End Poem

The end credits of the video game Minecraft include a written work by the Irish writer Julian Gough, conventionally called the End Poem, which is the only narrative text in the mostly unstructured sandbox game. Minecraft's creator Markus "Notch" Persson did not have an ending to the game up until a month before launch, and following recommendation by Twitter followers, he invited Gough to create a narrative for the ending. The work, which debuted in Beta version 1.9 of the game and was included with the full release, takes the form of a 1,500-word dialogue between two unspecified entities who discuss what the player has done in the game.

Gough conceived of the work as an overheard conversation which would compare the blurring of video games and real life to the space between dreaming and wakefulness, two forms of being "between two worlds". He experienced a phenomenon during writing where he felt he was not in control of his hand, and later said that "the universe" penned the latter part of the work. Originally referred to as a short story, it is now usually described as a work of poetry.

The dialogue, set in green and teal, scrolls across the player's screen over the course of about nine minutes; certain parts are obscured as intentionally glitched text. Most critical reception of the poem has been neutral to positive, often emphasising its atypicality. Several commentators have focused on its comparison of both video games and life to dreams. It has been positively received among Minecraft fans, some of whom have had quotes from it tattooed.

Gough wrote in 2022 that he never signed away his rights to the End Poem, having failed to reach an agreement with Mojang AB prior to the poem's addition to the game and then having rejected a contract in 2014 on the eve of Mojang's acquisition by Microsoft. He argued that Microsoft's continued use of the poem was copyright infringement, but said he did not want a legal dispute with them. After two psychedelic experiences with psilocybin, he said that he had a revelation following a conversation with the universe—who he attests was the true author—about the situation, and was motivated by his own words in the poem that "you are love" and the affection he had received from fans to release a version of the poem into the public domain. Microsoft has not commented on Gough's characterisation of the poem's status.