Notch: A Steam Release Would Divide the Minecraft Community

[Brian Albert]

Notch: A Steam Release Would Divide the Minecraft Community

Citing limitations with Steam, Notch says a Minecraft release on Valve's digital distribution platform won't happen.

Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson discussed on his blog an "inherent incompatibility" between Valve's delivery service and Mojang's goals for its popular indie block builder.

Paired with EA's recent decision to <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/112129-EA-Confirms-No-Battlefield-3-on-Steam>not release Battlefield 3 on Steam, it seems the platform's supposedly restrictive terms will cost the service a few highly-anticipated titles.

"Steam is the best digital distribution platform I've ever seen ... but being on Steam limits a lot of what we're allowed to do with the game, and how we're allowed to talk to our users," Notch said via his blog. "We (probably?) wouldn't be able to, say, sell capes or have a map market place on minecraft.net that works with Steam customers in a way that keeps Valve happy."

The decision seems to come free of any animosity, with Notch praising Steam's "shift+tab" functionality, stability, and payment options.

"So there's no big argument, we just don't want to limit what we can do with Minecraft," Notch continued. "Also, Steam is awesome. Much more awesome than certain other digital distribution platforms that we would NOT want to release Minecraft on."

While having Minecraft on Steam certainly wouldn't hurt sales, the game seems to be doing well on its own. Earlier this month, Mojang announced its game had surpassed the <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/112260-Buy-Minecraft-Get-More-Minecraft>three million units sold mark.

Have you been holding off in hopes of a Steam release?

Source: <a href=http://notch.tumblr.com/post/9550850116/why-no-steam-notch>The Word of Notch

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[Waaghpowa]

What would be the point? He already sells enough copies of his game, and they do just fine patching and updating it. He doesn't need steam to get his game exposure, because he already has plenty on his own.

 

[Archemetis]

Seems to me like a smart move on his part.

That's all I can say really.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Was that an unsubtle stab at Origin Notch? Well played.

 

[SinisterGehe]

Where would they need steam? Minecraft functions really well as it is now and if Notch would want to add something to it he would. He did the launcher so doing a community system shouldn't be too far away.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

What would be the point of putting it on Steam it isn't like you can't use Steam and Minecratf together quite easily. Anyway it may help a future game release but certainly not Minecraft.

 

[Scizophrenic Llama]

Putting it on Steam would be rather counter-productive to the nature of Minecraft.

It's downloaded as a .exe and then you can play. Anybody can do that. The less computer literate people who have bought Minecraft for their kids or something along that line don't need to download a program to play a program.

 

[Prince Regent]

I like that Notch is so open about Mojang and it's buiness decisions. And as far as I can see this is one decision that makes sense.

 

[Mouse_Crouse]

Putting it on Steam would be rather counter-productive to the nature of Minecraft.

I have a feeling this has a lot to do with it. With all of the mods, texture packs, resolution changes, etc. I have a feeling that steam would be too restrictive with that kind of stuff.

 

[Worr Monger]

Nothing wrong with selling your game without using Steam.... as long as you aren't creating your own Digital Distribution system and making your games exclusive to it in order to spite the competition....

... I don't play Minecraft... but if I was able to play without being locked into yet another online distribution program... I'd be perfectly fine with that.

 

[ShindoL Shill]

fair point...
map marketplace he says... i think that may be connected to the 1.8 updates. hmm. but still Steam wouldnt be good with that sort of thing. i like Minecraft as a separate program, and Steam would really just limit it.

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

Good for him, steam is great but it doesn't need to be the only player in town.

And I like the idea of just buying and installing a product and using it without making an account on a "community" or running an overlay or marketing/drm engine in the background.

 

[Irridium]

Meh. If someone really wanted to use it with Steam they could just use Steams "add non-Steam game" functionality.

 

[Albino Boo]

Lets put things bluntly, the inherent incompatibility between steam and minecraft is that minecraft isn't finished. If things go badly and it never gets finished and Notch can declare bankruptcy and walk away. Then Valve has to refund all the money taken. So in commercial terms, too much risk sits in valves shoulders and most of the reward sits in Notch's pocket.

 

[theriddlen]

I used to wait for Steam release, but people on Minecraft forums convinced me that it won't happen. So I bought it.

 

[raankh]

Meh. If someone really wanted to use it with Steam they could just use Steams "add non-Steam game" functionality.

QFT

It's a tiny (by modern standards) java executable, and works just fine with the above method. Steamworks would just bloat the code and be a general hassle, even without all the business-talk, I think.

 

[SomebodyNowhere]

When I've played Minecraft, I've always done it in browser and that works fine for me.

 

[BoredDragon]

His reasoning makes sense, but I don't actually know if Minecraft's absence from steam actually hurts its sales. I think Minecraft has gotten big enough that going on steam would not increase its name recognition by any significant amount. Plus it is easier to run since it doesn't require anything like steam or origin to play.


edit:
I just realized that if someone can get praise like this by simply saying that they're not doing something in a civilized manner, it kind of shows you the state in which a lot of major companies are viewed as in the video game industry. It makes me sad and wish that we, as part of that industry, could do some refining of these companies and make them what we want them to be like

 

[TheRealCJ]

Have you been holding off in hopes of a Steam release?

No, I've been holding off in a desperate attempt to retain the last vestiges of both my natural melanin supply, AND personal hygiene standards.