

Minecraft released for android. - xd
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.mojang.minecraftpe

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mwill
For prosperity:

Right now its Xperia Play only, Mojang have said it'll be available on other
devices in a month or two.

Some people have already thrown the .apk on other devices, and gotten in game,
however it's unplayable without the physical inputs on the Xperia Play.
(<http://imgur.com/a/bknX7>)

They've committed to further updates following a similar model to the desktop
version. The current version is actually 0.1.

~~~
sspencer
Unless you are making a point I can't understand, I think you mean "posterity"
instead of "prosperity."

~~~
mwill
You're right, thanks. My bad. : P

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extension
Let me hop on my soapbox for a minute and say that Mojang really seems to be
squandering the greatness that they have discovered in this game.

Minecraft's level of success is _unheard of_ for an indie game, by a huge
margin, and it's well deserved. My favorite critic quote called it something
like "an end to the era of shallow games". I think they've created a new
genre, or possibly multiple genres, with more potential than any one developer
could realize in a lifetime.

And yet:

They hocked exclusivity rights to a marginal platform. Now they have to
develop and promote a game that nobody can buy for some mysterious amount of
time. I seriously doubt that whatever amount of cash Sony dumped on them was
worth it.

And what they released, and attached the Minecraft name to, is a drastically
dumbed down version of the game: 36 blocks, no survival, no _mining_ , no
infinite worlds, no online multiplayer. You can see the disappointment
reflected in the market reviews.

 _I'm aware that a straight port is not technically feasible_ , but I'm
confident that they could make something a lot closer to the desktop version
if they took advantage of cloud resources and took mobile more seriously.

Notch is a very talented game designer and I think he has great vision, but
maybe not enough _confidence_ in his vision. He's still thinking like an indie
developer and grasping at opportunities.

~~~
rjd
What marginal platform are you talking about? you know its available on Macs,
PC, Xbox, and Android right?

You seem way off point with your analysis. Seems they are actively moving
across every major platform.

~~~
shinratdr
> What marginal platform are you talking about?

The Xperia Play.

> Minecraft Pocket Edition is now up for grabs -- provided you've got $6.99 to
> spare, and you're one of the folks who picked up Sony's Xperia Play.

[http://www.pcworld.com/article/238162/minecraft_pocket_editi...](http://www.pcworld.com/article/238162/minecraft_pocket_edition_hits_android_app_store_your_thumbs_cower_in_fear.html)
(This is so clunky, I wish we just had Markdown).

Not only has he limited himself to Android (you notice no other mobile
platforms in your list there) he's chosen to take an exclusivity deal from
Sony so that it's artificially limited to only the Xperia Play for at least a
month or two.

~~~
rjd
Android is Java based ... Minecraft is java based ... seems only logical
Android is first. I don't really see it going to any other OS myself... maybe
the Win7 phone when the xbox version is completed. I bet that payment from
Sony was to convert it, I doubt they had plans to ship to xperia otherwise. If
it sells as well as the PSP it will hardly be marginal.

And one to two month is hardly exclusive, its just a marketing gamble by Sony.

~~~
shinratdr
> And one to two month is hardly exclusive

It's still a timed exclusive.

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TillE
"This item is not compatible with your device."

Curious. I'm trying to think of which restriction would exclude my device.

Or...could it be that I'm running CM7, when the Motorola Milestone is only
officially on 2.2?

~~~
pieter
It's Xperia Play only for now: [http://mojang.com/2011/08/16/say-hello-to-
minecraft-pocket-e...](http://mojang.com/2011/08/16/say-hello-to-minecraft-
pocket-edition/)

~~~
fredoliveira
Sadly it does read "Xperia PLAY _optimized_ " on the market. If it's Xperia
Play only, thats what it should stay instead :-/

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klausa
So far, it only works on one phone - Xperia Play, also known as Playstation
Phone, although notch said that they are working on bringing it as 'regular'
Market release.

