Minecraft available on Wii U this month with free DLC

Nintendo confirms the game will support off-TV play, so you can keep playing on the Wii U GamePad if someone else needs to use the big screen.

After years of speculation and thousands (millions?) of fans asking for it, Mojang has finally announced that Minecraft: Wii U Edition is coming. Free updates will also be released further down the road.

Nintendo has also said it’s partnered up with Minecraft’s publishers at Mojang to create exclusive new content, which we can expect to be hearing about soon.

However, until now Nintendo fans were missing out as there was no word regarding the game’s arrival on Wii U or 3DS.

“Minecraft is launching on Nintendo’s Wii U console on December 17th”.

In addition to the content that comes with the game, players will also be able to expand their experience with 16 additional add-on packs available for purchase within the Nintendo eShop at launch. This marks the first new console port of the open sandbox game since Microsoft purchased Minecraft developer Mojang.

That $30 gets you the game plus the six most popular add-on packs (Battle & Beasts 1 & 2 Skin Packs, Natural Texture Pack, City Texture Pack, Fantasy Texture Pack and Festive Mash-up Pack).

Nintendo stated that more add-on packs will also be available for the game in the future.

WIRED contacted Nintendo UK to see if the game would be getting a physical release alongside the eShop version, and was told “This announcement is in relation to eShop specifically”.