Minecraft: Story Mode release date announced

Minecraft: Story Mode, the upcoming episodic adventure game from The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones developer Telltale Games, will debut on October 13, the studio announced on Wednesday. That's when the game's first episode will be available digitally, while a physical release will follow on October 27.

Story Mode episode one is called "The Order of the Stone." There will be five episodes in all, and they will be available for individual purchase or through a season pass. The retail version, meanwhile, will come with the first episode on a disc, with the other four arriving via download when they become available.

Pricing for individual Story Mode episodes and the season pass was not announced.

Story Mode lets you play as the hero Jesse, who can be either a male or female. Telltale is imagining a grand story of adventure and danger for the game.

"You'll embark on a perilous adventure across the Overworld, through the Nether, to the End, and beyond," the company said in its plot description. "You and your friends revere the legendary Order of the Stone: Warrior, Redstone Engineer, Griefer, and Architect; slayers of the Ender Dragon. While at EnderCon in hopes of meeting Gabriel the Warrior, Jesse's friends discover that something is wrong... something dreadful. Terror is unleashed, and you must set out on a quest to find The Order of the Stone if you are to save your world from oblivion."

Telltale says it's working "closely" with the team at Mojang to make sure that Story Mode "absolutely feels like a part of the world that Minecraft players already know and love."

Story Mode will launch in October for Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, PC, Mac and Wii U. It will mark the first time a Minecraft game has ever been released on a Nintendo platform and the first time the series comes to a new system following Microsoft's acquisition of the series. Story Mode is also coming to PlayStation Vita and mobile platforms, but release dates for those versions were not announced.

In July, Mojang and Telltale Games released the first gameplay trailer and confirmed more details about Story Mode. Among other things, Telltale confirmed some of the game's voice cast, which includes people like Patton Oswalt, Corey Feldman, Billy West and Paul Reubens.

Xbox maker Microsoft acquired Mojang and the Minecraft franchise in September for $2.5 billion. Following the deal, Minecraft creator and Mojang founder Markus "Notch" Persson exited the company. With his newfound uber-wealth, he outbid Jay-Z and Beyonce for a $70 million Beverly Hills mansion.