According to KitGuru.net, Mojang has officially announced Minecraft Blast, a new free-to-play mobile puzzle game developed in collaboration with King, the studio behind Candy Crush Saga. The announcement confirms this is a separate project that won’t interfere with or delay future updates for the core Minecraft game, including the upcoming Mounts of Mayhem update. Minecraft Blast is described as a “modern match puzzle” game where players match blocks by color or type within limited moves to complete level objectives. The game is currently in its “extremely early days” with the first limited playtest rolling out exclusively in Malaysia via the Apple App Store on iOS. Mojang plans to expand testing to other regions and platforms later. Any progress made during this test period will be completely reset and won’t carry over to the final release.
Candy Crush meets Minecraft
So here’s the thing – this collaboration makes perfect sense when you think about it. King basically owns the mobile puzzle genre with Candy Crush, and Mojang has one of the most recognizable gaming IPs on the planet. They’re combining King’s proven match-three mechanics with Minecraft’s signature blocky aesthetic and tools. Early screenshots show boosters themed as pickaxes and shovels, which is a clever way to bridge the two worlds. But the real question is: can they capture Minecraft’s creative spirit in a constrained puzzle format?
Why Malaysia first?
The Malaysia-only soft launch is actually pretty standard for mobile games. Developers often pick smaller, diverse markets to test mechanics and server loads before global rollout. It’s a smart way to gather real player data without the pressure of a worldwide audience. The fact that it’s iOS-only initially isn’t surprising either – Apple’s ecosystem is just easier to manage for early testing. Mojang’s being transparent about the reset too, which is good. Nothing worse than grinding through test levels only to lose everything at launch.
What this means for Minecraft fans
Look, the immediate concern for any fan is whether this distracts from the main game. Mojang’s been clear that it won’t affect core Minecraft development, and honestly, that makes sense. King’s handling the heavy lifting on the puzzle mechanics while Mojang provides the IP and art direction. It’s basically the same model we’ve seen with Minecraft Dungeons and other spinoffs. The bigger question is whether the Minecraft magic translates to a match-three format. Can you really capture that sandbox creativity in a level-based puzzle game? According to early reports, there are building elements beyond the puzzles, which might help bridge that gap.
The mobile gaming play
Microsoft’s been pushing Minecraft into every possible genre lately, and mobile is where the real money is. Free-to-play puzzle games can generate insane revenue through microtransactions and ads. King knows this business inside and out – they’ve been perfecting it for years. This feels like a calculated move to tap into that casual mobile audience that might find survival mode too intimidating. Whether hardcore Minecraft fans will embrace it remains to be seen, but that might not even be the target audience here.
