Minecraft's creator, Notch, has announced plans for a new science fiction game that will require a monthly subscription. The game is tentatively titled 0x10c and is coming from the same studio as Notch's previous game, Minecraft. Minecraft has sold near 5.5 million copies despite it not being backed by a major game publisher or marketer.

The game is set 281 billion years in the future where a group of humans have awoken from a deep hibernation. They enter a dystopian world that is on the brink of destruction. There will be space battles, looting, trading and planet mining. Users will also have to programme their own 16-bit CPUs to power their spaceships, which is an interesting approach and shows that the creators of Minecraft are still thinking outside the box.

Persson said that the game will follow hard science-fiction rules. This means that it will be based in theoretically possible or plausible ideas. He has even encouraged scientific experts to correct any mistakes that he makes. I imagine this will be a smash hit just like Minecraft was. More as it comes.