Ever since Microsoft bought one of the most famous games in existence, “Minecraft”, fans of the game have been commenting how strange it is that its mobile version wasn’t available on Windows Phone, while fans of other platforms could already play it. And now, the wait is finally over – Microsoft have released the mobile version of the popular game for their own mobile operating system, and it’s now available in the Windows Store.
It costs $6.99, and comes with everything that the Pocket Edition includes – although nobody was probably expecting Microsoft to cut out features from their own version of the game. “Minecraft Pocket Edition” requires a Windows 8.1 phone to play, and it’s reported to run fine on phones with 1 GB of RAM, as well as relatively slow processors.
Apparently, a lot of work has gone into optimizing the game for this release, as players have been commenting that it runs very smoothly and has no bugs whatsoever. Microsoft have also fully ported the game’s content, and it’s in sync with the other editions of the game.
It’s reported that “Minecraft” will be regularly updated on Windows Phone, though Microsoft don’t seem to have any plans to abandon the game’s fans on other platforms, despite owning the title now. Those who’re playing on Android should also receive new updates in sync with the main release line, although it’s not clear when a new update will be coming. Microsoft haven’t said anything about a potential plan to release any new content for the game in the coming days or weeks, and it’s not clear how the game will be handled in the longer term.
In addition, the game supports multiplayer over Wi-Fi, something fans have been hopeful that Microsoft wouldn’t forget to include. The company recently acquired “Minecraft” for the impressive sum of $2.5 billion in a deal which was commented quite regularly for a few weeks after it happened. Many were curious if Microsoft would be able to earn back their investment, although a company of this size and with such experience should definitely know what they’re doing in this situation.
Minecraft’s own original creator, Markus Persson, has gone on record as being critical towards Microsoft two years ago, due to their recent announcements regarding Windows 8 and its app store. However, it wouldn’t be fair to hold the developer up to those opinions, as that happened a long time ago, and people’s opinions can change a lot in such a timeframe, when presented with more experience. A similar situation occurred with Valve, who were initially very critical of the PlayStation, but went on to embrace the platform and develop actively for it.