Minecraft Creator Explains Game’s Absence on Steam
by Craig Getting on August 30, 2011 3:38 PM ESTIn a recent entry on his blog, Markus “notch” Persson explained why Minecraft has yet to appear on Valve’s Steam platform, citing an “ inherent incompatibility” between his company Mojang’s goals and Valve’s.
“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,” Persson said. “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.”
Minecraft’s thrived in part due to the direct access players have to Persson’s development whims, such as the creation of the creepy-looking Endermen (seen above) scheduled for the next update. Putting a barrier like Steam, no matter how “awesome” Persson thinks it is, disrupts that process and could potentially split the userbase.
Persson isn’t ruling Steam out entirely, however. “We are talking to Valve about this,” he said. The sheer enormity of Steam makes this optimism practical business sense. It’s the same reason EA won’t swear off Steam entirely, even after all of the fighting over Battlefield 3. When people enter a store every time they launch a game, it behooves you to have your product in that store.
Source: Notch
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JKflipflop98 - Wednesday, August 31, 2011 - link
Then explain games like EQ2 and Sims3 and fallout3 where you only get your content from another vendor in the game. Bioshock2 and dragon age and both mass effect games totlly bypass steam for content.jo-82 - Wednesday, August 31, 2011 - link
Steam has all the bad things about Content Delivering combined:- It's Monopoly. Steam will raise the prices within the next 5 years, because there is zero competition. (Almost all the good titles are Steam-Exclusive outside the U.S. already)
- DRM, DRM, DRM everywhere
- You buy only a licence of the games for time you are on steam.
- If you buy an uncensored US Version as Hardcopy and activate it on an European steam account the game is altered to a censored European Version. Reminder: Quake 4, where you are missing significant parts of the Story.
- The support is non existent
- Steam is targeted massively for account hacking.
- You have to update every f**ng game every time you log in, even if you play it only in singleplayer.
Steam is the cancer which kills PC gaming.
Proxy711 - Wednesday, August 31, 2011 - link
- Its not a monopoly there are other methods of digital distribution, steam is just the best out there. Steam wont raise the price in 5 years if they were going to do that they would have done it already, if anything as of right now there are more digital competitors then ever. Not to mention a huge reason people use steam so much is the deals they offer.- DRM is everywhere anyway Steams DRM is the next best next to no DRM. Ever use Ubisofts DRM? its the worst. If anything steams DRM allows devs to stop using the bad kinds of DRM in favor of steams.
- That depends on the game, some games give CD-keys that work with a boxed game. And that's no different then most digital copies.
- Thats just steam covering its ass when the EU comes knocking for loads of money. You are bypassing censor laws by doing that.
- Support is provided not only by valve, but also the devs of the game you're playing. Not to mention the steam forums are a pool of knowledge for most errors.
- This comment shows how little you use steam. Every time you log in from a different IP/computer Steam sends you an email with a code to your email account associated with your steam account that allows you to login. Its not steams fault if you fail at account security.
- False. You can set games to not auto update. also i should add : Oh noes i don't have to search the internet for patches for every game i play. damn you steam that's half the fun.
Actually steam is helping PC gamers in multiple ways. It has helped many many indie studios bring their games to millions of users easily and inexpensively. Provides gamers with great features, like steam cloud, Profiles, friends lists, Easy join a friend in games connectivity, Messaging users despite what game you or they are playing, easy screenshot sharing and upload, recording video, the lost goes on and on.
Of the 77 or so games i own on steam I've had maybe 3 or 4 errors that were easily fixed (and likely they weren't solely because of steam).
Just because you've had a bad experience(s) with steam in the past doesn't mean every user has as well.
dfgddfdf - Thursday, September 1, 2011 - link
Come go and see, will not regret it Oh lookhttp://www。ifancyshop。com