How ironic it is that Notch is thriving like a king in XBLA and he still doesn't want to release his game in Steam, while certain other indie developers still complain about how shitty Microsoft treats them.
Notch in No Hurry to Bring Minecraft to Steam
- Thread starter Andy Chalk
- Start date
Those (like me) who want to play Minecraft on the PC but cant because their credit card wont work on the Minecraft site (still cant figure out why.)DVS BSTrD said:
As much as I enjoy Minecraft on the 360, it is a neutered game in comparison to the PC version. Plus, I doubt Tekkit will be arriving on the 360 anytime soon. So I would love to play Minecraft on PC. But as I said, My only barrior is some kind of malfunction with buying the game through the MC site. And as there is no other (legitimate) way to get it, Im stuck. Unless someone wishes to either gift me a code or something...
Steam is hardly a monopoly. Hell, steam is the UNDERDOG because it completes with retail. Saying they're the champion in digital distribution is meaningless because people can get the same game physically, and the advantage of a physical disc, if anything, neccesitates even more innovation then if they competed with another DD platform. Not only that, they are on the smallest platform competing with consoles, competing with social games AND the android/IOS market. Besides that, Valve has a very sustainabl, consumer friendly buisness model. I think Notch's fears are reasonable but misplaced.
...that being said, as awesome as MC on Steam would be, not porting it makes buisness sense. They are big enough to have a distribution model and all the visibility they could ever need, and the game is small enough that having it on Steam isn't a huge boon. They are better off not on steam because they are in an unprecedented situation. I cant name another game that would benifit financially from avoiding Steam. But in this case they are doing the smart thing. Maybe in a few years when sales drop, they can do a Steam edition.
...that being said, as awesome as MC on Steam would be, not porting it makes buisness sense. They are big enough to have a distribution model and all the visibility they could ever need, and the game is small enough that having it on Steam isn't a huge boon. They are better off not on steam because they are in an unprecedented situation. I cant name another game that would benifit financially from avoiding Steam. But in this case they are doing the smart thing. Maybe in a few years when sales drop, they can do a Steam edition.
Why should he share profit with steam he doesn't need it and he has been successful without it.Carnagath said:
Bullshit. I can't think of anything else to say. I mean, Notch put MC on XBLA but he won't touch Steam? I just think he's trying to maintain some kind of edge over Valve but even that doesn't make much sense.
In short, Notch is a fucking liar and a bad one at that. Maybe we don't know his angle yet but I bet it'll be shitty as hell. You know what would be awful though? Notch went exclusive with EA's shit-fest Ori-motherfucking-gin. That would just about end any faith I had in the man.
In short, Notch is a fucking liar and a bad one at that. Maybe we don't know his angle yet but I bet it'll be shitty as hell. You know what would be awful though? Notch went exclusive with EA's shit-fest Ori-motherfucking-gin. That would just about end any faith I had in the man.
To me it is not biased at all. EA pulled there games form a competing digital distribution service to create their own competing service to increase profits. The reason they were badmouthed was for how they went about creating there service, and how they forced users to use there service. If they just left existing games on Steam, provided a better service, and were upfront with why they were creating Origin, I think people would have been less irritated. I understand that they aren't trying to be the "nice guys" but if they could have probably wooed many people over without all of the lies and drama that they created.Zefar said:
Notch is just distributing his game as he always did.
On a side note, I wouldn't be surprised that Minecraft will come to Steam in the future. When sales dwindle, and Notch is looking for an infusion of cash, he could release it on Steam, and many people would probably buy it again.
I think one reason why it doesn't make a lot of sense for him to distribute VIA steam, while others do is because of file size. Minecraft is freaking tiny compared to a 2 gig indie game like Endless Space. I would imagine 21418GB is a lot of bandwidth for a small company, while 963-1606GB is not that much when you make 288k off of it.
I agree with this. People have no problem calling EA on being greedy but if notch is greedy its justified. Essentially it just comes down to notch wanting more money and doesn't want anyone to get a cut out of it.Zefar said:
Now before anyone gets up in arms I am one of the few PC players who didn't buy minecraft and probably wont until its on steam (which it probably wont).
I don't see a lot of praise directed at Notch, just a lot of nods and "Yeah, that's probably the smarter move for him." EA earned the ire of gamers because they decided to start offering games only on their service, and their service is terrible. Notch just isn't adding another way to buy the game. The game still costs what it did before and didn't gain any sort of DRM or buggy launch platform. EA removed a way to buy games, and then changed to force all purchases to use a piece of software that very few consumers actually like using.Zefar said:
So EA used their position as the publisher of a popular game to push people into using software they otherwise wouldn't have. Sure, that's perfectly within their rights as a company to do what they want with the software, but that doesn't mean we as consumers are obligated to like what they're doing.
If EA had pulled Mass Effect 3 from Steam and then allowed people to play it without using Origin, I don't think people would have been as annoyed. Certainly I wouldn't have minded.
Well Notch raises a valid point, he's clearly just doing this because he doesn't want to share any bit of his money.
I'm still amazed people support him like they do, especially considering that Minecraft is currently the biggest joke in game development history. I mean they're still using the shitty pixel textures that were meant as a place holder until notch could hire an artist.
[sub](which notch quickly fired since he didn't want pay him and he knew his rabid fans wouldn't complain about the shit art design)[/sub]
Whatever, fuck notch. Scrolls is going to be a failure and then he'll come crawling back to Jeb.
[sub]Who he'll probably fire for making him look bad.[/sub]
I'm still amazed people support him like they do, especially considering that Minecraft is currently the biggest joke in game development history. I mean they're still using the shitty pixel textures that were meant as a place holder until notch could hire an artist.
[sub](which notch quickly fired since he didn't want pay him and he knew his rabid fans wouldn't complain about the shit art design)[/sub]
Whatever, fuck notch. Scrolls is going to be a failure and then he'll come crawling back to Jeb.
[sub]Who he'll probably fire for making him look bad.[/sub]
Re-purchase power. A lot of gamers have games either in physical form or on some other digital platform and as soon as it hits Steam they jump all over that shit and buy it again. Just check out the Steam forums when an older game gets released. You will see people going, "I have this on x or I have it retail and just bought it again because it's on Steam. I have done this maybe once, and that was with Borderlands because I got tired of having to actually find the disc everytime I wanted to install it.DVS BSTrD said:
Popular misconception #1: EA removed their games from Steam.Zefar said:
Guess what, they didn't. Valve did because they went against their new DLC policy. Any games that were released before this policy change were left on Steam (see: Dragon Age), and any games that did not have DLC were left on Steam(see: Alice MR). And new EA games that don't have DLC are being released on Steam, see Crysis 2: Maximum Edition (because all the DLC is included).
Greed caused this problem, and it was greed by both companies.
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Regarding Notch: He is a greedy bastard and I doubt that any other games that Mojang releases will be any good, he got lucky with Minecraft because it was a type of game that had NEVER been done before. Anyone name me a Lego Simulator? You will see Minecraft go on Steam when their sales start to dive so everyone that has bought it already will buy it again. And I will still have never bought it.
Mixed in with the antifanboys or fanhaters or what-have-you. Seem to be a lot of those out today too.Mr Cwtchy said:
IMHO: Eh, whatever. Notch has a PC distribution scheme already. He doesn't need Steam any more than it needs him. The XBox thing was its own beast: They needed each other so they both made a deal.