Minecraft's release on Xbox Live Arcade might speed up the patch approval process, in an effort to help it catch up with the PC release. The chief technology officer for 4J Studios, the developer behind the XBLA port, says that it could be the first game on the service to feature constant updates.

"I think we might be the first to do constant updates," 4J's Paddy Burns said.

"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," Burns told Edge. "But they are quite keen to move towards that - they do see it as the future."

He says that the initial release will be based on PC beta 1.6.6, which was released last May. 4J thinks that with frequent updates, it can catch up with the current version of the PC game. He says Microsoft testing will always be a factor, but that the process should be faster. "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."

The speedy testing might not go for all XBLA titles, but it's a step in the right direction at least. Meanwhile, Mojang Specifications is still constantly updating Minecraft for the PC, making 4J's catch-up all the harder. It recently updated to version 1.1, and is working on new features like jungles and creatures.