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In less than a week, Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition will become available on the Xbox Live Marketplace. While the steep 1600 Microsoft Points ($20) price tag may not make the game seem all that appealing, the latest trailer highlighting the game's various multiplayer options certainly does.

According to the latest trailer, Minecraft for Xbox 360 will be home to eight-player simultaneous online play. Furthermore, a group of buddies can get together in front of a single television and enjoy some four-player split-screen action — a great feature that all too many games seem to leave out nowadays. The teaser does a great job of generating some hype for the upcoming Xbox-exclusive downloadable indie title, and those who have been waiting for Minecraft to make its way over to consoles will find a lot to love in the new trailer.

The ability to have friends just jump into your game at any moment has been the dream of many Minecraft players — and the nightmares of others. It's true that more people will be able to play simultaneously on a server, but hosting one of those can be a pain in the butt. Unfortunately, less-than-kind friends playing the Xbox 360 version will be able to destroy buildings and steal valuables if they feel so inclined.

As is evident from the lack of a food meter in the trailer, there is also no 'Survival' mode in Minecraft for Xbox 360 — as PC players will know it from the 'Adventure Update' update anyway. This will come as a bit of an unpleasant shock for those hoping that the experience on consoles would at least be on par with the PC version. Still, the classic SMP version of the game appears to have made the transition to Microsoft's hardware pretty well, Creepers, tameable wolves and all; that much is made clear just by watching the new trailer.

Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition is currently building itself up for a May 9th release exclusively on the Xbox Live Marketplace.

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