On Monday Minecreft developer Mojang released a video showing how the popular building-block game performs on the Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY using touchscreen controls rather than the slide-out gamepad. But underneath the video the team stated that the Pocket Edition (Android Market) will come out of exclusivity and become available to the general Android audience on Thursday, September 29.

The iOS version will arrive “eventually,” the studio said.

As the video below demonstrates, Minecraft – Pocket Edition will sport a virtual D-Pad on the left for moving and jumping — swiping the screen with the right thumb emulates the typical mouselook function. Four buttons aligned along the bottom of the screen offer different types of building material which can be used in block form by tapping on the screen. Blocks will disappear by pressing on the object for a brief moment.

According to the Android Market listing, Minecraft – Pocket Edition features randomized worlds, thirty-six different kinds of blocks, multi-player support via a local wireless network, and the ability to save multi-player maps locally on an Android device.

But so far the game’s listing reads that it requires Android 2.3 and greater, and currently there’s no indication that support for v2.2 “Froyo” will be supported on Thursday or in the future. Yet the Market listing also reads that it’s Xperia PLAY optimized and is dated for August 16, so this listing may not portray the current system requirements.

Minecraft – Pocket Edition currently lists for $6.55 USD on the Android Market. A demo version can be downloaded by heading here.