Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Minecraft Vita is a Thing That is Happening


I...honestly never thought this was going to happen.  Truly.

A PS4 version of the game?  That was always in the cards.  It was inevitable.  A foregone conclusion.  Maybe a PS3 version.  That was definitely within the realm of possibility.  But a Vita version seemed so perfect, so good that it was not to be a reality.  A portable version of the game that wasn't the stripped-down Mobile version whose last big update was like, beds, which have been around for almost a year at that point?  It would be the stuff of legends.  And a PS4 version always meant that you -could- Minecraft on the go via Remote Play, but it would never be the same thing as, for one, you would have to have a reliable internet connection that wasn't 3G, which is sort of -not- something you can rely on.  It would have been better than nothing, but it never would have been a proper Vita version of Minecraft.

And to be fair, I may be jumping the gun here.  All that we know is that Minecraft in some iteration will be on the PS4, the PS3 and the Vita, but word of versions, builds or anything like that is just not present currently.  One could reason that the PS3 version will simply be the 360 version with the updates its received by now (and by the PS3 launch) baked in, and that the PS4 version will basically be the already announced XBox One Edition (which will basically just have bigger worlds, though likely not infinite, and just run smoother and such), but where does that leave the Vita version?  Given how similar architecture apparently is between the PS3 and Vita (though friendlier than the PS3 by a wide margin), it should be a simple enough matter to simply make the Vita version the PS3 one with the necessary tweaks and whatnot, or maybe even just cut down the PS4 version a bit since the PS4 and Vita are apparently a lot alike as well.  But I am ever the cynic here and this is something that I have yearned for, so I have to assume that there is a catch of some sort.

As we know there is a mobile version of the game for cellphones.  And as we know, there is that whole Playstation Mobile thing on the Vita (and other things) that a lot of people (rightly) care about because it's a very small barrier of entry.  What worries me here, clearly, is that the version of Minecraft that the Vita gets will be the heavily neglected Pocket Edition (as it's actually called) instead of...you know, a proper version.  Because that would still technically be Minecraft on the Vita and it would simultaneously be the biggest dickpunch and misdirection in recent memory for me at least.  Okay, maybe not the biggest, but a pretty big one.  On the one hand, I don't think it's possible because nobody really considers the Pocket Edition a proper version yet, but on the other hand, it's easy, and Playstation Mobile is right there and people -are- trying to push it at the same time as everything else.  This is clearly not the way you want to push it, and I'm fairly certain that the folks in charge understand that (because Shahid is awesome) but it's definitely not outside the realm of possibility.

Still, it's better to dream when you can, and I've been dreaming about Minecraft on my Vita forever since it just makes sense to have a giant sandbox building playground on something that you'll want to have on you all the time.  So it just makes sense to have it be a proper version that you'll want to sink your teeth into and build dramatic things, and especially because the Vita is a proper power machine in its own right.  It just makes -sense- to give it a version comparable to the ones on Consoles, but I just can't believe whole-heartedly.  Terraria was announced for the Vita to my surprise and wonderment and I haven't heard word one of that lately, yet not too long after that announcement was one for Terraria Mobile for Cellphones which I'm hoping is purely coincidental.  As stated, however, that's just the cynic in me speaking and I highly doubt that -both- building games that I wanted will end up being some incarnation that I won't want to touch with a ten foot pole.  I choose to believe it won't work out that way because that way just doesn't make sense.

oh yeah, a bunch of other stuff got announced too, but I will talk about that later

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