Minecraft, the blocky Swedish sandbox hit available on pretty much every platform except those bearing the Nintendo brand, is a title the House of N could certainly use to further the booming sales that followed from the launch of Mario Kart 8. Even its creator, Markus “Notch” Persson, thinks that the Wii U is an ideal platform for the game, tweeting in December that “a Wii U version makes sense.”
When Stephen Totilo caught up with Shigeru Miyamoto and Shinya Takahashi at this year’s E3 Expo, the Kotaku writer wanted to ask them about it. Miyamoto revealed he had not played Minecraft, but was aware of the game and likened it to Nintendo’s newly announced Mario Maker. It was Takahashi, General Manager of Nintendo’s Software Planning & Development department, that offered a more positive quote for those hoping the game may still wind its way onto the Wii U:
We’ve always thought internally that using the GamePad would probably make for a Minecraft that’s very easy to play. And, of course, if we were to do something with Minecraft on the 3DS, similarly we would probably do it where it would be easier to play and could probably reach a lot of kids.
However, grounding expectations, Takahasi said that the game is not as popular in Nintendo’s native Japan as it is in the US or Europe. Yet, when pushed on the subject, it was Miyamoto who had the last word: “Maybe we’re meeting with them! Who knows?”
Was Nintendo’s most famous developer joking, or could Nintendo be meeting with Mojang to help bring their seminal title to Wii U and 3DS? Hopefully we will find out soon.
