Among other announcements, these included the co-op game Fable Heroes that we cannot wait to play, Microsoft confirmed the price for Minecraft on Xbox 360, which is set at 1,600 points and that works out at around $20/£14. On the release date you’ll be able to download the game via Xbox Live Arcade complete with its new interface, and multiplayer for teaming up with friends and other fans.

We’ve embedded a video below that showcases Minecraft gameplay on the Xbox 360 with split screen, which we’d love to hear your thoughts on. This comes from the recent GDC 2012 event and shows the new build, so this only adds to the excitement although some fans are asking about mods, texture packs, and Skins? We know it’s not all about graphics, especially when it comes to games like Minecraft, but looking at the video and remembering this is on an Xbox 360 we hope Microsoft at least add ways to enhance graphics via DLC or an update.

Let us know what your expectations are for Minecraft on Xbox 360, and also the DLC you’d like to see in the future?

The story leading up to this announcement: We first heard about the Minecraft Xbox 360 release back in June last year, although at this time most of the information had been based on rumors. This news had been followed with Minecraft alternatives like FortressCraft hitting OnLive, and towards the end of last year we also got some hints for Minicraft 2.

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This information was revealed on Twitter when Notch tweeted this message:

“Minicraft 2 is being worked on, for no good reason. It needs a better name, though.”

As you can see the game is in fact called ‘Minicraft’, not ‘Minecraft’. Some suggest that this could potentially be a typo, but this tweet confirms that he did in fact mean to type ‘Minicraft’ – he describes it as his ‘Ludam Dare’ game. This pretty much confirms that Minicraft 2 is a new version of the game which is designed primarily to run on smartphones (and perhaps tablets). We would imagine that Minicraft 2 will almost certainly run on iOS and Android, perhaps it will also come to Windows Phone 7, Nintendo 3DS and the PlayStation Vita – we will have to wait and see.

Earlier this month Notch managed to create a 2D top-down game called Minicraft, this was developed in just 48 hours as part of the 22nd Ludum Dare competition, currently the Ludum Dare community is voting for the best game, but we do know that one experts described Minicraft as “A spectacular achievement in just a few hours of coding” – therefore there are high hopes for its successor.

While we are talking about Minicraft 2 we would love to hear your input regarding this game, therefore why not get opinionated in the comments section below to let us know what you expect from this game, how it needs to differ from Minecraft and whether the game’s visuals are important. Oh and as Notch does not like the name Minicraft 2, so what do you think it should be called?

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However, there was no word at that stage on how long fans would actually have to wait until the Minecraft 1.8 update is released. We do have a bit of good news for Minecraft fans now however, as according to an article over at accelerated-ideas.com, Notch has recently provided a hint as to when we could see the 1.8 ‘Adventure Update’ released.

Notch took to his Twitter account at the beginning of this week, to inform his followers that the much-awaited ‘Adventure Update’ would in fact be playable at PAX (Penny Arcade Expo) 2011 between August 26th and August 28th. At the same time he revealed that a beta release for Minecraft version 1.8 would be launched shortly after.

This of course means that we could see the 1.8 Adventure Update arriving in early September. For those that don’t know, the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) is a semi-annual gaming festival – which has been going for more than 7 years now -that takes place in Seattle and Boston, and features game panels, keynote speeches and exhibitor booths.

The 1.8 ‘Adventure Update’ not only makes some major changes to the way the Minecraft game – which as we mentioned in a previous article has been nominated for 6 awards at this year’s European Games Awards – is played, it also brings some brand new features. This includes a greater emphasis on exploration, new mobs and NPC Villages.

The guys over at IGN asked Markus Persson a number of interesting questions regarding the Minecraft game via email recently and according to Charles Onyett, the game’s creator kindly answered them. Well most of them anyway!! One of the questions they asked was whether or not a console version was on their mind when they first started out on Minecraft.

