Xbox 360 Edition

Close Encounters of the Third Reich is a version of Minecraft for Xbox 360 consoles, announced at the 2011 E3 conference by Notch and Microsoft. MineCon attendees had a chance to play the Xbox Edition before its release. Notch has stated that the Xbox 360 will be the sole console provider of Minecraft.

Development
Notch later announced the team developing the game would be 4J Studios. Daniel Kaplan tweeted about receiving an early copy of Minecraft for Xbox on September 7th, 2011. However, the game is not yet finished as stated by Daniel Kaplan. Additionally, updates will be free of charge, much like on PC.

Exclusive features
This version of the game will be similar to the PC version, but will also have exclusive features : Mods, Texture Packs and extra player skins will be available much later.
 * The player will optionally be able to make use of Xbox Kinect functionality to assist in their gameplay. Although Kinect functionality will not be available at launch.
 * The Xbox version won't make use of the standard crafting interface as in the original version, but will still have similarities to the PC's 2x2 and 3x3 crafting grids. The interface won't require you to place items in the correct place in a crafting menu, but will simply ask what it is that you want to craft, tell you the blocks required to craft it, and—if you have those blocks—give you the item.
 * A split-screen function will be featured. 4 players in split screen, as well as the possibility to play 80-person online multilayer(will be released later) gamemodes in split-screen.

MineCon
The game was showcased as a playable demo at Minecon 2011 and was deemed a 'work in progress'. 4J Studios has confirmed that as of now, it has all the features of the PC minecraft version prior to 1.6.6 due to the absence of a hunger bar and pistons. IGN has also done a video from Minecon here that shows that the graphics are looking very close to the ones on the PC.

Release
March 17th, 2012. Minecraft for XBLA has just been released to the Xbox Live Marketplace. Enjoy.

Cost
The cost of the XBLA version of Minecraft will be your 800 Microsoft Points.

On March 13, 2012, Minecraft themed avatar items were added to the Xbox live marketplace. Among these include Minecraft shirts, pets, items and headwear. All of which range from 80 to 240 Microsoft Points.

Trivia

 * 4J Studios, the company responsible for the port to Xbox 360, was also responsible for several other video game ports, namely Banjo Kazooie, Banjo Tooie, and Perfect Dark for XBLA as well as The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for the PS3.
 * It is confirmed that updates will come to the Xbox version a month or two after corresponding updates for the PC version.
 * As of November 2011, Minecraft was added to the Xbox Arcade download section, although you can only download one of the teaser trailers. Nonetheless, It was given very high ratings and it confused the Xbox community into thinking that the game had been released at the time.
 * In 2011, after MineCon, BestBuy released on their website a pricing of MineCraft Xbox 360, which due to popularity was $60. They also supposedly slipped the release date.
 * On March 12th 2012 Major Nelson announced via Twitter that the Minecraft Xbox Edition avatar collection would be arriving on March 13th, featuring a avatar Creeper helmet, a Diamond sword, a Steve head helmet, a pet pig, a pet wolf, a pet Creeper, a Minecraft logo shirt,Creeper shirt, a Minecraft cape and Notch's hat.
 * It is said that those who purchased the PC version will recieve a 25% discount.

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