Mojang has finally released Minecraft – Pocket Edition for the Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY this morning. The game is an Xperia PLAY Android exclusive for a set period of time and is currently available on the Android Market for $6.99 (£4.28). If you fancy giving the game a try before you pay, a free demo is also available.
In traditional Minecraft fashion, the first release is Alpha 0.1 with the devs promising to develop Minecraft PE “for a long time with frequent updates“. This first version focuses on the creative aspects of the game and includes random worlds, as well as allowing you to build anything with 36 different kinds of blocks. You can also invite friends to your world (through local network) and save multi-player worlds on the handset.

The introduction screen is a no-nonsense affair with version number prominently under the logo.

The options button brings up a settings page, where you can change your multiplayer name, invert controls or enable ‘Fancy graphics’.

If you hit ‘Join Games’ it will search your local network for any games being played. Obviously in our case we were all alone. :(

When you it the Start button it will ask you to select your world and create one if you’re starting for the first time.

After about 20 seconds or so, it will generate your world. You can then select blocks on the touchscreen or just scroll through them with the circle and square buttons on the Xperia Play device. It all feels like traditional Minecraft so far, although we’ve only spent some very quick time with it so far. We look forward to spending some proper time with it over the next few days. If you’ve played Minecraft before, then you should at least go and download the free demo right now!
