Since we're not writing about Minecraft three or four times a day like we used to, we'd kind of assumed the love affair between Mojang's world builder and the internet was waning. But judging by the fact that the game just broke four million sold, it may not be time to call in Dr. Phil just yet.

In fact, the game got from three to four million in three months, which is a full month faster than it got from two to three million. Well-respected researchers (who actually exist) say that if growth continues at this rate, 2012 doomsday prophecies will be fulfilled as every human in existence is buried underneath a digital copy of Minecraft. It will be a grim, blocky landscape and Kristen Schaal will be its sole lord and conqueror. All hail Schall.

While we have no confirmation on just how fly Minecraft creator Notch feels after renting a private jet to fly to a indie game summit, I'd expect he's approaching the G6 territory.

Dutch game mag Control posted the pic of a smiling Markus "Notch" Persson sitting in one of the jet's seats with his laptop open. True to his nature, Persson opened up the rented private jet to a couple of local indie devs as well, flying them with him on his trip to the Netherlands to attend an indie meetup in Utrecht last week.

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Markus "Notch" Persson has tweeted that Minecraft has finally gone gold, which is a few days after his release date target of the 11th November. Persson left a Tweet pic of a dozen or so memory sticks accompanying his announcement, as seen below.

Let us know if you've been enjoying his open world building block MMO.

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Although Minecraft has officially launched, creator Markus "Notch" Persson isn't done with making revisions for the game. Though its impending updates aren't set in stone, he implied that the previously promised villager AI is one of the features being tooled for the popular sandbox game.

"We haven't really thought about which features we're going to add after this because it's so focused doing this 'full' or 'final' or, the game release, kind of," Persson told IGN. "One thing we've been talking about is the villagers because we hired a guy who's really good at AI programming. I know Jacob wants him for Scrolls but we also want him for Minecraft."

It's far from a promise, but it seems like smarter villagers are high on the priority list. Mojang's Jens Bergensten tweeted a few weeks ago that the villagers will hopefully become "sentient by next year."

Persson also offered some words of wisdom to aspiring developers. "If you are going to listen to advice, then making sure you actually do something is good advice," he said. "If you just sit around planning something and not doing it, you're not actually going to get anywhere."

You know Notch. He's the behatted Swedish developer that eats, breathes, and sleeps Minecraft, right? Well ... he was. Now Mr. Markus "Notch" Persson is relinquishing lead development duties on the massively successful indie game so he can invest his time as head honcho at his growing development house Mojang.

So who's going to take over that high-profile (don't mess up!) spot while Notch starts "work on some new project"? Meet cat-lover Jens Bergensten (pictured), who's no stranger to Minecraft. "We've been working together on Minecraft for a year now, and I'm amazed at how much in synch we two are when it comes to how to design the game," Notch wrote on his Tumblr. "And when we don't agree, we discuss it and something much better comes out at a result. He's truly a great person to work with, and I feel very confident handing over the leadership of Minecraft to him."

In fact, Notch is so confident he's going to take a break for "rest." With the first MineCon convention over, a 1.0 version of Minecraft released, and some four million plus paying users (!) we think he's earned it. But not you, Bergensten. Back to work!

Mojang has officially begun courting a relationship with LEGO, with the ultimate goal of creating an official Minecraft set of the popular building blocks. The company announced the initiative on Cuusoo, a site devoted to helping amateur (plastic) bricklayers make a connection with the LEGO company.

The concept is simple, builders propose an idea for a LEGO set and, should said idea gain 10,000 supporters, it will be reviewed officially by LEGO. If LEGO decides to produce the set, the project's creator will receive a royalty. Should the Minecraft set reach production, Mojang has promised to donate its royalty to charity. The project is well on its way to an official review, with nearly 1,000 supporters, though Mojang's Daniel Kaplan tweeted that the company is also "working directly with LEGO" to make the project a reality.

Far be it from us to point out the obvious, but wouldn't Minecraft LEGOs just be ... LEGOs?

Mojang seems to know that, like sharks, developers must continue to move forward at all times, lest they succumb to an early grave. The company's cuboid-smashing smash-hit Minecraft might be enough to allow Notch and crew a break, but rather than rest on their laurels the team at Mojang continues to plow ahead by working concurrently on three unannounced titles.

One title is, of course, being spearheaded by Notch himself. As Minecraft's shimmering golden crown has been passed to Jens Bergensten, Notch is now free to focus on his new project that, according to Mojang CEO Carl Manneh, is still a complete mystery: "What it is today, I don't think he knows himself," Manneh told Edge. "We certainly don't. It's probably going to be a lot of testing and playing around to see what works."

As for the developer's two other projects, Manneh says that Mojang is currently under non-disclosure agreements with other companies that prevent the developer from being as transparent as it would normally prefer. However, both games will be announced (and potentially even released) during the first half of 2012. Our gut instincts tell us that at least one of these new titles will be a Kinect-enabled rhythm/shmup thrift-store clerk simulator.

The latest update for Minecraft adds ocelots, a dwarf breed of leopard found in Central America and Mexico. The ocelots come in three varieties, as well as kitten versions who can be charmed with a little fish.

Even more importantly, the new update improves the AI for skeletons, who will act with more self-preservation. They're avoid fatal sunlight by trying to get into water or hide in the shade, instead of burning to death.

Check out some of the improvements in the update in the video below.