Players who changed the language option to Afrikaans, spoken in South Africa and Namibia, were greeted yesterday with the text "You are a n***er" on the start menu.
Mojang's head developer Jens Bergensten has since issued an apology via Twitter, laying the blame on a "prankster".
"Sorry about that. I thought I had banned that user," he wrote, urging fans to check out the corrected translation, which now reads "enkelspeler", meaning "single player".
Minecraft is largely text-free, but menu and information screens can be viewed in 56 different languages. Translations are largely user-submitted.
Mojang released Minecraft in November last year. The game has enjoyed phenomenal success, reaching the milestones of four million copies and 16 million registered users while still in beta.
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Watch a trailer for Minecraft below:
