Notch considering Elite-like space trading game

Elite creator David Braben has for years been planning to get back to the space trading genre he pioneered, but it looks like Minecraft maestro Markus "Notch" Persson may beat him to it.

Speaking with PC Gamer, Persson said he'd like to start work this summer on an Elite-like sandbox space trading game. But where Braben's original computer game had players in control of a simple 3D ship, Persson wants to give the genre a more personal touch.

"I want the space game that's more like Firefly," Persson told PC Gamer. "I want to run around on my ship and have to put out a fire. Like, oh crap, the cooling system failed, I have to put out the fire here."

Much as he did with Minecraft, Persson said he'd likely start on the project himself and start charging people for it while it's still in beta. PC Gamer quoted the developer as saying it would be like Elite, "except done right." However, Persson took to Twitter today to clarify that comment, saying, "Please note that I did not wish to imply Elite wasn't done right. I wanted to imply it hasn't been done right since."

For a closer look at the original Elite and the full story behind its development, check out GameSpot's coverage of Braben's 2011 Game Developers Conference postmortem of the space trading sim.