According to Mojang’s Owen Hill, the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita editions of the studio’s world-building phenomenon, Minecraft is expected to release between Q2/Q3 (so before September 2014, essentially).
Not only that, in responding to user comments over on the PlayStation Blog, the developing team confirmed that saves will transfer from the PS3 version over to PlayStation 4 and, potentially, to the Vita as well.
“The plan is to enable users to transfer from PS3 to PS4,” Hill explained. “We’re still working out how it’ll work with the Vita version. We’ll have more news on cross-buy/upgrade options soon! I understand that the wait is frustrating, but we don’t want to make false promises.”
At this time, it’s unclear what pricing or upgrade incentives we can expect when the game launches across PS4 and PS Vita; however, Hill teased that more information regarding cross-buy and such ilk will be released in the build-up to launch.
Mojang initially announced plans to bring the LEGO-esque sandbox to PlayStation platforms at Gamescom last year. Since then, Minecraft has been available digitally on PlayStation 3 since December, and it is understood that a boxed edition is due to hit bricks and mortar stores on May 16th and May 14th for Europe and North America, respectively.
Without doubt, bringing the studio’s survival title to PlayStation platforms is a huge boost for Sony, considering that the Xbox 360 version of the game has been a permanent fixture in the sales charts since release in April of last year — 12 million copies sold to date, to be precise.
Though it is without a concrete release date, users can expect to venture into the pixelated realm of Minecraft on PS4 and PS Vita before September 2014.