Minecraft gets retail release for Xbox 360

News Aaron Birch 14 Mar 2013 - 09:14

Microsoft has announced a retail release for the immensely popular Minecraft on 360...

Minecraft is already a legitimate phenomenon, having an enormous fan base on its original PC home, and it's also the best-selling game on Xbox Live. The world-building sandboxer should be known to anyone who's even glanced at a PC or Xbox, and it's one of the most addictive titles ever released. Period.

Well, Microsoft is keen to ensure that everyone gets a chance to play the construction kit wonder (as well as maximising the already extensive profits) and has announced that the game is to get a full retail release.

The disc-based version of the game will retail for $19.99 and will hit US stores on April 30. It will include all of the XBLA content, including the various updates, and will also incorporate the next patch, update nine, which will finally add some closure to the game's survival mode, bringing The End and the Ender Dragon into the Xbox 360 fold.

The retail game will also still receive the same future updates the DLC benefits from and will be compatible with the downloadable version, but aside from the physical disc, there's not really any extra benefit to simply downloading it from XBLA.

Sadly, there's no sign of a European release date at the time of writing, but the game will be arriving to Minecraft fans in Australia, Hong Kong, India, New Zealand, Singapore and Taiwan, where it's set to release in June.

It may seem odd to release a game that's already been available for over a year on Xbox, and years elsewhere as a new retail unit, but all you need to remember is that this is Minecraft, and it's going to sell. Love it or hate it, Mojang's cash cow is here to stay for a long time to come.

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Submitted by littletime on Thu, 2013-03-14 10:03.

I'm genuinely flummoxed as to Minecraft's popularity. It looks like an 8 bit game. Now crappy graphics and sound doesn't make a game bad, it's about the gameplay - but even then Minecraft looks awfully repetitive. Wish I had time to try it myself but that won't happen, not until I retire anyway.

Submitted by meowmix on Fri, 2013-03-15 00:45.

It's all about survival, building a home, farming food so you don't starve to death, mining so you can make better equipment so you can fine the end portal to face off against the enderdragon. or you could just use it as a big lego set in creative mode, be warned however as it is very addictive and will eat a few days of gaming. It really is a lot of fun

Submitted by sara on Fri, 2013-03-15 18:21.

as someone who lives in the middle of nowhere with no internet connection at home i am super excited to be able to finally get this for my 360!!!

Submitted by Voice of Reason on Sat, 2013-03-16 15:04.

As you say, you haven't played it. Thus you do not understand it.
Go and try it, then come back and comment again.
Until then, please don't bother coming here and telling people how bad it is.
Thanks.

Submitted by Mike on Sat, 2013-03-16 15:05.

And yet you have the time to make nonsensical posts about things you know nothing about.

Submitted by littletime on Sat, 2013-03-16 22:44.

Hi, thank you for a constructive (and thankfully mature!) response. I can relate to the latter reasons of creativity as I used to enjoy building models using Google's Sketchup software even though they mostly served no purpose. As for the former reasons, as you say it will eat a few days - days I don't have as I am too busy doing the real life equivalents of surviving (work), building a home (or buying houses), farming food (er, Ocado) so the family don't starve to death :)

Submitted by Clinton Brewin on Mon, 2013-03-18 03:05.

mojang should release the pc version in the shops as well in the uk cus i wary on buying online i downloaded the xbox version