The Battle and Beasts pack allows you to dress up as various warriors from different eras. You can pretend to be a Roman Soldier, a Gladiator, an African Hunter, a Soldier from the American Civil War and anything in between. That was the ‘Battle’ part, for the beasts, you can choose to look like a Crocodile, Baboon, HIppopotomas or several other animals. The bundle only costs $2 (or 160 Microsoft Points).

The second skin pack is a celebration if Minecraft’s first year on the Xbox 360. The game has been riotously successful, selling over one million copies in the first week and three million in the first three months. Apparently the 1st Birthday pack is free but unfortunately we have no information as to its contents.

A retail bundle of the game including all of the previously released updates will hit stores in June.

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If nowadays a Minecraft piece comes into the media spot light then it must be truly outrageous because we have seen nearly everything there is to see. That is what exactly Minecraft player or should I say creator Zinnsee has brought to the fray.

Zinnsee using Mojang’s tools has designed the USS Enterprise-D to absolute perfection. Of course, the ship looks beautiful from the outside, but it is the inside that holds our interest.

The entire iconic interior of the ship that was featured heavily on Star Trek: Next Generation is present within the ship. The most impressive thing about this ship is that it was created in survival mode of the game. This means that the ship was vulnerable to attacks from creepers and other players. I can’t imagine the patience required to build such a thing of beauty. It takes a real trekkie to go through all that.

No doubt this will add to the already insane amount of hype surrounding the Star Trek: Into the Darkness movie releasing next month, on May 15th. You can see the whole pictures of the space ship here.

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Of course, implementation is the key here and Mojang has so far done an exceptional job.

Last month the developer confirmed their game to have passed 6 million sales on Microsoft’s console. It’s big brother, the PC edition was released back in November of 2011 and was confirmed to have sold 10 million copies earlier this month.

With such a booming success rate, one would expect Mojang to take some time off and relax. The developer, however, confirmed plans of a retail version last month, which would allow people to play without the use of an Internet connection.

Minecraft uses an online distribution model on all three platforms – the PC, Xbox 360 and mobile devices. Hence, there was a certain circle of people who though were creative, could not get into building their ideas due to the unavailability of a stable Internet connection.

That would have changed sooner if the retail version had not been announced today to suffer a delayed release. According to the announcement made by Major Nelson today, the retail Xbox 360 edition of Minecraft will now release on June 4th. The reason stated was to include the latest update with the game.

Previously, the retail version was due for a release on April 30.

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Microsoft has announced on its PlayXBLA Blog that gamers have spent over 1 billion hours. For those of you who fail to grasp the scope of how much Minecraft is played, let me put it like this; time duration gamers have spent on Xbox 360 Minecraft is well over 11000 years!

Besides that, the game on Xbox 360 has been a tremendous success story as well. So far, it has managed to sell 6 million copies since its launch, generating over $120 million.

Minecraft is available on XBLA currently for $20. Furthermore, a disc-based version of the game will release for Xbox 360 on the 30th of April in US only.

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It’s pretty obvious that Minecraft has needed blonde female NPCs for quite some time. I’m pretty stoked about this update.

But jokes aside, I’ve had enough of riding pigs all the time. We’ll finally have proper mounts. Minecraft for PC was initially released as an alpha in May 17, 2009, with a full release following a few years later on November 18, 2011. 7 million copies of Minecraft for PC were sold by August, 2012.

4J Studios’ Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition was released on May 9, 2012 and surpassed six million downloads in March of this year.

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This newest update adds The End to Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition as a major feature. You get to explore the mysterious new realm and fight the end-game boss, the Enderdragon. The otherworldly dimension that the Endermen come from isn’t all there is, though.

There’s also a ton of other things being added to the game such as new items and some much-needed mini features that you might not notice (Sheep finally growing back their wool, for one).

You can use vines as ladders, for those of you aiming for a derelict or jungle theme in your builds, and you can also make Nether Bricks out of Netherrack so that you can build that demonic-looking castle you always dreamed of.

Check out the full patch details at Play XBLA.

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It appears that volx1337 decided to show his love for the game by (probably) spending hours on end recreating the currently popular game in Minecraft from scratch. While most of you are probably thinking “yeah its been done before with other games” but volx has taken it up a “notch” by including the game’s skylines.

Right now, Ken Levine and Notch are probably smiling upon this magnificent artist and praising him for such valiant efforts! I highly recommend you check out the artists channel as he has done this with several video games too, his work is truly “out of this world”.

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The news shocked the gaming world but was quickly ignored as the millions of Minecraft players who would be excited by this, went right back to building their red stone powered roller coasters.  Over on Mojang’s official website, the ever popular Dinnerbone had this to say:

Minecraft PC edition is about to hit 10,000,000 sales. I don’t know about you guys but we’re really excited about this milestone in Minecraft history. We decided that this would be the perfect time to announce our next upcoming title ‘Minecraft 2‘.

He then goes on to give us a release window.

Hopefully releasing within the next two months, this 2-years-in-development game will be bringing blocky simulation to the next level.  Whilst based off the original engine, this new version completely overhauls major parts of the game and contains many weeks worth of new content and blocks.

Check out the video preview above and let us know what you think!  Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a mine to craft.

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Earlier this year in January, developer Mojang announced that the Xbox 360 edition of the popular world builder had managed to outsell its PC counter-part. Furthermore, the XBLA version is due for release in certain territories on disc.

The latest title update for the game is going through the Microsoft certification process and will be released soon enough. It brings dispensers, the End Portal, the EnderDragon, and much more.

Source: Twitter

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The retail disc will contain same features as the retail versions, as well as the additions coming in the ninth update to the game. The game will allow play between the disk based and digital versions and will be available for purchase in the US market on 30th April, for $19.99. The disk version will also be coming to Australia, Hong Kong, India, New Zealand, Singapore, and Taiwan in early June.

Following is the full announcement of the retail version, made recently at Play XBLA:

“Microsoft will soon bring “Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition” to retail as a disc-based version that will let gamers who are not currently connected to Xbox LIVE experience the thrill of Minecraft! This version of “Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition” will contain all the same features and content included in the current version, as well as the new additions coming soon in the ninth title update to the game. The retail game will be exactly the same as the digital version in every way, including support for multiplayer connectivity between the retail game and the digital download, and the retail disc version will receive all the same content and feature updates as the digital version ongoing.”

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You’ll get to see dispensers, the End Portal and the EnderDragon, and also get the opportunity to use the nifty item frames, which is being considered as the most appetizing addition.

Item frames are square panels in which you can store a single item, which are then displayed show-offingly to any sight-bearer.

These little frames are conveniently more accessible than chests, and can also serve countless number of auxiliary purposes. You could use it as a shelf-like decoration in a nice little room you just made, or put a map and compass in it to help visitors understand where they are.

Like the game itself, the possibility of usage of this peripheral are nearly countless. You can find out so much more about Item Frames from the Minecraft Wiki.

The update obviously gives more reasons (or perhaps excuses) to play the game.

Source: OXM

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Minecraft developer 4J Studios has already confirmed Update 9 to not see the light of day during the month of February. However, that didn’t stop them from posting the first screenshot showing off the new Spawn Eggs.

The screenshot is of the game’s menu but it does contain the upcoming console Spawn Eggs.

On being asked on their Twitter account whether “Jungles and Ocelots” will be in the upcoming update. 4J confirmed that they will be not and will arrive in another update planned for later.

The developer later tweeted:

We’re hard at work on TU9, still lots to do.

4J has not given us any timeline of the release of the patch. We assume that it will be brought out in the first week of March.

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Well, in 2012 alone, Mojang, the maker of Minecraft, has reported a revenue of $237.7 million, which is kind of a lot money.

“It’s almost hard to grasp,” said Mojang CEO Carl Manneh. “It’s easy to become a bit blind working at Mojang. Everything’s happening so fast and it’s going so well. One almost needs to pinch oneself to know it’s for real.”

“When we started Mojang in 2010 we made a budget for the first year. Three months later we just trashed it – it became totally irrelevant. We still have the same feeling now. There simply are no good ways to forecast how much money we are going to make.”

“Minecraft is a power of its own now – it’s just rolling,” he said. “We have so many markets where we are not very strong yet, where many play Minecraft but few have bought it simply because you can’t use our online payment solution there. That’s something we’ll get our hands to during 2013.”

It seems as if Minecraft isn’t settling for just all of the money – the beast, it hungers for more.

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While 4J Studios originally promised The End, an alternate Minecraft universe featuring floating islands, would be in the eighth update, it’s now being pushed back to TU9.

Included in the update are a slew of crash fixes and tweaks to Love Mode. Full patch notes courtesy of Gamespot are detailed below:

• Fix for random crash on Kick Player.
• Fix for a random crash on loading the tutorial.
• Fix for freeze when writing on a sign as an autosave starts.
• Fix for crash when attempting to enter an online enabled game session after losing connection to the Xbox LIVE service.

Performance improvement for the Enchantment interface.

• Fix to display a message when monsters are nearby on trying to sleep in a bed.
• Fix for an issue causing blocks to reappear after being destroyed when the server is busy.
• Fix for Experience Orbs being invisible for a period of time when created.
• Fix to force a Nether Fortress, Blaze Spawner and Nether Wart to always be present in the Nether for a newly created world.
• Fix for autosave not working when the host has gone into an idle state.
• Fix to increase the spawn rate for Mooshrooms.
• Change to make Blazes drop Glowstone Dust as well as Blaze Rods.
• Fix to player experience level display in two player vertical splitscreen mode.
• Fix for Quick Move not being possible while holding something in the cursor.
• Fix for armor position on Bad Santa when sat down.
• Changed “Download Content” menu to “Minecraft Store”.
• New photo frames for avatar items in the Minecraft Store.
• Fix for Magma Cube hit boxes.
• Added an Awkward Potion to the Potions page in the Creative Menu.
• Fix to show the aura of enchanted items for other players in an online game.
• Fix for tools enchanted with Unbreaking occasionally repairing themselves.
• Changes to improve breeding – Love Mode status is now network synchronised, and animals react more correctly if spawn limits are reached when breeding.
• Fix for issue with “Take Half” in the Brewing Stand interface.
• Fix to allow the map to be displayed when the player has turned off Display Hand.
• Fix for potion effects being removed after using the Nether Portal.
• Fix to stop the item in hand being changed when traveling to/from the Nether.
• Fix for Compass not pointing to the original spawn point after having been in The Nether.
• Fix to allow players to be able to eat food even if they are not allowed to build and mine.
• Fix to allow client players to toggle Custom Skin Animation.
• Fix for player gamertag border color being wrong after a respawn/dimension change.
• Fix for issue in splitscreen where it was possible to craft items without a player having the resources required.
• Fix to remove the Love Mode tooltip when animals are unable to enter Love Mode.
• Change to moderator option description in the Host and Player Options.
• Fix for the submerged edge of the world emitting a faint light.
• Fix for lighting issue with mobs in water.
• Fix to stop food being removed when feeding animals in Creative Mode.
• Fix to stop Bones being removed when taming wolves in Creative Mode.
• Change to make baby wolves tame when born.
• Fix for Blaze Rods not being identified as fuel for a furnace.
• Fix for issue with sky lighting values making bedrock layer fully lit.

Via: Gamespot

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Jens Bergensten, a Minecraft developer at Mojang tweeted the milestone:About 10 hours ago, Minecraft (PC) hit 9,000,000 sold copies! Which should bring the total for all platforms to… 20 million?”

He also said that Minecraft Pocket Edition has sold 7.3 million copies, while the Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition had sold almost 4.5 million copies last month.

The next major Minecraft update, version 1.5, is due to launch this month.

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The new patch will fix the current ‘Kick Player’ bug and tweak some of the new features. Blazes will now drop Glowstone Dust to meet with current shortage and Nether Fortress will be present in every Minecraft world.

A release date for the patch is yet unknown but the developer has promised that it will be soon. Expect more details to be released regarding the new update 8 in the coming days.

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The said issues majorly include the missing of new features from pre-existing Minecraft worlds.

The developer tweeted:

We’ve been working on bug fixes for some problems people have found in TU7. A new update with fixes will be released in January.

4J also mentioned plans to “change the code to ensure you get a Nether Fortress, Blazes and Nether Wart in the Nether in a new world”.

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2 Player Productions, the crew behind The Story of Mojang, uploaded the Minecraft documentary to The Pirate Bay of their own accord. “We wanted to come here first because we knew the movie would end up here eventually, and the best thing to do seemed to be opening a dialogue,” said 2 Player Productions.

They aren’t the first to hang out with the Pirates in the videogame industry, as Jonatan Soderstrom (Hotline Miami) notably gave free technical advice to people who pirated his game.

It’s an unorthodox approach, but it may prove more effective than treating them as criminals rather than fans. You can read the message provided by 2 Player Productions in full below.

“We wanted to come here first because we knew the movie would end up here eventually, and the best thing to do seemed to be opening a dialogue. Torrents and piracy are a way of life and it probably won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. There are many people that want to punish you for that, but we have a more realistic outlook on things.

We’ve been there. We’ve all needed to do it at some point. Maybe you don’t have the money. Maybe you want to try before you buy. Maybe you’re pissed at us for premiering the movie on Xbox Live. These are all fine reasons. But if you feel that piracy is, in Gabe Newell’s words, “a service problem,” please consider that we are selling DRM free digital downloads that you can watch in whatever manner you please.

We’re just three guys trying to make a living doing what we love. We love the world of video games, and we love making it real. If you buy the movie, you support those efforts. The reason we Kickstarted this movie in the first place was that we didn’t have enough money to make it ourselves, and even then, we still put A LOT of our own money into it. Not to mention nearly two years of work.

Watch the movie. Hopefully you’ll like it, and understand what we’re trying to do. Please consider supporting us by buying the $8 DRM-free digital download of the movie at www.theminecraftmovie.com, or the $20 DVD from www.fangamer.net.

We’ve worked with a lot of amazing people in the games industry and had the incredible fortune to make some great films the way we wanted to make them. Please consider helping us continue on this path. The best has yet to come.”

Source: Gameranx

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“Title Update 7 should start rolling out around 10am UK time on 19th December, and can take a few hours to be available worldwide.”

With the release timed with the holidays, this update will bring a warm cheer to your average Minecraft featuring a festive skin pack and other Christmas related content.

Here are the patch notes as posted on the Official Xbox Magazine website:

Highlights

Animal Breeding – feed two of the same animals a particular food and they’ll “kiss” and like magic a little baby animal will appear. Cute!

Brewing – You’ll be able to make Potions! Pull up a Brewing Stand and experiment.

Experience Points – Now you can collect Experience Orbs from mining, killing mobs, breeding and using Furnaces. Experience is used for Enchanting!

Enchanting – A new process which uses your Experience points to grant special abilities to armour, tools and weapons. You’ll need to craft yourself an Enchantment table to get started.

Mushroom Biome – A new type of land where the humble mushroom is king. New block Mycelium can be found here and Mooshrooms! Try growing yourself a giant mushroom.

