Microsoft to speed up XBLA Patching Process for Minecraft

When Minecraft hits the 360 this year, it will be a little behind its PC counterpart. The port is based upon the 1.6.6 beta, released last May. That means that the developers, Dundee-based 4J Studios, will be playing a little bit of catching up to reach the big 1.0 update that rocked the world late last year.

The way Microsoft usually handle game patches however, could make that a little bit difficult. Thankfully, they seem to realize that a game like Minecraft needs fairly rapid updates, especially when the PC version is treated so well by Mojang. Paddy Burns, chief technology officer at 4J Studios, thinks that their game might be getting some special treatment.

"Microsoft knows that to do a similar thing that's on PC where they constantly update it, that's a very difficult thing to do on Xbox because you have to go through the full tests," he said while speaking with EDGE. "But they are quite keen to move towards that – they do see it as the future, so I think we might be the first to do constant updates."

He was quick to qualify that though, when asked whether they'll ever be able to match the PC version's release schedule and skip the external testing that is part of the certification process entirely: "I don't think it'll ever come to that. But the whole turnaround of that testing they're hoping to speed up, so we can maybe roll out every two months. We'll have to see how that goes … I'm really looking forward to it being updated with patches and new features after it's released."

It'll certainly be interesting to see how a game as open as Minecraft copes on a system as closed as the one used by Microsoft.