The newest free playable character for Minecraft is a female character named Alex. The Simpsons are also set to make an entry into the game in the Playstation version as well.
Alex is not a new character, however. Alex, along with other female skins, has been around for a year as paid skin packs or free mods. Now, she's an alternative default character randomly assigned to PC players at the start of the game, making her free.
For the console version of Minecraft, she is available as a free downloadable skin.
"Now, everyone loves Steve -- he's probably the most famous minecrafter in the world, and has excellent stubble. But jolly old Steve doesn't really represent the diversity of our playerbase. For that reason, we're giving all players opportunity to play with an Alex skin instead," Mojang's Owen Hill wrote in a blog post.
Alex is a ponytailed, red-haired character with a thinner frame making her easily distinguishable as female. She is downloadable and available starting Wednesday.
The original default character, Steve, was never really confirmed to be a male character especially since he originally came out as a featureless blockhead. However, fans started calling him Steve, signifying that a majority of the gamers and fans view the character as male which Mojang just played along with.
Mojang was recently bought out by Microsoft, and the latter now develops and handles Minecraft.
For other skins, The Simpsons is going to be available as a paid skin pack for Playstation users. Pricing information about it is not yet available at this time though. For the Xbox line (Xbox 360 and Xbox One), it has been available since February for S1.99 as a downloadable pack.
"The Simpsons, and a bunch of their closest friends, enemies, and acquaintances are on the way," Hill said. Characters like Principal Skinner, Groundskeeper Willie, and even Dewey Largo are some of the characters coming in.
Also, 30 new character achievements were made available recently, he added.
"Hunt them down but don't let them rule your playtime... and don't forget to eat or go to the toilet" Hill said.
Alex, The Simpsons, and the new achievements just added variety to the ever-changing sandbox game Minecraft's diverse world.
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