Those of us worried about how Microsoft will handle Minecraft now that the bigger company has acquired the indie studio might be able to breathe a little easier when they hear this news. At the very least, Microsoft are not considering making a ‘Minecraft 2′ to attempt to milk the game’s popularity to death. They also are interested in consulting the community for what we want to see.

On an IGN podcast, Microsoft Studios’ Phil Spencer said “I don’t know if Minecraft 2, if that’s the thing that makes the most sense… We need to meet the needs and the desires of the community before we get permission to go off and do something else.”

He has also said that the direction the game will take will be in part dictated by the game’s strong community, but warns that it won’t mean everything they do will meet with a 100% approval rating from the community “because I don’t know if there is any topic where 100% of people agree”. But he assures us that their first job will always be to go out and meet the needs of the community first and think of ways to grow the game that will sit favorably with the players.

Microsoft bought Mojang for around $2.5 billion, and this meant that Notch and other founders were to leave the small company behind. In Notch’s case it was to keep his sanity as he had found himself becoming a symbol of something and had never intended to be that at all.