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Minecraft XBLA Title Update 9 out a day early, which is today
Minecrafters waiting for 'The End' are in for a treat, as 4J Studios says Title Update 9 is rolling out for the XBLA game "right now." It was expected tomorrow, but the early release means, we suspect, more than a few people's weekends are going to start a day early.The End, complete with Ender Dragon, isn't the only inclusion in TU9; you can check out the update's change log on the official Minecraft forums.
XBLA Minecraft blocks out April 5 for title update 9
"The End" is nigh for Minecraft on Xbox 360. 4J Studios, developers of the Xbox 360 version of Minecraft, announced last night on Twitter that title update nine has passed certification and is scheduled for release this Friday, April 5.4J Studios recently noted the XBLA version of Minecraft had sales surpassing six million units. A retail version of the Xbox Arcade's digitally distributed hit will arrive April 30. We're sure folks will dig it.
Minecraft XBLA reaches 6 million units sold
Soooo, the Minecraft is doing well. 4J Studios, developers of the Xbox 360 version of Minecraft, announced on Twitter recently the game has sold over six million units. The Xbox version of the game began the year at a little over the five million mark.Minecraft for Xbox 360 is set to receive title update 9 in the near future, along with the digitally distributed game taking a pickax to retail on April 30. Across various platforms, Minecraft has sold over 20 million units.
Minecraft Title Update 9 trailer totally has Ender Dragon in it
"The End" is coming to Minecraft for Xbox 360. Here's the trailer for update nine, which will be free when it launches in... um, the realm of soonish?
Minecraft Title Update 8 is all about fixes, nixes Ender Dragon till TU9
Minecraft on Xbox 360 gets a host of fixes in Title Update 8 today, but no Ender Dragon as Play XBLA previously reported. Ender Dragons certainly are sneaky beasts, considering their size.Title Update 8 includes fixes for a few random crashes and freezes, to force a Nether Fortress, Blaze Spawner and Nether Wart to always be present in the Nether for a new world, increase the Mooshroom spawn rate, add an Awkward Potion, improve animal breeding mechanics, and change the "Download Content" menu to "Minecraft Store." Check out the entire changelist below, as provided by Play XBLA.Ender Dragons, part of "The End" of Minecraft, are part of Title Update 9 and they will have sound, developer 4J Studios tweets. Rawr.
Minecraft purchased over 15 million times across 2012
Last year saw a total of more than 15 million purchases of Minecraft across all platforms, with Pocket Edition the leader at just under 5.9 million across iOS and Android. As if we needed any more proof of the blocky sandbox's success, Mojang published concrete figures for last year's sales, demonstrating just how prolific 2012 was for its franchise.In addition to Pocket Edition, there were just under 4.2 million purchases of Minecraft on PC and Mac in 2012, and just over 5 million on Xbox Live Arcade. This is only speculation since it assumes all purchases were made at particular prices, but based on the games' current North American prices our supercomputer reckons Mojang's figures translate into a whopping $254 million of revenue, just from sales of the games alone.Even if those figures are a little off, this video link feels entirely justified.
Minecraft XBLA closes out the year by reaching 5 million sales milestone
Minecraft dug deep on New Year's Eve to reach 5 million sales on Xbox Live Arcade before the close of 2012. The news is maybe not surprising given the franchise's prolificacy across the board over the last 12 months, including 453,000 sales on Christmas Day alone, but the achievement still represents a momentous way for developers 4J Studios and Mojang to see in the new year.Not that there's time for 4J Studios to rest on any laurels, as the team is off its festive break and back at work remedying some of the problems encountered with Title Update 7. The developer says a bug-fixing patch is being released later this month.
Minecraft franchise sells 453K units on Christmas
It's Christmas, the presents have been opened, turkey and ham consumed – it's the midday lull. What to do? If you're like over 400,000 other people, you buy whatever version of Minecraft is handy. Across all available platforms, Minecraft sold 453,000 copies on December 25, according to the block maestro himself, Markus "Notch" Persson.Be careful folks, that's not a festive, green holiday decoration – it's a Creeper.
Minecraft Halloween Skin Pack hell-raised $770K for charity
The Minecraft Halloween Skin Pack racked up a total of $770,448 for charities, developer 4J Studios revealed today. All proceeds from the spooky add-on, sold on Xbox Live for a month at 160 MSP ($2), are being split between the Block by Block, SANDS Lothians, Child's Play, and Macmillan Cancer Support charities. Based on the price, the figure suggests roughly 385,000 players bought the pack, making it a veritable graveyard smash.4J Studios is hard at work on further Minecraft updates. The next in line, Title Update 7, includes among other things experience points and animal breeding, while Title Update 8 features The End and its Ender Dragon boss.
Minecraft XBLA reaches 'The End' in Title Update 8, Update 7 incoming
"The End" of Minecraft, which involves battling a giant Ender Dragon in a barren, vast void, is coming to the game's XBLA version in Title Update 8, Play XBLA reveals. Title Update 7 is next on the list, and it will bring most of the features from PC version 1.0.1, including animal breeding, potion brewing, experience points, enchantment tables, the mushroom biome and nether fortress.XBLA developer 4J Studios handed out a few extra details on Twitter, noting that leveling up takes 30 experience points, rather than 50 as in the PC version, and XP is earned by mining, smelting and breeding. Ender Pearls will teleport and can be thrown in creative mode. Title Update 7 will not include ocelots, jungles, spawn eggs or Iron Golems.
Minecraft XBLA bug extermination adds Golden Apples, Pumpkin Seeds
Minecraft XBLA's Adventure Update 1.8.2 is live and kicking, probably because it's fending off nasty, blocky bugs. The 1.8.2 Bug Fix Title Update doesn't have a release date yet, but it contains dozens of fixes and adds recipes for Golden Apples and Golden Pumpkin Seeds. Fixes include chest lids not working correctly, glass panes and iron fence hitbox problems, tools taking damage in creative mode, and many more. Hit the break for the complete list.4J Studios provides more insight on its Twitter feed, adding that the Golden Apples and Pumpkin Seeds are crafted with gold ingot for now, but gold nuggets are on their way and the recipe will use those once they're in-game. Additionally, players will eventually be able to climb vines, and the next update will add villagers.In other mining news, sales of Minecraft XBLA's Halloween Skin Pack (again, that sounds pretty gross) raised more than $500,000 in under two weeks for the four charities chosen by Mojang, 4J Studios and Microsoft Studios: Block by Block, SANDS Lothians, Child's Play and Macmillan Cancer Support.
Minecraft overtakes Modern Warfare 3 for most played on Xbox Live
If you've yet to truly grasp the power of Minecraft, let this just sink in: Minecraft is now more popular than Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 on Xbox Live. According to the latest Xbox Live activity report from Major Nelson, Minecraft was the most popular game on the service for the week of October 15.That puts it above Modern Warfare 3, which now sits at number 2. It also makes it more popular than several other huge names, including FIFA 13, Black Ops, Halo: Reach and Battlefield 3. The only other Arcade game to even break the top twenty is the recently launched Happy Wars, Xbox Live Arcade's first free-to-play game.If you took a break from Minecraft to read this post, feel free to return to chopping down trees, building roller coasters or whatever you were doing.
Minecraft 'Adventure Update' hits XBLA tomorrow, October 16
Minecraft on Xbox Live Arcade is getting its massive, game-changing update tomorrow, known colloquially as the Adventure Update. Update 1.8.2 brings creative mode, hunger, sprinting, new mobs, new food and new biomes, among many more fixes and additions.The Adventure Update just passed Microsoft certification and is set to launch Tuesday, October 16, port developer 4J Studios tweets. Check out the complete change list on the Minecraft wiki.After this update, 4J Studios may consider adding an Xbox-tailored mod system, or "taking the game in a different direction from PC."[Thanks, Steven S.]
Minecraft documentary building towards December 7 release date
2 Player Productions is laying the foundations for a December 7 release of its Minecraft documentary. Speaking to Eurogamer, Minecraft: The Story of Mojang director Paul Owens said that while an exact date hasn't been settled on, December 7 is the aim. After getting the documentary funded on Kickstarter back in March 2011, 2 Player also committed to a similar production for Mojang's upcoming Scrolls. The Oregon-based production company has a strong history of gaming documentaries, having made videos for Double Fine, Sony, and Penny Arcade among many others.
