Notch: A Steam Release Would Divide the Minecraft Community

[Kyle 2175]

There'd be little point having it on Steam anyway. The patcher works fine for patching. It's already cheap so sales wouldn't do much. There's no point having Steam Community in-game functionality because it runs in a window and it's easier to just click on your taskbar. It's doing incredibly well for an indie game, so you can't argue that it'd need Steam for people to buy it.

 

[Upbeat Zombie]

I don't see why somebody would wait to get it on steam. You can add non-steam games to steam. So you would pretty much get the same effect as if you bought it on steam. Well besides tf2 hats, and achievements.

 

[Denamic]

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.

Come November, it's officially released, and as such, officially 'finished'.
It'll still be worked on though.

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

He makes some very valid points about it, yeah he would get extra sales from it being on Steam but the game is going just fine on it's own.

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.

Well there's that too. I think he implied it when he said he couldn't talk directly to their users about things in the game, or maybe I'm reading too much into what he's saying. And this is something I can't fault Notch for because this is a huge game and it could go wrong quickly if not taken care of properly.

 

[daydreamerdeluxe]

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.

What, in the two months or so left? It's already functional as a game, the 1.8 update which will be out very soon will add more gameplay elements, it's entirely something that can be counted as a finished game already. Compare it to Terraria, which, upon release, also wasn't finished (they released it a month early due to hype, most of the "updates" since were adding functionality they hadn't got in at the time), and yet was still released through Steam. I'd say this is really a non-issue.


OT: If you're distributing a game which has enough grassroots publicity already and is download-only, you don't need to distribute it via a DD. Simple as Some games would definitely benefit from selling via Steam, but Minecraft evidently wouldn't. This hadn't even crossed my mind before

 

[Baldr]

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

No, it could have been Battle.net, OnLive, Gaikai, GameFly, Games for Windows, Impulse, or Whatever Gamestop is doing.

 

[Covarr]

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.

It has trouble with 64-bit Java, though; it works for about a second, but then it stops registering you as in-game, and the Steam overlay no longer works. 32-bit users don't have this problem, but it's quite annoying for some.

P.S. Thanks

 

[Epona]

LOL

When EA has a problem with the limitations of Steam they are being assholes but when Notch has the same problem, oh..that's completely understandable.

In fact, I just had to buy a gift code via PayPal for my neighbor because it's not exactly easy to buy Minecraft right now. Steam would help alot because quite simply, alot of people can't buy Minecraft because their credit card isn't accepted.

 

[ASnogarD]

I am curious why the news outlets all hang on every tweet or word Markus utters or types.
He made... or to be more accurate still making one game ( and has one beginning development ), he hasnt even finished a game yet.
There are other small developers out there, all of them are hard at work developing new , innovative and curious titles... give them some stage time too.

I have Minecraft and dont begrudge the man his success, but I think this amount of attention is unusual... he hasnt invented the wheel or anything, he has developed most of a game derived from a older prototype.

Its the gamers that actually took the game to where it is in fact, something like if the guy who invented paint, brushes and canvas was given credit for all the famous art work done on that medium and the artists got barely any attention ( even after death ).

 

[Smooth Operator]

When EA has a problem with the limitations of Steam they are being assholes but when Notch has the same problem, oh..that's completely understandable.

EA all of a sudden want's to bend the system they were using for years, and when they can't force someones hand the games get pulled.
And then they make a big public hissy fit how Steam is evil, can't have anything at all to do with them having a competitive service...

Notch isn't going there because the service doesn't fit a content open game such as Minecraft, and what do you know he doesn't feel the unyielding need to piss on other peoples parades.

The devil is in the details.

 

[Epona]

When EA has a problem with the limitations of Steam they are being assholes but when Notch has the same problem, oh..that's completely understandable.

EA all of a sudden want's to bend the system they were using for years, and when they can't force someones hand the games get pulled.
And then they make a big public hissy fit how Steam is evil, can't have anything at all to do with them having a competitive service...

Notch isn't going there because the service doesn't fit a content open game such as Minecraft, and what do you know he doesn't feel the unyielding need to piss on other peoples parades.

The devil is in the details.

That EA has a competing service makes even more sense that they would stop putting up with Steam's limitations. I hate taking this side because I dislike Origins (and EA) and love Steam and Minecraft but I can't ignore the double standards here.

In regards to Minecraft and content open game? You mean because it's unfinished and getting updates? Every game gets updates. Mods maybe? I am confused as to what makes Minecraft any different than say..Oblivion which gets most of it's life from mods.

 

[Aardvark Soup]

While Steam is convenient, I generally don't have no problem buying it from some other place as long as they support PayPal. In fact, buying games from most American sites is usually a lot cheaper because of they charge in dollars while the European Steam usually just transforms the $-sign into a ?.

 

[Merlark]

Translation from Notch: I plan to milk this product for all its worth and I don't want Steam influencing how much I can rob people.

seriously though, Notch is going to rob the minecraft community blind. he's going to charge you for updates, he's going to charge you for items, capes, download packs...if he thinks he can get away with it.

Also he likely enjoys being paid in the higher value euro's then in rapidly deflated american currency.

I love minecraft and I was glad to get into it when I did but for what he is trying to turn the game into, a cash cow...its a little bit shameless to wonder just how deep minecraft will eventually mine into new comers pockets.

 

[AT God]

Minecraft is already disc-less and has a good patch system, I don't see why it would need to link with Steam. I'm sad that steam may be losing developers because of some terms I don't know about but for an indie game like minecraft, allowing steam to get some profit seems like a waste when their system already works.

 

[Amondren]

I love steam don't get me wrong and I agree with notch it could potentially impair what notch wants to do with the game and its doing well enough.

 

[Hungry Donner]

I love them both, but I see no advantage to releasing Minecraft on Steam. Sure if it had been initially released as a Steam exclusive I'm sure it would have worked, but jumping onto Steam at this point doesn't seem advantageous to either side.

I'm a bit surprised Notch even brought it up.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Lets put things bluntly, the inherent incompatibility between steam and minecraft is that minecraft isn't finished.

Precisely what I was going to say. Finish the damn game Notch, before you start treading on Episode 3's toes.

 

[Archemetis]

When I played RIFT on Steam, it would always take me to the RIFT Launcher, where the game would update itself, but never through Steam. So theoretically, you could have a game on Steam, and still have 100% free control over it.

Seems to me like a smart move on his part.

That's all I can say really.

Because more sales is a bad thing.

I never mentioned sales*, which we can agree, Notch is doing fine on.
[sub](*in fact I didn't really mention anything.)[/sub]

What is bad however is segregating his community between those who play now and those who'd play through Steam.

The bottom line is, he's doing fine the way he is, he doesn't really need Steam, his product is already a widely known name on its respective market, his community has already established its own gathering place and lines of communication and it's already quick and easy to install, so he doesn't really need Steam, he appreciates the service they provide but it's not necessary for his product.

That is what I meant by it being a smart move.

 

[aashell13]

I'm really not surprised. What can steam provide to minecraft? it's already digitally distributed, and has a huge fanbase.