‘Minecraft: Xbox One Edition’ Release Date Potentially Revealed; PS4 And PS Vita Too?
Minecraft fans have anxiously been awaiting an announcement for Xbox One, Playstation 4, and PS Vita releases. Developer 4J Studios has promised that it will let everyone know when the game will be submitted to certification. However, a list of upcoming Xbox One releases obtained by a fan from GameStop should at least give everyone a target release date for the open-world sandbox title.
Minecraft Forum user RoosterRider80 says he walked into his local GameStop today and was able receive a print out of upcoming Xbox One releases after talking with one of the store representatives. The listing shows that Minecraft: Xbox One Edition is scheduled to be released on August 19. The poster also claims that the store representative told him the retail release should happen the same day. That’s just two weeks away.
The latest status update from 4J Studios is that it is still fixing bugs for Minecraft: Xbox One Edition, PS4 Edition, and PS Vita Edition, which it has been reporting for the last week or so.
We’re still fixing #MinecraftXbox1, #MinecraftPS4 and #MinecraftPSVita bugs. We’ll let you know when we hand over to the Cert testing teams!
— 4J Studios (@4JStudios) August 1, 2014
All Xbox One, Playstation 4, and PS Vita games have to go through certification with Microsoft and Sony before they can be released to the consoles. The process is meant to last no more than two weeks, which would make the August 19 release feasible if 4J Studios was able to send Minecraft off to certification no later than Tuesday, August 5th. The primary concern with a physical release would be that it’s not the latest version of the game when released, which would shortchange users who are not connected to the internet. That’s a relatively small percentage of the PS4 and Xbox One console population, however. It’s important to remember that there’s no guarantee that Minecraft: Xbox One Edition, Minecraft: PS4 Edition, and Minecraft: PS Vita Edition will be released at the same time. 4J Studios’ efforts on bug fixing and the certification process for each platform will determine the actual release date.
View on Xbox One – pic.twitter.com/SDUuvoa94f
— 4J Studios (@4JStudios) May 15, 2014
The next-gen console versions of Minecraft will support worlds that are 36 times larger than the PS3 Edition and Xbox 360 Edition. They will also support transferring worlds to the new editions, but increased multiplayer size and the ability to increase transferred world sizes will have to wait for an update.
Existing Xbox 360 and PS3 owners of Minecraft can upgrade to the next-gen console version for $5 while PS3 owners will get the PS Vita Edition for free.
Minecraft creator Mojang also recently teased the possibility of custom servers so that console players can run persistent worlds.
What do you think of the possibility of an August 19th release for Minecraft: Xbox One Edition, PS4 Edition, and PS Vita Edition? Let us know in the comments below.
[Images via Minecraft Forum, 4J Studios]
[Update: Clarified that the Minecraft Forum poster was told the physical release date was August 19th by GameStop as well.]
