Microsoft has revealed that the Xbox Live version of Minecraft will boast a four-player splitscreen mode, allowing groups of avid crafters to work together. There will also be an eight-player online multiplayer mode – and this can be combined with splitscreen, allowing roomfuls of four people to work co-operatively.

The multiplayer component will be based around the PC game's Survival mode, requiring groups to work together to create inhabitable structures before nightfall.

Interestingly, both the online and splitscreen options confine group play to Friends Lists – you will not be able to craft a world with a group of strangers. "This is to keep it all friendly and non-destructive," says lead producer, Roger Carpenter. "That was a request from Mojang - to make it that kind of experience."

Apparently, one player takes overall command of each map, and can make it available to select groups of friends, who'll be able to access the map whenever it's online. "It works really well," says Carpenter. "Whoever hosts the map is the map owner. Everyone else joins and the game stores all their data so they can easily return."

Elsewhere, the crafting and inventory interfaces have been completely re-designed and updated. Players can select objects to craft using a handy compartmentalised menu, which tells them what every item in the game does and how they need to be constructed.

According to Carpenter, the XBLA version of Minecraft will have full support for Achievements and may also come with Avatar customisation options.

There's still no firm release date for the conversion, which is being handled by Dundee developer, 4J Studios. 'Spring 2012' is all Microsoft will say.