It's been a long time coming, but Minecraft PS Vita Edition will be available for digital download on October 14, the PlayStation Blog announced Friday. A retail version will also be hitting store shelves November 11.
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The handheld game will set players back $19.99 for either the digital or physical version. The announcement also confirms that players will be able to transfer world saves from Minecraft PlayStation 3 Edition to the Vita version and vice versa.
What's more interesting is the implication of the cross-buy program that Sony is offering for the Vita game and its PS3 predecessor. With the cross-buy program, Sony players will be able to pick up several copies of Minecraft for just over the price of a single game.
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With the cross-buy program, owners of the PS3 version of Minecraft are entitled to a free Vita version, and players who buy the Vita version when it comes out are eligible to download the PS3 version free of charge. So let's say a player is completely new to playing Minecraft on Sony systems. They buy the Vita version for $20 and get a free copy of the PS3 version via cross-buy. Now that they have the PS3 edition, they can use Sony's upgrade program to get Minecraft PlayStation4 Edition – normally a $20 game – for just $4.99.
At the end of the day, that's three copies of Minecraft – two console and one handheld – for $25. Then if the player has a favorite world save on the Vita that he wants to expand, he can send that save over to the PS3 and then from the PS3 over to the PS4.
And current PS3 Minecraft players shouldn't forget that cross-buy also means that they'll be able to download the Vita version for free once it drops on Tuesday.
Minecraft PS Vita Edition will be available from the PlayStation Store on October 14.