Indie sensation Minecraft coming to iPhone, Android

Minecraft is one of those rags-to-riches stories that's becoming increasingly common in today's casual gaming marketplace. What began as a simplistic game of building blocks has sincesold over a million copies and is now heading to a wider audience on the iPhone and Android platforms.

In arecent interview,developer Mojangsaidit had been in discussions with third-party developers about the possibility of bringing Minecraft to smartphone platforms, but eventually came to the conclusionitshould "do the iOS/Android version of Minecraft in-house." Thephone ports areset to release later this year, while the PC version technically remains in beta with 1.3 million paid downloads.

Mojang founder Markus Persson has said the iOS version won't receive the same updates as the primary game, but it will still see features that "make sense" for the touch-screen device. We can assume the same for the Android version as well.

Minecraft's premise is so simple it'sgenius -players are given the ability to create as many blocks as they want, and then use those blocks to create statues, buildings, landscapes or anything their mind can concieve. This has of course led to countlessjaw-dropping creations.

Above: Like this Link to the Past recreation, all done with Minecraft

How many of you are already addicted to Minecraft? Do you think a handheld version will further bury you in time-sapping blocks, or will these portable ports be dismissed in favor of the real deal?

[Source:KotakuandGamasutra]

Feb 22, 2011