Notch, you tease.

So, I'm sure it's a secret to nobody that the way I look at Minecraft is the way hungry people look at banquets; not only with a look of hunger, but a look of pure, unadulterated desire that overloads rational thought and drives me into a single-minded focus.  It gets to the point that I don't even know what I would do in Minecraft if I got it, but by God, do I want in.  Of course it's not exactly a lack of fundage that keeps me outside of this wonderful sandbox world, but rather the limitations of the world in which I would put it.  As I've lamented before oftentimes, this computer is bunk but it's all I've got.  That's going to change in the future at some point, obviously, but that point isn't defined in even the most general ways; a gesture to a calendar with the whole year on it is too much, even.

Upon hearing that Minecraft would be on iDevices, my interest in such a device skyrocketed before plunging right back down to the Earth when I came to my senses and remembered that they are Apple devices and thus fueled by hatred and tears.  (In a bad way.)  ((I'm kidding.  But seriously, I hate iTunes and I'm so frustrated with my iPod since I have to get the damn battery replaced and it has to be a big thing instead of Removing a battery and then inserting a new one.))  Still, that Minecraft is branching out to non-computer platforms was promising; my secret hope for a console version or, what I would almost prefer, a version for these fancy new portables (NGP, 3DS) was closer to being realized.

So when I read the headline Notch suggests Minecraft achievements, console ports in future I was nearly beside myself with joy.  Of course, I did sort of skim over the "Achievements" bit, as Achievements seems to be the blanket term everyone's sided with for all of those accomplishments that add points or bits of fake metal to your E-Peen card, and as such, suggested nothing specific.  But reading the article led me to feel something rather disappointing; "Achievements" might actually just mean Achievements.  As in, what the 360 and PC games tend to share, through their own infrastructures.  Specifically:

Also, while he does agree that Minecraft could be ported to other platforms at some point and "become a franchise," he warns that, "if we make an Xbox version there should be a point to it being on Xbox."

Now, I'm not going to suggest that Notch is one of these non-interested people who pick whatever console they want to to refer to all gaming things in general (Referring to GameCubes and PS2s as Playstations, saying XBox when you're talking about any of the current things, Saying "The Nintendo thing" in the same situation, etc.) because I would be rather willing to bet that he's not.  Which means I'm jumping to conclusions or there's really only the (admittedly easier) port in mind for now, something that would likely be -the- final straw that broke the camel's back, driving me to get my hands on a 360.

Still, obviously a bit early for speculation, especially to a single sentence in a rather short interview, but damned if it's not a blow to my hopes.  My fragile, fragile hopes.  Of course, Minecraft is already 'kind of' coming to XBox Live already...