If you're unfamiliar with Minecraft, suffice to say that it's one of the most unlikely success stories the world of gaming has seen in the past decade. This extremely low-budget, low-fi open world hit has now racked up more than 1.3 million downloads, and that's before the game has technically even released yet (the game is still in beta.) Today we got the exciting news from Markus Persson, the founder of Minecraft's developer (Mojang) that Minecraft will be releasing on iPhone and iPad "sometime later this year."

Part of the reason for its extreme popularity is that Minecraft simply isn't like other games. First of all, you define your own goals. The game isn't about getting to level 19 so you can fight the fiery demon boss. It's a pixelated open world filled with building materials, things like iron and wood. You can use the materials you extract from around the world to build structures. It may sound a bit silly, but in practice this game has captured gamers' imaginations like few others in history.

Persson said that the iOS version wont be getting all of the same updates that the main version gets. He added only that they will do what makes the most sense for the new platforms.

If you still need convincing of Minecraft's majesty, check out these two videos to see some of the unbelievable constructions that players have been able to make.

This video displays a scale model replica of the Starship Enterprise:

And this equally impressive creation is a massive model of the Earth: