Minecraft is Finally Being Released on Nintendo Wii U [UPDATED]

In a move that seems completely inevitable, Minecraft is coming to the Nintendo Wii U console. The real question: What took so long?

The news will probably be officially announced during the Nintendo Direct today, which starts in about an hour, but Wired broke the news early when they discovered that the game had been posted on the official PEGI website under a Wii U listing. PEGI is the European equivalent of the ESRB. (The game is getting a PEGI 7 rating, by the by, for “realistic looking violence towards fantasy characters.”)

In the PEGI listing, the release date is November 12—that’s today.

Minecraft, which was created by Mojang and is now owned by Microsoft, is enormously popular. In June, it had sold over 70 million copies. Right now you can play it on nearly every console, including smartphones. Minecraft: Story Mode by Telltale Games is already available on Wii U. That game uses extremely different game mechanics, but is set in the same universe.

Stay tuned for our reporting on the Nintendo Direct, which starts at 2 p.m. At that point, we will probably have many more details about how Minecraft’s gameplay will incorporate the Wii U GamePad.

[Update: Minecraft for Wii U was not mentioned at the Nintendo Direct, and the game still hasn’t appeared in the Nintendo eShop. However, that doesn’t mean it isn’t coming very soon. Stay tuned for more news.]