'Minecraft' Vita Release Date in the US, UK and Australia

Sony Europe and Sony America have unveiled the digital release dates of "Minecraft" for PS Vita.

The game will launch on October 14 in the United States and October 15 in the United Kingdom and Europe. Meanwhile, Minecraft: Playstation Vita Edition will be released on October 16 in Australia. On November 11, the retail version will also launch.

Minecraft fans will also be excited to know that they can get a number of upgrades and cross-buy opportunities, according to a report by TechRadar.com. PlayStation 3 users can download the PS Vita version for free. Also, PS Vita users who will buy the game in mid-October can also avail of the free PS 3 version. Players of either PS Vita or PlayStation 3 can choose to upgrade to Minecraft on PlayStation 4 for $5 only.

The PS Vita Minecraft, will be available at $19.99 and TechnoBuffalo.com noted that the cross-buy opportunity allows gamers to play the game on any preferred platform. This means that purchasing the product once on PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 or PS Vita allows players to also play the game on the other platforms. However, the "Cross-Save is not possible between generations because of the map size jump with the PlayStation 4. Bigger maps means that it'd be impossible to move to smaller platforms with saves," Techno Buffalo added.

Since Mojang was acquired by Microsoft, no noticeable changes were made on Minecraft yet. In a report by The Epoch Times, all the features from the latest PS3 version plus online play on Vita will be available on PSN. Saves will be transferrable from PlayStation 3 to Vita. All purchased DLC from PS3 will also work on PlayStation 3 + Vita Edition. According to game developers, several, but not all, DLC skins and texture packs bought for Minecraft PS3 may be available for PS4, due to licensing deals.

As for Xbox One users, Minecraft will also be available at $19.99. Users who have purchased Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition from Xbox Live Marketplace or played online using the disc version, can also upgrade to Xbox One Edition for only $4.99. Those with Xbox 360 Edition saves can import their worlds to Xbox One. However, there are no transfers from Xbox One to Xbox 360 for the same reason that bigger worlds being transferred to smaller ones can trigger several game issues. Cross platform play between Xbox 360 and Xbox One is also impossible.