Doctor Who Minecraft

It's been a long wait for Whovians since the 50th anniversary of the series last fall and the Christmas farewell to the beloved Eleventh Doctor, but eight months later the new season (and the new Doctor) have finally landed. Although Doctor Who has traditionally been a television event, with the occasional recent theatrical appearance, that doesn't mean that the Who-fever hasn't spread to the world of gaming. We may not have a high quality Doctor Who standalone game just yet, but that doesn't mean the iconic characters can't show up in one of our other favorite titles...

Microsoft Studios has teamed up with Mojang to bring the sci-fi world of Doctor Who into the creative sandbox of Minecraft. The first of multiple Doctor Who-themed DLC packs will launch this September and cost interested Xbox users $2.99. Currently, only an Xbox 360 version of the DLC pack has been confirmed. The cosmetic DLC (which won't add any actual playable content to the game) will give players skins for the newly-introduced Twelfth Doctor, five previous Doctors, each of their companions (yay for Amy and Rory, we hope!), and some of the series big baddies. Yes, the Daleks will be making an appearance.

Rikesh Desai, Games Director at BBC Worldwide UK, spoke about the Doctor Who/Minecraft crossover and the motivation behind the strange pairing...

“We’re constantly looking for new and innovative ways to bring Doctor Who content to our loyal fans. Working collaboratively with Microsoft, we’ve created an exciting new product which will allow Doctor Who fans to create their own brand new adventures in the heart of the iconic world of Minecraft.”

Additional packs will be released throughout the rest of the current season of Doctor Who and each pack will feature new Doctors, supporting characters, and villains to add to the ever-growing list of Minecraft skins. With over 50 years of content to pull from, there are definitely enough characters to fill the DLC packs for as long as players are willing to shell out the cash for them.

Skin packs are certainly nothing new to Minecraft players. In addition to Doctor Who, players can also switch their avatars to characters from Guardians of the Galaxy or Uncharted or Halo. The skin packs offer a bit of silly fun to the indie sandbox game (which is still going strong as far as sales are concerned), but it's a little hard to justify dropping money for such a minor change in the game. That said, if you have been playing the game nonstop since the wildy popular beta, then maybe small aesthetic changes are worth a few dollars just to offer a slight change of pace.

Do you think the aesthetic DLC packs are worth a few dollars to change the scenery of the familiar Minecraft landscape or do you think the add-on content is a waste of money since they're entirely free and customizable on PC? Let us know in the comments.

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The Doctor Who DLC for Minecraft will arrive in September 2014 for Xbox 360.

Follow Denny on Twitter @The_DFC.