Mickey mouse hands, novelty sweet dispensers, fantastical hats and hairbands, and oversized minnie mouse backpacks are among the things that convinced Minecraft creator Markus Persson to hold this year's fan convention, MineCon 2012, in Disneyland Paris -- according to the video announcement, at least.
Last year's effort took place in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino as around 5,000 fans flocked to witness the launch of Minecraft 1.0, see the first trailer for Minecraft: Xbox Edition, meet the team, and discover new games together.
MineCon 2012 had been planned "mainly for Europeans" as "Americans had MineCon last year," explained game developer Mojang's Director of Fun, Lydia Winters (@LydiaWinters), in conversation on Twitter.
"A lot of Americans have that time off [for Thanksgiving] so it may allow them to come over. But this was made for Europeans."
As for the theme park location, "if people are going to spend money to travel and vacation it should be to a cool spot."
Like the well-established BlizzCon (run by Blizzard of World of Warcraft fame) and QuakeCon (Doom, Quake, and Rage's Id Software), MineCon is one of a select few video game expos run by a single game development company rather than a trade or media association.
Minecon 2012 Announcement video: youtu.be/ik6VYNPiLsw
Official websites: mojang.com / minecraft.net / facebook.com/minecraft
