Notch says that Minecraft for 360 is likely to get “a beta version first or something like that” so that Mojang can “find out what parts are actually fun to do” when the indie smash is ported from PC to console.

Xbox 360 owners looking forward to the arrival of the cult hit Minecraft to Microsoft‘s platform may be able to get their hands on a beta before launch, if comments Notch AKA Marcus Persson let slip in a recent interview are anything to go by.

“I’m not sure if I’m allowed to say these things… apparently nowadays we have marketing and stuff that I am supposed to adhere to. It’s kind of frustrating but I do understand it, it’s a completely different market,” Persson said, before promptly spilling the beans.

“The way we’re going to do it is similar to how we did Minecraft on the PC,” he divulged. “So we’ll do a beta version first or something like that and then try to get feedback – find out which parts are actually fun to do, what do you like doing when playing on the console as opposed to the PC. I think there will be a big overlap in terms of both console and PC players, and they can help us figure it out.”

There are still big hurdles ahead for the game as Mojang attempt to get the console controls right: “The things we are starting with right now is just trying to make the game playable on 360… the biggest challenge at the moment is figuring out the crafting, because just porting it straight out the box turns what is really fun on PC into boring data entry on a 360 pad,” Persson told Develop. “That’s the thing we are working on right now. The Kinect features are going to be one of the more interesting aspects, too.”

Minecraft for Xbox 360 was one of the big surprise announcements of Microsoft’s presser at E3 – not least because MS accidentally leaked all the others on their own website – and it’ll be fascinating to see if the game can carry over the critical and (bonkers) commercial success it’s experienced on PC to the console world.

Source: Notch: Minecraft Xbox 360 beta likely « BeefJack - The Gamer's Sauce

I personally cannot see the attraction of the game. I've tried to get into it many times and I just find it mind-numbingly boring.