The seemingly-unstoppable video game force known as Minecraft met an immovable object when the PlayStation 4 port of the game failed to pass Sony's product testing.
Originally set to release for $19.99 on the console this month, it looks like that will no longer be the case.
Port developer 4JStudios announced it had completed the PS4 version of Minecraft and were awaiting final word from Sony testing in order to release the game.
Today, 4JStudios said Minecraft failed to live up to Sony test standards.
This was tweeted out by the studio earlier today:
Sony found some issues we have to fix in their final test of #MinecraftPS4 :( We're fixing, but we need to go through the process again.
— 4J Studios (@4JStudios) August 20, 2014
The PlayStation Vita and Xbox One versions of Minecraft are also scheduled to release before the end of Aug., but it seems those versions too are suffering from issues.
We're still bug fixing #MinecraftXbox1 and #MinecraftPSVita. We'll give you news when we have it. — 4J Studios (@4JStudios) August 12, 2014
Previous ports of Minecraft by 4JStudios on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 proved to be huge success for both consoles and original Minecraft developer Mojang. The Xbox 360 version of the game became profitable in the first 24 hours after release in May 2012, with more than 400,000 players buying the game. Within a week the game sold more than a million copies, and by April 2014 had sold more than 12 million on Xbox 360. The game then came to PS4, where it sold another million in the first five weeks of its release. As of June 2014 across all platforms, more than 54 million copies of Minecraft have been sold.
With those kind of numbers, being sure to secure the sandbox building game on next-gen hardware is a top priority for Microsoft and Sony. Microsoft devoted a significant portion of its Xbox One unveiling E3 2013 press conference to the Minecraft: Xbox One Edition, showing off a trailer and promising improvements to the Xbox 360 version of the game, thanks to the Xbox One's more powerful hardware.
At the time it was announced that Minecraft on Xbox One would be released during the console's "launch window," which referred to games released in the first six months of the consoles life. Those six months have come and gone, as the Xbox One launched in Nov. of last year and the game still is not available. Sony said much the same, stating that Minecraft would be a PlayStation 4 launch title before being released on PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 3. The PS3 version released in Dec. of 2013.