Persson said that the idea of a console port didn’t come to them until quite late in the project. Although Notch was also asked whether there was a possibility we would see the Minecraft game come to the PlayStation 3 or even the Nintendo Wii U in the future, he replied by saying that he had been instructed not to answer that question.

You can read the full Q&A via the IGN website. Are you looking forward to the arrival of the Minecraft 1.8 Adventure Update?

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It looks as though the list of awards could well get a little longer as well. According to Pete Davison over on the gamepro.com website, Minecraft has received a total of 6 nominations by the 2011 European Games Awards including Best European Game, Best Indie Game, Best Game Design, Best Online Game and Best Browser Game. Mojang has also been nominated for the Best European Studio award.

The Best European Game category also includes The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, DiRT 3, Crysis 2, Football Manager 2011, Outland, Killzone 3 and Magic: The Gathering Duels of the Planeswalkers. Meanwhile, the Best Indie Game category has the Minecraft game up against the likes of Interstellar Marines: Running Man, Snuggle Truck, Ilomilo and Frictional Games’ Amnesia: The Dark Descent.

Other nominations in the Best Browser Game category include Might & Magic Heroes Kingdoms, Battlestar Galactica Online, Dragon Age Legends, Cultures Online, The Settlers Online, Travian, SkyRama, Interstellar Marines: Running Man and Miramagia. As for the Best Game Design, Minecraft is taking on The Witcher 2, Bulletstorm, R.U.S.E., Outland, Amnesia: The Dark Descent and Ilomilo.

The developer Mojang is pitted up against the likes of BlueByte, CD Projekt RED, Crytek, 2K Czech, Lionhead, DICE, Remedy, Quantic Dream and People Can Fly for the Best European Studio award. Finally, the Best Online Game category will see Minecraft up against EVE Online, Mount & Blade: With Fire and Sword, Magicka, Runes of Magic, World of Tanks, Wakfu, Stronghold Kingdoms and Black Prophecy.

Back in February Mojang announced that they would be bringing the hugely popular Minecraft game – which according to Emil Protalinski over at techspot.com has now passed the 10 million registered users mark – to both iOS and Android devices. This was followed a few months later by the announcement that the game would also be coming to the Xbox 360 console.

You can read the full list of European Games Awards nominations over on the european-games-award.com website. Are you a fan of the Minecraft game?

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The great news is that the Minecraft 1.7 update has now been released by Mojang, although many fans may be left slightly disappointed as it’s unfortunately not the ‘Adventure Update’ that they were expecting. According to a recent article by John Jacques over on the gamerant.com website, the adventure update – which Notch claims would ‘flesh out the game a bit’ – will be the 1.8 version instead.

Version 1.7 only brings a small amount of changes compared to other Minecraft updates, with the new pistons probably being the most anticipated. The pistons will enable players to utilize the power of movement to shove up to 12 blocks, depending on the blocks’ position compared to the piston block. Gamers can also use the pistons as a floodgate, pushing lava or water in order to create a flow of liquid.

The push pistons can also be used to push either the mobs or players, as well as dropped items. Meanwhile, the pull piston will extend a platform to interact with a neighboring block. You can read more about the new pistons via the link here. Another new feature that the 1.7 update has provided is shears, which will enable users to right-click sheep to earn themselves some wool without the need to harm them.

However, you will need two pieces of iron to craft the new shears. Players will also be able to use shears to collect leaves, which means that building hedges will no longer need the destruction of trees and an intimate placement. After downloading the Minecraft 1.7 update, players will also discover that the cobblestone and brick blocks have new textures and fences will now be stackable.

The 1.7 update has also made it so that the breaking texture animation now has a higher opacity, and the single slabs will use the bottom half of the full block texture. As Ryan Blanchard notes in his gamerant.com article, although the pistons may not seem too exciting on their own, creative gamers will no doubt find some rather interesting and exciting ways to use them.

We have embedded a trailer below this post, to give you an idea of what the pistons can possibly be used for. What do you think about the Minecraft 1.7 update?