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brackin
I would say "How can this work on such a small screen" but when I was younger,
Age of Empires for Dell Axium was one of the most exciting games to to play.
Felt so futuristic.

~~~
dkersten
The default applet version of minecraft doesn't have a much higher resolution
than a decent smartphone has and its perfectly playable!

PS: yes, Age of Empires did seem futuristic at the time! Try play it now
though - the low resolution may just burn your eyes :-)

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fedorabbit
Consider Minecraft is entirely coded in Java, I'm surprised it's not been
ported to Android platform sooner... But again, although game's size itself is
not big, Minecraft is very resource consuming as the world expands.

~~~
citricsquid
Yes, Minecraft is very resource intensive and a lot of people with powerful
computers (relative to smartphones) can't run it, a straight port would not
work. It's been rebuilt from the ground up.

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exDM69
Is this creative mode ("minecraft classic") only? Or is there a survival mode
too? Survival and Multiplayer? All the screenshots and video teasers I've seen
have been creative only.

~~~
citricsquid
This is the first release, it's creative only for now but they're expanding
into survival eventually.

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bignoggins
I wonder why they chose android first over iOS, considering paid apps
generally do better on iOS.

~~~
watty
I'm guessing he was able to reuse some of his java code in the mobile version
(as opposed to a complete rewrite). He probably spent most of his time
optimizing - PC Minecraft can bring gaming machines to their knees.

~~~
reidmain
They actually brought on a developer specifically to work on the Android
version. Notch and Jens are the only two developers who work on the PC version
of Minecraft.

Everyone else that has been hired at Mojang is working on their next game
'Scrolls'.

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fondue
No multiplayer? Not worth it to me.

~~~
mwill
There is local wireless multiplayer.

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TamDenholm
My main problem with this is i've bought minecraft already, why must i pay
again if i already have a legitimate license?

~~~
MonkeyCrumpets
When you buy a game for the Wii, do you expect to get the 3DS version free?

~~~
njharman
Yes, just like shifting music or movies from CD/DVD player to mp3/Computer.
When I buy "content" or a license to "play" I expect to be able to transfer it
amongst all the devices I own.

I know software requires manual translation. But, the above behavior is what I
expect.

~~~
watty
If you bought a house would you expect a smaller replica of your house to be
free? No, it requires work to build that house just like the original and
therefore costs money.

~~~
jholman
Worst. Analogy. Evar.

If you bought a house, would you expect to be able to use that house on both
your desktop AND your laptop, because it's the same damn house? Uh, no,
because physical matter doesn't work that way. In case you haven't heard,
though, copying data _does_ work that way, and many people DO expect that if
they buy music they SHOULD be able to use it on more than one device. And
similarly for games (when it's a single chunk of code), which is actually how
Minecraft actually works.

Note, I'm not arguing that MPE should be free with purchase of Minecraft, or
that it shouldn't. I'm just pointing out the deadly obvious: that physical-
goods arguments are basically useless for digital goods.

I just fed a troll, didn't I?

~~~
watty
I don't know, I think it's pretty good and certainly better than yours. I
assume you don't write software because that's not how porting works. Mojang
didn't do a copy/paste job to create the mobile version they actually had to
hire a _separate developer_ for the sole purpose of developing the Android
game. It probably reuses some assets and code but it's not an easy task to
optimize a game as heavy as Minecraft for a mobile device.

You can't copy Minecraft from your PC to your Android phone like an MP3 (well
you can, but it won't work). My analogy was trying to get to the point that a
smaller house would be able to reuse assets (scaled drawings, design, etc.)
but it still requires someone (similar to a new developer) to create it and
port the existing design to the less complicated design.

~~~
dkersten
What about:

If you bought a house, do you expect to get an _identical_ house free in
another country? (a country is like a computer platform, right?)

~~~
watty
No, that's where my analogy fails. The intention was to use an analogy that
someone who doesn't understand software development would understand. It only
applies to the development aspect and work required - not the ability to make
copies (Minecraft Mobile is not a copy, a separate version).

