It has been many years since video games captured the worlds attention. Yesterdays Pac-man, Donkey Kong, and Space Invaders led to Mortal Kombat and Diablo, and now todays hit computer games rival blockbuster movies in revenue.

In most cases, its pretty easy to spot the games that are going to hit the jackpot. Sequels are obvious examples. The successes of the latest Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty installments owe their success to the fan bases already established by their predecessors.

Many of the other new games bear striking resemblance to older games. Some games like FIFA are popular because their real-world counterparts are played all over the world. Others become popular because their makers spent lot of money on marketing or on game development.

So its fairly easy to predict which games are going to make it. But every now and then, a game comes out of left field and becomes popular. In hindsight its easy to see why these games became hits. But at the time of their release, no one could have predicted their massive success.

Here are some games which no one predicted would become blockbusters:

Minecraft.

No one could have predicted the success of this Lego-like game. Its not based on any popular genre like RPG and shoot-em-ups. The graphics are simplistic and theres no actual objective. But it sure is addictive.