Minecraft Pocket Edition Major Update

Although they've since changed their stance drastically when it comes to supporting indie developers, Microsoft didn't touch upon the subject in their initial May unveiling of the Xbox One much to the dismay of gamers and developers. It didn't help that a month later during the E3 2013 Xbox media briefing their example of indie support was to namedrop only Minecraft: Xbox One Edition, arguably the least-indie indie franchise currently dominating sales charts on all platforms.

While Minecraft made the jump to game consoles first as an Xbox 360 exclusive - holding the #2 spot on the most-played on Xbox Live list since it released - creator Markus "Notch" Persson has been rather vocal against Microsoft, especially when it comes to the Windows 8 operating system and the unveiling of the Xbox One console. So, it's no surprise that Minecraft is finally making  the jump to Sony's home console family.

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Oddly enough, Minecraft: Pocket Edition began its run exclusively on Sony's Xperia Play phone before going on to iOS and Android devices to break sales records. On the home console front, PS3 players never got the game. PS4 players however, get it at launch as announced during Sony's Gamescom conference today. Notch then took to Twitter to publicly confirm the news and to confirm that it's coming to the entire PlayStation family:

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It was inevitable. Minecraft makes a ton of money wherever its available so it's a no-brainer to bring to PlayStation as soon as possible. Lead developer Jens "Jeb" Bergensten said as much back in March:

"Microsoft has an exclusivity deal for consoles. When it runs out we’ll consider Minecraft for PlayStation, but Wii U is very unlikely."

Sorry, Nintendo.

Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition - despite being miles behind the feature set (especially with mods) compared to the PC version - has sold over 8 million units. The Flagship PC version on the other hand, has sold well over 11 million (hitting that mark in June).

The official release dates haven't been announced for Minecraft: Xbox One Edition and we don't know yet if it's a PS4 launch or launch window title. If any game should support cross-platform play, it's Minecraft on consoles.

Follow Rob on Twitter @rob_keyes.