During a conversation at last month’s Game Developers Conference, Microsoft Game Studios Vice President Phil Spencer recently announced that Minecraft for Xbox One is “really close” to being ready to release.

“I talked to [4J Studios] last night,” Spencer said. “They feel really good about the progress that they’re making. It’s their game, and it’d be Mojang’s game. We graciously host it on our platform.”

“But unlike on 360 where they had never been on console before and the developer relationship, I’ll say, was very tight from the beginning, this is something that’s really in their hands now,” Spencer continued. “They’re a full-fledged developer in every sense. They control the [release] date of that, but I’ll tell people that we’re getting really close. I talked with Notch [Mojang founder Markus Persson] last night, and they’re really excited about the quality.”

The Xbox One version of Minecraft was announced at last year’s E3, and now that Title Update 14 has finally landed on the Xbox 360 and PS3 editions, 4J should be able to focus all their attention on finishing up the 8th generation ports.

[via, IGN]