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Minecraft for Xbox One to launch on Friday

The popular game rolls out to Xbox One users for $19.99 -- or as an upgrade from the Xbox 360 version for $4.99.

Lance Whitney Contributing Writer
Lance Whitney is a freelance technology writer and trainer and a former IT professional. He's written for Time, CNET, PCMag, and several other publications. He's the author of two tech books--one on Windows and another on LinkedIn.
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Lance Whitney

minecraft-xbox-one-edition.jpg
Minecraft is landing on the Xbox One. Microsoft

Xbox One gamers will finally be able to dive into the virtual world of Minecraft, starting Friday.

Minecraft: Xbox One Edition will be available for download in the Xbox Store on September 5,

announced Tuesday. New players will have to shell out $19.99 for the game. Owners of the Xbox 360 edition will pay $4.99 to upgrade. Any content that Xbox One gamers have downloaded for Minecraft will be available on the Xbox One for free.

Created by indie gaming developer Mojang, Minecraft places you in a Lego-like land composed of blocks. As you journey through this blocky sandbox, you create buildings, machines, flora, fauna, and other items to devise your own virtual worlds. Along the way you also have to fend off monsters and other enemies. But Minecraft is also more open-ended than most games, so it's been touted as a learning environment for kids -- and one that can be very addictive.

Minecraft has garnered more than 13 million fans on Xbox Live, according to Microsoft, so there could be a healthy audience of Xbox One users waiting to buy the game. At least, Microsoft is counting on that as a way to help boost game sales.

Minecraft: Xbox One Edition will be available for download from the Xbox Store on Friday via credit card or Xbox gift card. Later this month, select retailers will start selling the digital download code as well as the full packaged game, according to Microsoft.