PC Hit 'Minecraft' Comes to Android

Unless you've been living in a cave, you've probably heard of Minecraft, Notch's addictive first-person adventure/construction game that's something like computer Legos. It's an indie sensation for Windows and Linux PCs, as well as Macs, and the videos of people building everything from the Taj Mahal to the Starship Enterprise are all over YouTube.

Well, now it's coming to a portable game console made by Sony! But it isn't the PlayStation Portable, or even the upcoming Vita. No, it's the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, the fabled "PlayStation Phone." And while it's on the Android Market right now, according to Droid Gamers, it'll be an Xperia Play exclusive for a little while.

Why the Xperia Play, and not the PlayStation Portable or Nintendo DS?

Well, first off Minecraft is a game that kinda requires a touch screen, or at least a point-and-click interface. So that basically rules the PSP out. And Nintendo requires a huge up-front investment to write games for even the DSiWare catalog, plus the original DS probably isn't powerful enough to handle a demanding game like Minecraft.

"Minecraft 3D" would be fun, but the Nintendo 3DS isn't selling too well, and for the first time Nintendo's future in handheld gaming just may be in question. So that basically rules out all of today's handheld game consoles.

OK, so why not the iPhone and iPod Touch then?

Minecraft is, in fact, coming to iOS, according to Duncan Geere of Wired Magazine. But I can think of two reasons why it might've come to Android first.

One, Minecraft is written in Java. Android primarily uses Java for game development. It's possible that Notch may have had to port it to C or C++ for performance reasons, which would negate this argument, but it's worth mentioning either way.

And two, unlike the iPhone the Android world has a smartphone with hardware controls: The aforementioned Xperia Play. More than that, it's not just a PSP Go style smartphone, it's the first PlayStation Certified phone, a designation implying that there will be more of them. By putting in extra work now, Notch ensures compatibility with future PlayStation phones, and maybe preferred placement for Minecraft on them.

The upshot

If the Vita somehow adds support for PlayStation phone games -- a move that would be awesome, but hasn't been mentioned or hinted at yet -- we just might see Minecraft on other Sony consoles as well. Until then, PlayStation phone owners have another cool title to play with, that they can get on the Android Market right now. And Android and iPhone users have something big to look forward to.