Surprise! You can download Minecraft for New 3DS today

Minecraft on 3DS - today. Who would have thought?

Minecraft was announced for New 3DS during today's Nintendo Direct stream.

This was a pleasant surprise, as nobody is against more Minecraft, but Nintendo really dropped it on us by announcing Minecraft will be available on the 3DS eShop today.

It should be available within about an hour of the end of the presentation, judging by past Nintendo Direct release day bombs.

You might be feeling like you don't need another version of Minecraft, but as Alex pointed out in chat, Minecraft consistently tops charts in Japan, performing even more impressively within that one market than it does on a broader scale. (That explains Dragon Quest Builders, doesn't it?) Moreover, the 3DS is more ubiquitous in Japan, so this is kind of a big deal there - and we all benefit as a result.

Last time we checked in with Minecraft lifetime sales was in February this year, when they were sitting at 121 million across all platforms. It's nice to see Minecraft continues to move to other platforms even though Microsoft owns Mojang these days; we got a bit worried when the Better Together update skipped PlayStation, but Minecraft DLC is coming to PS4 eventually.

There's heaps of other stuff happening in today's Nintendo Direct so keep an eye out as we frantically gather information from two separate regional streams and attempt to digest Nintendo news before we've had time to eat breakfast.