There comes a time when when a game ceases to be seen as a fad or cultural phenomenon, and is only referred to as a quality title with a devoted fan base. While PC gamers have long known what features made Minecraft one of the best sandbox titles in recent memory, it looks like Xbox 360 owners have come around as well.

After less than a week on sale, Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition has sold over 1,000,000 copies through XBLA, and isn’t showing signs of slowing down any time soon.

The console version of the cubic title may not be as smooth or refined as the version released for the platform it was designed on - which we noted in our review - but obviously the pros have outweighed the cons for a massive portion of the Xbox Live community. It’s hard to put a price on the ability to build just about anything you can imagine alongside friends via split screen co-op: assuming you own an HDTV.

While it isn’t difficult for a well-crafted game to make a big splash on XBLA these days, it’s more than just sales that show how well Minecraft has done through Xbox Live. The online hours played for the game currently sits at over 5.2 million, with just under half of them credited to multiplayer sessions. Even less than a week after its launch, its safe to assume that Mojang’s fan community just got a whole lot bigger.

Considering the game’s $20 price tag, it’s hard to understate just how colossally successful the transition from PC to Xbox 360 has been. Even if the game was somewhat streamlined or simplified in the process, it’s hard to think that the developers won’t be motivated to start expanding the console version immediately. They’ve got no shortage of Minecraft profits to rely on, and that was before this $20 million weekend.

It wasn’t exactly a surprise to see Minecraft succeed via XBLA - even if the speed is a bit alarming - but obviously a precedent has been set. If a successful PC game can transition so beautifully onto consoles, which developers could see this as a sign that previously PC-focused projects not only could, but should be ported?

Do you think that a majority of the copies sold have gone to Xbox 360 owners who have never played Minecraft on a PC, or is there some overlap at work here?

Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition is available exclusively on the Xbox 360 (via Xbox Live Arcade) for 1600 MS Points.

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