4J Studios and Mojang have announced an August release date for "Minecraft" Xbox One Edition, as well as PS4 and an update to its Pocket Edition. 

"We can see the light at the end of the tunnel! #MinecraftXbox1 #MinecraftPS4 #MinecraftPSVita," 4J Studios tweeted recently.

Microsoft's Roger Carpenter spilled some details about the multiplayer support for Minecraft Xbox One version."#minecraftxbox1 will be 8 player at release but we will continue working to allow more players in a future update!"

Carpenter went on to assure everyone that this is not going to be the case forever.

@PopsRamjet tweeted "#minecraftxbox1 will be 8 player at release but we will continue working to allow more players in a future update!" Meaning there will be an eight player limit at first, but they will expand this in future updates.

According to the developers, worlds will be around 36 times larger in the next-gen versions. According to the official announcement posted in Xbox website, Minecraft: Xbox One Edition will allow players to import their saved Minecraft worlds onto Xbox One.

"That's right: You don't have to start from scratch. You can just keep going, right where you left off! That goes for most (but not all) of your downloadable skins and texture packs, though not all of them will make the jump."

However, Xbox One saves cannot be transferred to Xbox 360, because it is impossible to fit a larger world into a smaller one.

The price tag for Minecraft Xbox One, PS3 + Vita, PS4 will be respectively $19.99. Those who have bought Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition from Xbox Live Marketplace, or have played online with the disc version, will be able to upgrade to Xbox One Edition for $4.99. Likewise, those who have bought PS3 Edition from the Playstation Network will be able to upgrade to PS4 version for $4.99.

For the portable version, the Minecraft Pocket Edition 9.0 Update brought the PE version a lot closer to the full-scale Minecraft by allowing infinite worlds, eight new biomes, villages among others.
"For MC:PE, 0.9.x (how many that may be needed) will be followed by a 0.10.0, not a 1.0.0. We'll try to do more frequent updates," programmer Jens Bergensten tweeted on Monday to clarify that 0.9.x will not be followed by a 1.0.
The first update to the 0.9 version, 0.9.2 (a bug fix release), will be submitted for release this week, Bergensten and his fellow PE programmer said.

Origonally launched in 2010, Mojang's masterpiece continues to charm and is a consistent topseller.

Gamespot recently reported that the four-year old Minecraft has now sold over 16 million copies on PC and Mac. Combining mobile, PC and console sales, there are now a total of 54 million Minecraft units sold. Minecraft enthusiasts are 12 million strong on Xbox.