Why Minecraft isn't on Steam
Markus "Notch" Persson offers an explanation for why Minecraft hasn't hit Steam.
Minecraft has been financially successful, in spite of avoiding the most common digital distribution channels. Valve's Steam service is an especially notable absence, and creator Markus "Notch" Persson explained why we haven't seen the game hitting Steam yet.
"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."
"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. It would effectively split the Minecraft community into two parts, where only some of the players can access all of the weird content we want to add to the game," Persson wrote on his blog.
That doesn't mean Minecraft will never come out for Steam, however. "We are talking to Valve about this, but I definitely understand their reasons for wanting to control their platform. There's a certain inherent incompatibility between what we want to do and what they want to do.
"So there's no big argument, we just don't want to limit what we can do with Minecraft. Also, Steam is awesome. Much more awesome than certain other digital distribution platforms that we would NOT want to release Minecraft on."
If this rationale sounds incredibly familiar, that's because it's the same claim EA has been making recently. Steam has adopted a policy that doesn't allow for new in-game storefronts, though old ones are grandfathered in. EA has been bucking against this policy with several high-profile games that feature in-game storefronts for DLC.
Dragon Age 2 and Crysis 2 were pulled, and EA has already opted not to release Battlefield 3 for the same reason. In each of the cases, EA has referred to "restrictive terms" that "limit how developers interact with customers."
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Steve Watts posted a new article, Why Minecraft isn't on Steam.
Markus "Notch" Persson offers an explanation for why Minecraft hasn't hit Steam.-
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When you don't own the digital distribution platform, you have to play by the owner's rules, try to play hardball with them on loosening the restrictions, or GTFO. EA's doing it; now Notch is doing it.
I really don't like the idea of getting pestered constantly by marketing departments via email. I don't care if it's EA, Notch, or another indie dev; I'll check out their updates website or blog, but otherwise, leave me the hell alone.
I had to do this for Crayon Physics Deluxe in the Humble Indie Bundle 3. It wanted me to submit an email address, but didn't require it. It said, "We'd really like your email address so we can give you feedback..." I said "No thanks."
My general rule is, "Don't call me; I'll call you." Valve respects this rule; I get no unsolicited emails from them, despite having a Steam account. EA and Notch apparently can't respect that rule, and are being whining babies about it. -
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but...
Steam is awesome. Much more awesome than certain other digital distribution platforms that we would NOT want to release Minecraft on."
and...
"We are talking to Valve about this, but I definitely understand their reasons for wanting to control their platform."
It doesn't sound like Notch went on an all out bitching fit about Steam's distribution requirements. He even states that he would like to have Minecraft on Steam, but Steam's current form won't allow for what he is offering his current customers. He's being very rational and not at all whining, like a lot of gamers do, about how developers, publishers, and distributors operate.-
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That's just Notch taking an easy potshot at Origin to try to maintain some cred while he gives steam the finger. If there's one thing Steam devotees hate more than not having a game on steam, it's other digital distribution services, so anyone reading his post goes "Yeah, fuck origin!!!111!!1! ur cool notch!" and forgets his game isn't on steam.
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I didn't mean to imply that EA was bitching, but that gamers were/are bitching about the whole Origin / Steam debacle. For all I know Notch wasn't even referring to EA in that quote, I just wanted to point out that Notch doesn't hate Steam, which is what I took from your post, which could have also been misread.
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It's a lot safer these days - From a sellers perspective, we have to prove we've posted something, with receipts, etc, which is all but impossible for a business seller who just scans everything through a franking machine.
These days, if a buyer is out just to screw us over, he can do, with ease. paypal and ebay side with the buyer every time unless the seller can provide material evidence to counter the claim, it's good, really; it's made buying on Ebay with paypal the safest method.
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Minecraft has almost literally the same experience as Steam though. you download the client and it grabs all the game files for you. you have one login that you can use from any computer and you have unlimited activations/downloads/whatever. and you can then just add a shortcut to it to Steam and you're done. once in a while you will have to download a new executable but that's about it.
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one might suggest that if one were to put one's game up on Steam then one's game would be exposed to millions of potential customers with very little effort on one's part. millions of customers that one could not possibly have reached without a massive marketing budget, all provided for whatever fee one might negotiate with Valve (generally 30% of sales). and now one might think it's not much of a stretch to realize that Valve is responsible for those sales in part due to either a) exposure purely from being on steam or b) Valve creating a digital distribution delivery system that is preferable to many customers over others which causes them to chose buying things on Steam rather than somewhere else. so now if one turns around and sells things from within their game which a customer only has because it's on Steam then one might see why Valve might possibly desire a cut of those sales.
really though, if one uses a distribution platform one is beholden to their rules. that goes not just for Steam but for other digital distributors and retail shops like Game Stop, Best Buy, Walmart and Amazon.
if one were to put some thought into it, anyway -
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I am a fan of Steam and I love their software/API and robust massive player base, but!..... I am becoming more aware/concern of their policy lately, you just have to see it from a developers/publisher perspective, and in some way does affect the more veteran/hardcore player, casual players won't notice or cared at all though.
For example:
Steam EULA: "You can't sell your Steam account, nor games, nor in-game content for real money (obviously, they need to keep some control) but it's suppose to be yours! (so you basically are paying Steam for a Netflix kind of subscription, you DO NOT OWN GAMES on steam on it's entirety)"
Steam won't let any kind of collective trading money system on games (not even on their own games), so these concerns and limitations myb have some good excuse or pretext for them to be in place, but it makes Valve vulnerable to other future digital distributors that would take advantage of those monetary systems in-games and ABOLISH this practice that Steam is fallowing.
It's all bad for Steam wen you look at it from a DEVELOPERS/PUBLISHERS perspective!.
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The REAL reason Minecraft isn't on Steam is because they don't need Steam. The only reason they would go to Steam is to grow there userbase but give the niche qualities of Minecraft, the Steam userbase is already aware of Minecraft and may have already purchased it.
The reasoning from Mojang is ridiculous. Mass Effect is on Steam but the DLC is primarily available on Bioware.com. Not on Steam and there is like 1 piece of DLC available on Origin which is insane. Is also unavailable on GFWL Marketplace.