Minecraft has been a monster hit for developer Mojang in its PC incarnation, but the recently released Minecraft Pocket Edition for the Android operating system hasn"t been quite the huge seller compared to its PC counterpart. Launched on August 16, the game"s official page on the Android marketplace web site shows that it has been installed between 5,000 and 10,000 times. By contrast, the PC version sells more than that per day. Part of the reason for those lower sales numbers may be due to the fact that the Android version was released as an exclusive for Sony"s Xperia Play smartphone.
That situation could change on Thursday. Mojang"s Daniel Kaplan revealed via his Twitter page that Minecraft Pocket Edition would be released for other Android smartphones on Thursday, September 29. He also posted a video on YouTube, shown below, that offers a demo of how the Android version uses touch screen controls. For users of Apple"s iPhone and iPad, Kaplan said that an iOS version was in the works but offered no release date yet.
Minecraft continues to gain more players on the PC side even as it expands its mobile version to other smartphones. The PC version has now sold over 3.6 million copies and should reach the 4 million mark sometime in late October or early November. In addition, a version of the game for the Xbox 360 console is in the works. It"s supposed to be released sometime this winter but there hasn"t been much in the way of a development update since Microsoft first announced the port at E3 2011 in June.