Markus 'Notch' Persson is reportedly working on a "sandbox space trading sim" that's being described as a title similar to Elite, the open-ended space sim classic from 1984 (thanks Joystiq). There's only one difference, though. Instead of just maneuvering and flying a spaceship across the far regions of the galaxy, players will be given the opportunity to explore various areas of their ship (um, Mass Effect anyone?).

"I want the space game that's more like Firefly," Notch reveals to PCGamer. "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."

Similarly to Minecraft, players will be able to try out the game before its finished.

Now, I honestly don't know what Markus might be up to in this instance, although one thing is for certain: I enjoyed the hell out of Elite back in the old days when I used to play it on my C64. Glorious times... The only game that comes close to that experience is the X series.