‘Minecraft PS Vita,’ PS4 And Xbox One Updates And More On The Microsoft Deal

Coders Rest In The Office Of Swedish Company Mojang In Stockholm — Coders rest in the Mojang company office in Stockholm January 21, 2013. A pool table, a pinball machine, board games and Lego dot the offices of Mojang, the small Swedish company behind the wildly popular Minecraft video game, and one of its founders is wearing a tuxedo and purple tie on a recent "formal Friday". The atmosphere reflects the independent spirit that has contributed to the raw identity of the game that has just sold 20 million copies. The founders want to keep it that way. Mojang, the Swedish word for gadget, has so far resisted selling to a bigger player or listing on the stock market even though that could mean monster payoffs for the 25-person staff and funding to expand dramatically its games. Picture taken January 21, 2013. Reuters/Ints Kalnins

The "Minecraft PS Vita Edition" may not be too far off as developer 4J Studios has given more updates on their progress. It seems that fast work is being done for the PS Vita version as well as the "MInecraft PS4 Edition."

Announced via their official Twitter page, 4J Studios has stated that they are now working on the PlayStation platform versions of the title:

For all asking, we're finishing up on #MinecraftPSVita now, and we've handed over the small "Save Transfer" update for #MinecraftPS3 to Sony
— 4J Studios (@4JStudios) September 10, 2014

After this, the developer is expecting to deal with all the bugs that have been found so far for the "Minecraft Xbox One Edition" and "Minecraft PS4 Edition." If the bugs are found and dealt with fast enough, the developer has also announced moving to the next update that will be applicable across all the consoles.

Apart from these updates, the reported Microsoft deal with buying out "Minecraft" is now reportedly up to a $2.5 billion dollar enterprise. And this may be due not only for its Xbox One and Xbox 360 arm, but also for the mobile section of Microsoft.

According to a report from Reuters, one of the bigger reasons for the "Minecraft" buyout may be to entice more users onto its mobile platform. Seeing as how "Minecraft" is also available on mobile, and with the reported 2.5% influence of Windows Phone compared to its Android and iOS rivals, this is a pretty viable reason.

In fact, the report also mentions that developer Mojang has previously declined developing a port of "Minecraft" for the Windows Phone because of the very small base in the market. If Microsoft can somehow turn this around by offering some form of exclusivity with "Minecraft" then it can boost not only its standing in the console and PC market, but may also jumpstart the Windows Phone with the "Minecraft" culture.

Of course, one of the repercussions of a buyout with Microsoft is that the big hit game may become exclusive to the buyer. And that can spell disaster for players of the "Minecraft PS4 Edition," "Minecraft PS3 Edition" and "Minecraft PS Vita Edition."

However, according to Examiner, this may not be the case. Even though the buyout may happen, there are reports that Microsoft may not necessarily stop the sales of the three PlayStation platform editions. However, whether or not this will continue with the expected updates following the launch has not yet been announced.