Minecraft Shifting to Beta With Price Hike

[Tom Goldman]

Minecraft Shifting to Beta With Price Hike

Mojang Specifications is taking Minecraft into its next phase of development on December 20, along with a rise in price.

Believe it or not, while perfectly recreating every Super Mario character in Minecraft [http://www.minecraft.net/] block art you've been playing the game's alpha phase the whole time. Minecraft is one of those rare titles where the developer let players pre-order and start playing while it was still in development. Get ready for a whole new world in the near future because Minecraft creator Marcus Persson has announced that the game is moving into beta on December 20, 2010.

Not too much will change right away, but Persson writes on his blog that the beta phase will have "a larger focus on polish and content." The awesome Minecraft Halloween update [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/104626-Minecrafts-Deadly-New-Ghasts-Will-Burn-You] was just one of potentially many major advancements the game will make before its final version hits the presses.

Persson says that Minecraft's beta will start by adding "proper modding support," and is actually looking for input from the game's modding community. The next step will be to add a "non-intrusive narrative" that will give players a reason to exist in Minecraft, and also give them an endgame goal. There will be more time between upgrades, but they'll be more thoroughly tested.

One of the biggest points to note in this announcement is that Minecraft's sales agreement is changing. While in alpha, Persson promised the game to all players at 50% off and said that every one of Minecraft's future versions would be free to those that got in early. When Minecraft enters its beta phase, the game will rise in price from the current €9.95 to €14.95 (which is still 25% off the final price), and future versions will no longer be guaranteed free.

The changes will only affect people that buy Minecraft after December 20, so if you've been meaning to buy the game, now's the time. These "future versions" will be bigger updates to the game and don't include patches, which will be still be free. Persson also announced that Minecraft gift codes will go live soon, so you can give your friends and family a gift that includes zombie pigs [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/104842-Zombie-Pigs-Trotting-Into-Minecraft]. Is there anything better?

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[the_pleasure_is_mine]

I saw this earlier and decided that I should really get round to buying Minecraft... so I did ;D

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

All right...

I'll buy the darn thing. YOU WIN, INTERNET!

 

[sunami88]

I looked into playing MineCraft once. There were two versions or something, one cost money. And that was kinda it.

I'm interested in trying out the "full version" (whichever that is), but I don't wanna have to throw down any money to do it. I'm just not sure if I'd like it long term or not, if it's for me.

But lotsa people love it, so I'm sure it's doing something right. Congratulations to the creator are due based on that alone.

 

[theriddlen]

15 euro is 60 pln (my country's currency). 60 pln is price of most games released in cheaper editons. 100 pln is the usual price for brand new games.

The price is too high.

 

[theSovietConnection]

Already bought it and glad I did, have put plenty of time in to it. Look forward to the updates yet to come.

 

[Rainforce]

15 euro is 60 pln (my country's currency). 60 pln is price of most games released in cheaper editons. 100 pln is the usual price for brand new games.

The price is too high.

seriously? it's an issue with your currency/local economy then. for most of us, its 50?/$60 for brand new games.
so 15? is pretty good.

 

[blankedboy]

I think it's not going to be worth the money by the time the full release comes out.
20 Euro is alot. :/

 

[Nukeforyou]

I think it's not going to be worth the money by the time the full release comes out.
20 Euro is alot. :/

i think by the time it gets to 20 euro, everyone who would have bought the game will have already purchased it

 

[theriddlen]

15 euro is 60 pln (my country's currency). 60 pln is price of most games released in cheaper editons. 100 pln is the usual price for brand new games.

The price is too high.

seriously? it's an issue with your currency/local economy then. for most of us, its 50?/$60 for brand new games.
so 15? is pretty good.

Yeah, Polish economy is pretty fckd up. We earn similar amounts of currency as regular us citizen, but our currency is worth only 1/3 of a dollar. Our taxes are incredibly high, and almost half of salary is taken away by government before you even get to see it. Most of electronics are more expensive than in us.
Thankfully games are cheaper than in most other countries.

 

[Delusibeta]

Also do note that it's still 10 Euros, and will remain 10 Euros until the 20th. You might want to do that, because (if my interpretation of his statements are correct) if Notch decides to release a paid-for expansion for the game after release, anyone who buys Minecraft before the 20th gets it for free.

 

[SturmDolch]

I'm looking forward to the narrative. It will give me a point to play. I haven't really played Minecraft in months. One-player is mind-numbingly boring, and public multiplayer servers have their established communities.

The game was, however, tons of fun on a private server with my friends.

 

[Captain Pancake]

Glad I bought it a while back then, also should make a nice early christmas present if it comes with any updates then? If not, I'm still looking forward to this free-form narrative. My pitch: humanity started playing around with the Nether, didn't realise what they were messing with, released demons zombies and other such nasties upon the world, killing everybody except you. Your mission: Kill some big bad nasty beastie in the Nether/ close the Nether entirely.

Eh? Eh?

 

[Jumplion]

The changes will only affect people that buy Minecraft after December 20, so if you've been meaning to buy the game, now's the time. These "future versions" will be bigger updates to the game and don't include patches, which will be still be free. Persson also announced that Minecraft gift codes will go live soon, so you can give your friends and family a gift that includes zombie pigs [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/104842-Zombie-Pigs-Trotting-Into-Minecraft]. Is there anything better?

Wait, so does this mean that even if I buy the Beta version of it I'll have to pay extra to get patches? Or does paying for the Beta version allow me to have all future versions for free like the Alpha version?

Either way, I've been meaning to get this game, but I'm reluctant to lose my life over it...

 

[GamingAwesome1]

Good thing I'm receiving it for Christmas then!

 

[liger03]

Meh, I don't find it to be a "price hike" as much as a sale ending.

And from my understanding, the full game is free for alpha players (who mostly were there to help with bugfixes), not for the beta players (that just rate and review the content in general as its added). I'm probably wrong just because i'm a moron like that, but that's what my brain read off the computer screen.

But to be honest, minecraft is AWESOME AS ALL HELL. Instead of implementing no fast travel system and make exploration tedious or employing the lazy button-press fast travel that makes no sense (if I can't click to New York on Christmas, why should he?), they implement something that makes a bit of sense (a "scale universe" in which one step equates roughly to eight in the real world).

Also, creepers. The only monster in a videogame that SHOULD look like a badly-made phallic reptile thingy, but instead terrifies the SHIT out of me. I have found myself actually shrinking back into my chair in the ridiculous hope that that will make me far enough away that it doesn't explode and wreck my shit. That's terror, Doom 3, which is not some big demony thingy that pops out of walls every 10 seconds.

 

[lacktheknack]

15 euro is 60 pln (my country's currency). 60 pln is price of most games released in cheaper editons. 100 pln is the usual price for brand new games.

The price is too high.

THEN BUY IT FOR TEN NOW BEFORE THE PRICE GOES UP!

 

[CrystalShadow]

15 euro is 60 pln (my country's currency). 60 pln is price of most games released in cheaper editons. 100 pln is the usual price for brand new games.

The price is too high.

That's an unfortunate side effect of your economy, which you notice because minecraft is too small to have any local distribution in your country.

For most of us, this game ?15 is between 1/3 and 1/4 of the price of a mainstream title.
Unfortunate, but true.
That makes you unlucky in a situation like this, but fortunate in more usual circumstances. (well, you would be, except that the consequences of the prices being that low suggest your income is likely quite low as well.)

Economics sucks sometimes. >_<

 

[mindlesspuppet]

There are people who still don't own Minecraft?