Markus Persson, founder of Mojang, the Swedish developer behind indie phenomenon Minecraft, has exclusively revealed to Gamasutra that an official iOS version of the hit game is currently in the works for iPhone and iPad.
The port is being developed by Aron Neiminen, a new recruit to the Mojang team, and will be released later this year.
Persson said that the iOS edition will not receive every update that the original browser and download version gets, but rather will be granted those features that "make sense" for the touch-screen platform.
The game has received numerous unofficial Minecraft releases on iPhone and iPad, but this is the first official iOS release from the Mojang team.
Minecraft is currently in the beta stages, with a full release planned sometime this year. So far over 1.3 million copies of the game have been purchased, with nearly five million registered accounts on the official site.
Gamasutra talked to Persson recently as part of the Road to the IGF series. The developer discussed his inspirations for Minecraft, including the likes of Dwarf Fortress, Rollercoaster Tycoon and Dungeon Keeper.
He said, "I knew from the start that I wanted it to be a fantasy resource-based first person adventure type of game, but it took quite a while to reach that point."
Seems interesting, although first-person view games are hard enough to play on touch screen-only platforms.
This is a stereotype that I do not agree with. I love FPS gaming on my iPhone.
I don't...
I do
why are we thumbing down those who think fps is easy on the ipod?
I played nazi zombies on a mates iphone and it was much easier to control than you'd think.
Actually, games like N.O.V.A and Brothers in Arms are great for the iPhone, i really enjoy playing them.
one word
ANDROID
Yes, there is also going to be an Android version (One of the Mojang team mentioned it on Twitter) but everyone is so iMinded that they don't mention it.
great, then I can play it too, but it's probably gonna suck the battery dry within minutes
That sums up my feeling.
(buried)
what about iPod? is it going to be released for the iPod touch 4 aswell?
Do all the other iPhone apps work on iPod?
There's your answer.
For him to go off and work on some other project, when he still hasn’t fulfilled his obligation to the people that already bought the original game, is kind of a breach of trust.
I just hope he finishes the PC version first.
dark liberator he has no obligation whatsoever to do anything for us, he could iron out the few bugs that are in it and slap a 1.0 and be done with it if he wants, he has already given us a playable game that a million people have bought and are playing. He does not owe us a thing.
And of course he will finish the pc version, he isn't even working on the iphone version, one of his employees is.
people on the internet are nuts...
*walks away laughing and muttering about the ridiculousness of notch have an obligation to us.
Well Notch technically does have an obligation to his paying customers.
But that obligation is too churn out a finished product, which he has more or less produced.
So, yes, the incessant bitching at Notch is very unfounded. I mean are you seriously bitching about the fact that when you spent $15 for a game, that is noted to be unfinished,that it means Notch owes a devotion to constantly work on Minecraft for you?
For a one-time payment of 15 dollars?
Go back to your CoD map-packs.
He does not have an obligation to complete it. When you bought it you agreed to buying it in it's current state and that future updates are a bonus.
guys, all of this arguing is pointless. read the article!
"The port is being developed by Aron Neiminen, a new recruit to the Mojang team, and will be released later this year."
Notch will be unaffected, so he will be free for all minecraft people to continue to harass, abuse, insult etc. about lack of updates. god.
Alright, I assumed Notch was working on it. My fault.
And Anon, nice try at labeling me as a CoD player, but you'll have to do better next time.
I may only speak for myself, but I dislike this. IMO minecraft shouldn't go to any other consoles besides PC. Maybe X-box or ps3 where you could actually multi-task and play the game the way it was meant to be, getting sneak attacked by zombies, mining, building an empire and dieing from lava(if you haven't died from lava with at least 1 diamond in you hand, you haven't played the whole game). It wouldn't be the same with using Ios. In my opinion it would be like playing WOW on the iphone, it just doesn't work. If you are going to play the game play the full version.
If he (whoever is making it) add "extra" content, we should also get it, seeing as if I remember correctly the was something like:get all future content. (this was during alpha sales)
I get that notch will be still be working on PC minecraft, I just don't think ios minecraft wont be as good. It will (hopefully) still be a good game, it just won't be the quality of minecraft pc.
Why do you "dislike" this? Maybe it won't be as good, but as long as it's not Notch or the main development team that's working on it, why wouldn't you want it to come out on other platforms? The greatest rational range of emotions on this would be from "I don't care, I don't want to play on a cell phone" (which seems to be your opinion) to "Holy **** yes, I want to play this on my iPhone so bad."
But why would you deny iOS/Android the game if it has absolutely no effect on the development of the PC version?
this guy knows his **** :D
Oh, I just had interesting idea... NINTENDO 3DS MINECRAFT. Probably wouldn't be good, but just an interesting prospect.
psp release would be awesome:]
^this. so much this.
No love for Android...
android version is coming too!
Pls make minecraft for Android!!!! Android is much better than ****** Iphone..
Lol, I'm only paying attention to this article because people are throwing up a fuss about it.
I am one of those people who believe that the personal computer is the only way to game properly but I'm not going to throw that about. I know friends who'll love this and seeing other people's response, that's enough to make me happy about it.
But this about him owing us anything? How much difference will there be between the beta and final version? An extra mob? New compatibility? Changes in coding? We already have a working game and can mine, build, survive. People should be grateful for being able to play this amazing game so early. The other game developers would never do that.
Sorry for the rant, it just makes me mad at how some people can forget that notch is a human being; who has a life, a love and lots of things to do besides work. Imagine trying to tell notch in real life that he owes us a completed game.
This is being done to reach a wider audience (assuming) and to earn more cash on the hit indie game (which the team deserves). Maybe next the game will appear on the Xbox marketplace, and Playstation Store.
You know what this means don't you?
I'm going to have to buy an Ipad now.
Come on, I know choosing Apple will get so many more sales, but make one for the Zune HD too!
People mistook it for the disagree button.
ANDROID please?