, and then as already discussed, there have been many new category launches. We are providing many more opportunities for our community to experience Minecraft in new ways. For the first time in the history of the brand, we attended San Diego Comic-Con this past July. We had a booth showcasing some exclusives every day for fans to purchase, and they sold out within minutes. We also offered fans a fun and unique photo opportunity to immerse them into the world of Minecraft. This was a huge, well-attended event where fans found Minecraft unexpectedly, and the reception was extremely welcoming. It was very successful, and we look forward to doing that again next year. We are also about to enter into the location-based entertainment business with a Minecraft Experience launching in October in Dallas. It’s an interactive adventure that uses large-scale projection, a physical set, music, sound and lighting effects to bring the game into the world. We have the movie, we have location-based entertainment and we have a new Minecraft series coming to Netflix. So, stay tuned for more on that front. We have a lot of initiatives in the works with Minecraft on a global scale and see no signs of slowing down as we continue to take our community along on new and exciting adventures.