Brick for brick, Minecraft will finally make its PlayStation 3 debut
PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita versions of Minecraft are forthcoming in 2014, the developer says.
Minecraft will launch on the Sony PlayStation 3 this week.
Sony
Minecraft, the massively-successful sandbox game that first debuted on the PC in 2009, is launching tomorrow on the PlayStation 3.
In a post to the PlayStation blog, Owen Hill of Mojang Games, which developed Minecraft, said the PS3 edition of Minecraft would comes "with everything present in other console versions. They’re pretty much identical to play, and will be developed in tandem from now on." In addition, he said that Mojang was working on Minecraft games for the handheld Vita and the PlayStation 4 console – both are expected at some point in 2014.
Back in May of 2012, of course, Microsoft released an Xbox 360 port of Minecraft, which retailed for under 30 bucks. As of this week, Xbox 360 sales had surpassed 10 million globally – an impressive number for a game that has framed itself as a high-minded alternative to big-budget (and repetitive) franchises such as Assassin's Creed, Call of Duty, and Battlefield. (Mojang says that across the various platforms, Minecraft has sold 33 million copies since 2009.)
"[T]he point of playing Minecraft – the very reason it sinks its claws into you and won’t let go – is because it’s just so rewarding to set your imagination free," Anthony Gallegos of IGN wrote in a review of the Xbox version. "The secret of Minecraft’s success isn’t any one component of its design, but rather the way every piece of it coalesces to create an experience that’s more liberating and creatively fulfilling than most video games."
Mr. Hill didn't say how much the PS3 version of Minecraft would cost. Expect somewhere in the area of $20.
In related news, Mojang is working with Microsoft on an Xbox One edition of Minecraft, although no release date has been announced. According to Engadget, the Xbox One version – and presumably also the PS4 version – will be getting more multiplayer options and some "massively larger worlds, something that wasn't possible on the 360 thanks to its limited RAM."