‘Minecraft’ Comes to iOS Nov. 17

It's been a very Minecraft week. Minecon, the fan convention, kicks off Nov. 18 marking, the release of the final version coming out. Now, in a surprise move, developer Mojang will release the iOS version of the game Nov. 17.

Minecraft: Pocket Edition is a lighter version of the game than its PC counterpart. Both allow players to harvest blocks and rearrange them to construct anything they want in blocky glory. Check out our full break down of the PC version here.

The Pocket Edition came out on Sony Ericcson's Xperia Play in August and was released to all Android devices in October. The release of the game to the iPhone, iPad and iPod has been a long time coming. The pocket version lets gamers play by themselves or with friends. However, they will need to be on the same local network to build together, unlike the server-based PC version of multiplayer. Android and iPhone owners can play together on the Pocket Edition too, if they can stop arguing about who has the better phone long enough to build something together.

This marks the start of Minecraft's cross-platform spree. The game was due to release on the PC at the start of MineCon, but lead designer Notch happily released the final code, breaking his own digital street date. The game has been in development for a few years, but Mojang allowed gamers to download and play it since the alpha. Mincraft will also be released through the Xbox Live Arcade. The game is expected hit XBLA sometime in spring of 2012, but that may change since the company will let MineCon attendees play the game. So we may learn when we are able to start staking blocks on consoles soon.

Check out the Apple app store to get your hands on Minecraft: Pocket Edition. It will run about $10 on iOS devices. And if you can't wait that long, you can always download Junk Jack.