Nether Fortresses – a structure that can appear in the Nether, bringing new blocks to the game too. Nether Fortresses are the Nether equivalent of Strongholds. Look out for the Blaze which can found in these new structures, they’ve got a habit of shooting out fire.

Skin animations – Some of your skins will have new animations (optional) to give them a bit more life and personality of their own. It’s something new and something that will be expanded upon as we do future updates, even older skins might get given their own animations as time goes on, so keep a look out for them in the future too. You may also notice that skins can have hats, and stuff…

New items
Blaze Rod
Ghast Tear
Gold Nugget
Nether Wart
Glass Bottle
Water Bottle
Spider Eye
Fermented Spider Eye
Cauldron
Eye of Ender
Glistering Melon
Mycelium Block
Lily Pad
Nether Brick
Nether Brick Fence
Nether Brick Stairs

New Mobs
Mooshroom
Blaze
Villager
Snow Golem
Magma Cube
Baby Animals

Other tweaks

Added Avatar items to the Download Content menu
Added new multiplayer host trust players options for toggling players’ abilities to mine and use items, place blocks, use doors and switches, use containers, attack players and attack animals/
Updated tutorial world with new biome, and added mini-tutorials for new features
Updated music disc quests in the tutorial world
Added an option to enable/disable custom skin animations (on by default)
Added a section on brewing, enchantment and breeding in the How to Play

The post Minecraft Update 7 Out Today – New Items, Mobs and Tweaks appeared first on SegmentNext.

Whilst we’re all still waiting for the next update (For which there still isn’t a release date, unfortunately), 4J have been kind enough to lavish us with a list of all the things that we can expect in the next big patch. Whenever this update hits, you can expect all of the following:

Highlights

• Animal Breeding – feed two of the same animals a particular food and they’ll “kiss” and like magic a little baby animal will appear. Cute!
• Brewing – You’ll be able to make Potions! Pull up a Brewing Stand and experiment.
• Experience Points – Now you can collect Experience Orbs from mining, killing mobs, breeding and using Furnaces. Experience is used for Enchanting!
• Enchanting – A new process which uses your Experience points to grant special abilities to armour, tools and weapons. You’ll need to craft yourself an Enchantment table to get started.
• Mushroom Biome – A new type of land where the humble mushroom is king. New block Mycelium can be found here and Mooshrooms! Try growing yourself a giant mushroom.
• Nether Fortresses – a structure that can appear in the Nether, bringing new blocks to the game too. Nether Fortresses are the Nether equivalent of Strongholds. Look out for the Blaze which can found in these new structures, they’ve got a habit of shooting out fire.
• Skin animations – Some of your skins will have new animations (optional) to give them a bit more life and personality of their own. It’s something new and something that will be expanded upon as we do future updates, even older skins might get given their own animations as time goes on, so keep a look out for them in the future too. You may also notice that skins can have hats, and stuff…

New items

• Blaze Rod
• Ghast Tear
• Gold Nugget
• Nether Wart
• Glass Bottle
• Water Bottle
• Spider Eye
• Fermented Spider Eye
• Cauldron
• Eye of Ender
• Glistering Melon
• Mycelium Block
• Lily Pad
• Nether Brick
• Nether Brick Fence
• Nether Brick Stairs
• New Mobs
• Mooshroom
• Blaze
• Villager
• Snow Golem
• Magma Cube
• Baby Animals

Other tweaks

• Added Avatar items to the Download Content menu
• Added new multiplayer host trust players options for toggling players’ abilities to mine and use items, place blocks, use doors and switches, use containers, attack players and attack animals/
• Updated tutorial world with new biome, and added mini-tutorials for new features
• Updated music disc quests in the tutorial world
• Added an option to enable/disable custom skin animations (on by default)
• Added a section on brewing, enchantment and breeding in the How to Play

Minecraft 360 is catching up to the PC counterpart in leaps and bounds now. I know I personally can’t wait to go and explore some Nether Fortresses, how about you?

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