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The attack had been carried out by infamous hacking group Lulzsec along with a attack on EVE Online earlier on in the day, with no apparent reason why they decided to bring down both services.

Minecraft’s creator Notch confirmed the attack on his Twitter account, but stated that the service was already back up. However, as most of you will find out by visiting the Minecraft site or log-in section, both aspects appear to be offline at the moment.

Perhaps Lulzsec will offer an explanation as to why they decided to go after Minecraft, as it definitely is a bit of a head-scratcher. The fact that they tweet about it beforehand, and then carry out the planned attacks will be worrying for other game-based services.

Can you log into Minecraft at the moment? Perhaps the service is up in some areas, but down for the rest. Let us know your current location and if the servers came back up for you at all. We’ll inform you when we have any updates on the situation.

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All of the following information was posted on Notch’s blog here, he confirmed that the Xbox 360 release will support Kinect controls, but it will be optional. This was unclear last week (see here).

As for Minecraft – Pocket Edition this game is coming to the Xperia PLAY and will be exclusive to Sony’s handheld / smartphone hybrid for an undisclosed period. When this exclusivity ends it will be coming to all modern Android phones, as for the game’s development Notch, Minecraft’s creator, will not be involved in this version of Minecraft in terms of programming, however he will still be the game designer on the Xbox 360 and Xperia PLAY titles.

Notch also confirmed that he would be keeping lots of information quiet, on his website he states that this is because “there are actual PR budgets on them, and I don’t want to mess up any big plans”.

As and when we hear more about both Minecraft for Xbox 360 and Minecraft – Pocket Edition we will keep you posted, it may be worth following Notch on Twitter for all of the breaking news.

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You can see all details which Notch revealed on his blog, Notch is dubbing update 1.7 the “adventure update” he is keeping tight-lipped, however pistons are coming and on the whole the update will ” flesh out the game a bit”, he also says that he wants the game to reward exploration and combat more.

Notch does state that a full list of changes is unavailable for two main reasons, firstly he wants to remain secretive and secondly work is still being carried out on the Minecraft Beta 1.7 so nothing is final just yet.

Once update 1.7 is released we should see some modding support, however the game’s source code will only be given out to a “very VERY small group of people before the update arrives”, the modding api should arrive soon after the update is launched.

To keep up-to-date with all of the latest Minecraft news you should follow Notch on Twitter.

Which change are you most looking forward to?

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Microsoft announced at E3 that Minecraft will be making it’s console debut this Winter on the Xbox 360. We’ve included the exact moment the news was made live in an E3 recap video below.

Now on to the potential fears though, as we’ve heard from a few of you that Minecraft with Kinect controls will ruin the experience completely. The immediate question that a lot of you are seeking answers to is: ”Will Minecraft will playable with just the Xbox 360 controller?”

Our guesses to this is yes, as it would be pretty outrageous if they didn’t include this as an option for those who don’t want to use hands-free controls. We also feel that it’s best to wait until Microsoft demo Minecraft with Kinect first, before jumping to conclusions that it’s going to be terrible. If we hear from Microsoft regarding the Minecraft control aspects on the Xbox 360, we’ll update this below.

If you are a Minecraft lover with an Xbox 360, let us know your thoughts on the upcoming game with Kinect support. Do you welcome the idea or not?

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The news has been known for a while and the confirmation at E3 has set it in stone. Just yesterday two videos appeared on the internet which celebrated and showed Team Mojang’s excitement for the coming game. They both involve the Xbox 360 “X” being built or appearing in the Minecraft environment which to be honest, if any Minecraft players will know, must have taken a long time to do.

One video follows a storyline which shows the player exiting his building and entering a deeper lair or shrine to the Xbox logo. As humorous and clever as these videos are, it is a testament to the effort and time people have had to create these interesting videos.

People often like to showcase their creations through screen capture and posting them online for other people to see and we think this craze will continue. If you have any of your creations that you would like to share, we’d love to see them, post us a link in the comments section below.

Check out the video below, are you impressed? You can see another video here,

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