Minecraft XBLA hits 4m mark, PC prepaid cards now in stores
Minecraft is over the 4 million mark for Xbox Live Arcade sales. 4J Studios revealed the figure on Twitter, showing the game that smashed XBLA records is still shifting like crazy. 5 million before 2013 looks well within reach (you heard it here first*).Meanwhile, Mojang today announced that the PC version is now available in physical stores via prepaid cards. The cards cost the same $26.95 amount at which Minecraft is priced online, and can be found at Best Buy, Target, and Walmart stores nationwide.*you probably didn't
Minecraft XBLA considering mods, diverging from PC after 1.8.2
Update 1.8.2 for Minecraft on XBLA adds creative mode, new food and new mobs, bringing the game closer than ever to its PC counterpart. After this update, developer 4J Studios is considering the addition of mods, though in a different sense than on PC."This isn't something that will be coming with 1.8.2, but will be further down the line," 4J Chief Technology Officer Paddy Burns tells Hookshot Inc. "The Xbox 360 won't be able to have the mod system that gives such a variety of community additions to the game on PC, but we're looking at the elements of these that people seem to be enjoying the most, and deciding how we could tailor those elements into something for Xbox."Xbox 360 players are based in a living room, using a controller, and this fundamentally alters the way they interact with the game, Burns says. "We need to ensure that whatever we do is right for that audience."Minecraft XBLA may diverge from its PC parentage in big ways in the future. "We're going to be discussing with Mojang where we go after version 1.2.3," Burns says. "Some ideas of taking the game in a different direction from PC having been raised already."
Minecraft update 1.8.2 creeping up on XBLA, new video and images
Minecraft on XBLA is getting bug fixes and more in update 1.8.2, and needs about two weeks of work before it heads off to Microsoft for certification. Developer 4J Studios today gives players a taste of the food fixes and environments in the latest update, tweeting out images and posting a video called "New Food."The video shows apples, watermelon, bread and cooked meat, as well as sprinting, which isn't edible but sure looks like fun. The tweets show the images (below) of a village, stronghold, ravine and abandoned mineshaft.%Gallery-165652%
Minecraft 'Adventure' update on XBLA 'still weeks away'
Look, we really want the next big update for Minecraft's XBLA incarnation – the big "Adventure" update, which adds NPCs, villages, strongholds, abandoned mineshafts – but it won't be here this week, it seems. Minecraft XBLA developer 4J Studios says it's "still weeks away." Taking to Twitter, the studio's official account says, "We're still working on 1.8.2 [the Adventure update]. A few things left to add, more work on the Creative Mode interface, then lots of test." Was that an invitation to test it? Because that's totally what it sounded like on this side. Just slide that code on over, 4J.Beyond the aforementioned updates in 1.8.2, the Adventure update adds Creative mode, allowing for unlimited building (without having to mine), limited only by the constraints of the Xbox 360's RAM. We'll see what that means in ... um, some weeks from now. Soon-ish. Better than "eventually," eh?
Minecraft XBLA update brings the thunderclaps
Minecraft's Xbox 360 iteration just got a mess of fixes in its latest update ("Title Update 4"), including pistons at the world's edge causing crashes and thunder "not being audible." Why, that's no thunder at all, then!Remedies are also given for the newly released skin packs and and several other minor glitches/bugs. And no, there are no content additions this time around, mostly just fixes for the last big update. But that Adventure Update is totally still coming!
Minecraft XBLA sells 3 million
Minecraft for Xbox Live Arcade has now surpassed 3 million units sold. The announcement comes via Twitter from Mojang's lord of the blocks, Markus "Notch" Persson, who wrote this morning: "I got told Minecraft for XBLA passed three million sales today!"The $20 downloadable title launched on May 7 and sold a million units in five days. It then reached two million sales in early June. Minecraft for XBLA has also enjoyed significant support through updates, the latest (v 1.73) having gone live last week.
