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All Articles: Minecraft
Minecraft: Xbox One Edition will be available in stores on November 18
It’s funny. Even though Microsoft now owns Mojang, the PlayStation 4 Edition of Minecraft will be available on store shelves next week while Xbox One owners will have to wait until November 18. A downloadable version has been available on both consoles (with a special $4.99 upgrade offer if you already own a previous-gen version) for a few weeks now.
Minecraft: Xbox One Edition will be priced at $19.99 and will give players the ability to create worlds “up to 36 times larger” than those found in Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition and Minecraft: PlayStation 3 Edition.
Microsoft officially purchases Minecraft maker Mojang for $2.5 billion
Two Point Five Billion Dollars. That’s how much Microsoft just spent to acquire Mojang, the developer behind the wildly popular Minecraft. To put that in perspective, Disney paid $4.64 billion for Marvel in 2009 and $4.05 billion for Lucasfilm in 2012. So the Minecraft community carries the same value as 19,000 characters from the Marvel multiverse or 60% of the entire Star Wars canon. That is unbelievable.
As expected, Markus “Notch” Persson will leave Mojang after the acquisition is complete to work on new projects. And, in a surprising move, Microsoft has confirmed that Minecraft will not become a PC/Xbox exclusive. The game will continue to be available on mobile devices, the PS3, the PS4, and the Vita.
“Minecraft is one of the most popular franchises of all time,” said Phil Spencer, head of Xbox. “We are going to maintain Minecraft and its community in all the ways people love today, with a commitment to nurture and grow it long into the future.”
To date, more than 50 million copies of Minecraft have been sold across all platforms, making it one of the best-selling games of all time.
Madden NFL 15 spikes the competition by outselling all games in August 2014
Even though his stance said, “stop,” Richard Sherman took it to the house as the cover athlete of Madden NFL 15. While it’s too early to be concerned with The Curse, EA Sports’ latest football sim, as expected, toppled the competition and emerged as the best-selling game of August 2014, according to The NPD Group.
Only a small number of new releases made their way onto store shelves last month and many of them were re-releases of older titles. This tactic helped Diablo III: Reaper of Souls reach the #2 spot as the “Ultimate Evil Edition” is now available for previous-generation and current-generation consoles. And thanks to its PlayStation debut, Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare cracked the top ten for the first time at #7.
Joystiq posits that this lack of major releases is the reason why game sales were down when compared to last August. The eighth month of 2013 saw the release of Madden NFL 25 as well as Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist, Saints Row IV, and Disney Infinity.
A full look at the top ten best-selling games of August 2014 can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, DS, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Battlefield 4, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Lego Marvel Super Heroes, Madden NFL 15, Minecraft, NPD, Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare, The Last of Us, The Lego Movie, Watch Dogs
Microsoft rumored to buy Mojang, Notch himself may have initiated deal
Microsoft may be dealing with Mojang to buy the highly profitable company, which is a slight shock to many of Markus “Notch” Persson’s fans. Notch has famously criticized Microsoft in the past, though Games Industry International reports that Persson’s closeness with Phil Spencer, who heads Microsoft’s Xbox Division, is part of the reason why he sought to sell his company to Microsoft.
If you think about it, this isn’t really all that surprising. Mojang’s massive hit, Minecraft, practically prints money, and exclusivity of the game to Microsoft platforms would be a major win for the company. According to Bloomberg, Notch himself will likely leave Mojang once the acquisition is complete. This is also not that surprising, seeing as Notch thrives in smaller, independent situations, and probably yearns to get back to that.
What do you think about this story? Leave us a comment to let us know how you feel about this turn of events.
Minecraft: PlayStation 4 Edition is available to download beginning today
Yesterday, Microsoft confirmed that Minecraft: Xbox One Edition would be released on Friday, September 5. A Mojang representative would later reveal that PlayStation players would get the chance to play a next-generation version of Minecraft “soon… or maybe sooner.”
Apparently, that was a subtle hint alluding to the fact that Minecraft: PlayStation 4 Edition was scheduled to launch today, a full day before the Xbox One Edition.
As with the Xbox upgrade option, Sony will also offer discounted pricing ($4.99) on Minecraft: PlayStation 4 Edition to anyone who has previously purchased Minecraft: PlayStation 3 Edition. All downloadable content for the PS3 Edition can be transferred to the PS4 Edition. If you’re a first-time player of Minecraft, the PS4 Edition will be regularly priced at $19.99. Finally, a retail disc version of Minecraft: PlayStation 4 Edition will be available before the end of the year.
As for Minecraft: PS Vita Edition, Sony hopes to have an update on the portable edition “soon.”
Minecraft: Xbox One Edition will be released on Friday
Minecraft will leap onto the next-generation consoles beginning this Friday as Microsoft has confirmed that Minecraft: Xbox One Edition will be released on September 5.
If you already own Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition, you’ll be able to upgrade to the Xbox One edition for just $4.99. And any previously purchased downloadable content can be accessed with the Xbox One Edition for free. If you’re new to the world of Minecraft, the game will be priced at $19.99. If neither of these options entice you, Microsoft has also said that a retail disc edition will be available sometime this Fall.
But what about Minecraft: PlayStation 4 Edition and Minecraft: PS Vita Edition? Mojang’s Daniel Kaplan tweeted that PlayStation players will be in for a surprise “soon… or maybe sooner.”
Allons-y! Doctor Who Skin Packs coming to Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition
Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition is about to get a whole lot bigger thanks to at least two Skin Packs featuring The Doctor. Make that Doctors, as all 12 will eventually make their Minecraft debut this Fall.
According to the Play XBLA blog, the first Doctor Who Skin Pack will be available next month. The first pack will include six Doctors (including the Twelfth Doctor, played by Peter Capaldi), their companions, several of the series most famous villains, and the Daleks. Other adversaries and other Doctors will appear in future Skin Packs, which are currently without a release date.
The first Doctor Who Skin Pack (and presumably all the rest) will be available to download for $2.99 each.
The Last of Us returns to the top of the best-seller list in July 2014 NPD report
In previous years, the best-sellers chart for the month of July would normally be dominated by the latest entry in the NCAA Football series. But EA Sports canceled the series last Fall, so a new emperor is sitting upon the July Throne in 2014. Or rather, an emperor we’ve seen before in a spiffy new set of clothes.
This is a roundabout way of saying that the Remastered re-release of Sony’s The Last of Us (combined with more sales on the PS3) pushed the game to the top of the best-sellers chart. July was a pretty sparse month as far as new releases go, but 505’s Sniper Elite III also cracked the top ten. It was number eight… with a bullet.
You can check out July’s complete top ten list (which includes May releases Watch Dogs and Mario Kart 8 hanging tough in the top five) after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, DS, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Call of Duty: Ghosts, FIFA 14, Grand Theft Auto V, Lego Marvel Super Heroes, Mario Kart 8, Minecraft, NBA 2K14, NPD, Sniper Elite III, The Last of Us, Watch Dogs