• Minecraft Alpha Ending December 20



        Minecraft Beta. This time, it's personal.

        Minecraft has been in an Alpha stage for almost 18 months, priced at 10 Euros (about $13.00) and promising free upgrades on all future content. After the game took off over the summer and development turned from a one-man operation into an actual independant gaming company complete wtih employees, this was bound to change. Major upgrades came along, the multiplayer Survival Mode that people had been clamoring for received some necessary attention, and Minecraft began growing into something closer to a full, professional game.

        With that kind of progress, the pre-release Alpha's days were numbered, and as of this writing that number is "8". In 8 days Minecraft goes Beta, and this brings with it a few changes. More features and a more stable game, sure, but the basic contract under which the game is bought is also getting a major revision.

        The first change is price. Minecraft will now cost 15 Euros, or close enough to $20.00 to make no difference. This is still an excellent deal, seeing as it can easily provide as many hours of play as any AAA mega-blockbuster $60 game out there.

        The second change is a bit trickier, however. The current version of the game comes with this line- "You will receive any and all future updates for free as a bonus." That's going away. What this means is that large updates, things that could be DLC or game expansions, are included with the Alpha, but not the Beta. Notch (Minecraft creator Marcus Persson) has said on Twitter "We don't intend to nickel and dime people, though." in response to a question about what size update might be paid for, but it's still unknown even to him what kind of content might end up being sold separately. It seems safe to assume Oblivion-style horse armor is right out, however.

        Still, anyone buying between today and December 20 gets a cheaper game and all updates included. If you're interested but haven't made the jump yet, I really can't recommend enough either picking it up for yourself or adding it to your Christmas wish list as an early present.
        Comments 4 Comments
        1. Josh's Avatar
          Josh -
          This couldn't go in the minecraft thread?
        1. bbobb's Avatar
          bbobb -
          It's a front page post thread that is auto generated for the comments and now your post is showing as a comment on the article.
        1. Josh's Avatar
          Josh -
          I blame the mobile skin.
        1. Mzo's Avatar
          Mzo -
          I'll make a note in my calendar to try and care even less.
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