Minecraft PS3 and Vita Development Ending

Sad news for those of you still hanging on to your PlayStation 3 and Vita. All production is officially ending on the last-gen versions of Minecraft, developer 4J Studios announced on Twitter. That means there will no more updates coming to any of these ports and no future content will be added. Development is also ending for the Xbox 360 and Wii U versions, as well. The final update will be for The Nightmare Before Christmas Mash-up pack.

As we pack up our Xbox 360, PS3, PSVita and WiiU development kits, we’re getting all nostalgic

Please share some of your best memories over the past six and a half years of Minecraft on these consoles! pic.twitter.com/lZhpQUgtLu

— 4J Studios (@4JStudios) December 18, 2018

This news isn’t necessarily surprising, as 4J Studios itself notes it has been working on Minecraft for the past six and half years. With this current generation of consoles winding down and with next-gen beginning to ramp up, this is probably the right time to move on. However, Minecraft on all systems has had a level of post-content support few games get. It’s just a testament to the power of this game and its staying power.

Now, don’t take this as Minecraft going away. It is still available to play on all current-gen systems, including the PlayStation 4. And as one of the biggest games in the world, we’re very likely to see it show up on the next generation of consoles as well. In addition, just because it will won’t be getting any future updates, doesn’t mean Minecraft won’t be playable on these systems. You just won’t be able to keep up with all the future releases, which may or may not be a deal-breaker.

While Minecraft keeps chipping away on the PS4, the question of cross-play remains a hot topic. While there’s been no news on that front, Minecraft owner Microsoft is fully on-board with the idea.