Indie smash hit Minecraft will be landing on Android and iOS later in the year, and will be getting an unveiling at the E3 games conference.

At first, it’ll be exclusive to Sony Ericsson’s Android-powered Xperia Play handset, but over time it’ll be released for the wider Android ecosystem and iOS, too. It’ll come with customized controls for the Xperia Play, suited to the device’s slide-out joypad. Subsequent versions will be tweaked so that they can be played using just a touchscreen.

It’s not being developed by Minecraft creator Notch himself, but instead by his colleagues Aron Neiminen and Jens Bergensten.

Gamasutra quotes an unnamed Mojang employee as saying: “When playing on smartphones you will have a different screen size compared to PC, different hardware, different attention spans, and thus the game needs to be customized to fit the mobile specifications.”

It’s not clear when the port will be released, or how much it’s going to cost, but more information is expected at the E3 conference next month in Los Angeles, following a Minecraft-themed invitation sent out by Sony Ericsson for June 7.