Minecraft goes Beta December 20

[EvilNic]

Notch's latest blog post http://notch.tumblr.com/:

Minecraft Beta: December 20, 2010

The next epoch is upon us! The skies are trembling, pigs are growing wings, and the nether is turning awfully cold, as Minecraft slowly crawls out of Alpha..

Minecraft will reach Beta status on December 20th, 2010.

With Beta comes a larger focus on polish and content, and we’ll start early on with adding proper modding support with a stable API, and we’d love all input we can get on this from the modders out there. We’ll also add some kind of non-intrusive narrative to the game to help drive the game experience early on, and to provide some kind of late game goal. There will be a bigger focus on testing and stability as well, with more time between updates.

When the game enters beta, the price will rise to 14.95 Euro.

We will also change the license to remove the line that promises all future versions of the game for free. Please note that this change only affects people who buy the game after December 20, so if you got the game for during alpha, you will still get all future updates for free, despite this change. A promise is a promise.
Buying the game during beta will include all updates up until release, of course, and bug patches will be free.

Soon, you will be able to buy gift codes for Minecraft, perfectly timed for the holidays! Even better, if you buy those before December 20, accounts created from these codes will count as alpha accounts, and will receive all future updates for free.

And the next game update (with server-side inventory) is coming next week, before Beta

Merry holidays happy!

 

[ríomhaire]

I don't like the sound of that "only alpha users will receive all future updates for free" thing.

 

[YROC]

 

[lord_raken]

YAY! What a wonderful Christmas present. We can now snobbishly mock anyone who buys after the Beta release.

"You Beta-people are so soft. We've been here since ALPHA, BITCH!!!"... " You Beta-youths have it easy. In Alpha we didn't have nether gates and when we got them they didn't work... we had to walk sonny!"

Also: the painterly pack has updated for winter. Some of the textures are really cool.

@ Riomhaire: Why not? He gave everyone a warning and as the game gets closer to completion it merits a price closer to the price of the full game.

think of it this way. The more money Notch makes the more resources he can put into making minecraft better, and the less risk of his company going bust before the final version.

He's running a business.

 

[Kisze]

lol'd at them "going bust".

 

[Acepilotf14]

YAY! What a wonderful Christmas present. We can now snobbishly mock anyone who buys after the Beta release.

"You Beta-people are so soft. We've been here since ALPHA, BITCH!!!"... " You Beta-youths have it easy. In Alpha we didn't have nether gates and when we got them they didn't work... we had to walk sonny!"

Also: the painterly pack has updated for winter. Some of the textures are really cool.

@ Riomhaire: Why not? He gave everyone a warning and as the game gets closer to completion it merits a price closer to the price of the full game.

think of it this way. The more money Notch makes the more resources he can put into making minecraft better, and the less risk of his company going bust before the final version.

He's running a business.

the more money he makes the more money the swedish government gets in taxes.

 

[lord_raken]

the more money he makes the more money the swedish government gets in taxes.

We should see if we can get him to relocate to Texas. We got low business tax.. he could have my room.. (I'll sleep on the couch).

 

[bam23]

has he got the monsters working in mp yet?

 

[Russian Mafia]

Yeah, monsters work.

 

[YROC]

I haven't seen any monsters in mp yet. Unless our map just isn't updated.

 

[bam23]

Ahh if you guys can confirm monsters in mp then I'll buy this before any of y'all can blink.

 

[lord_raken]

I think we have them disabled on our server... that combined with the fact that we can't die (well... its very difficult).

 

[ríomhaire]

@ Riomhaire: Why not? He gave everyone a warning and as the game gets closer to completion it merits a price closer to the price of the full game.

Well, just what constitutes an update? Will he start charging people for random feature? Will we have "Sorry you can't get the better tools unless you pay for this update"? Will this segregate the MP playerbase?

 

[Dekstar]

Guys, he actually confirmed on his Twitter t'other day that beta players would be receiving the full game too for free.
To paraphrase: If you paid for the game, no matter when you bought it, you will receive the full version.

 

[Raziaar]

Ahh if you guys can confirm monsters in mp then I'll buy this before any of y'all can blink.

Why not just get it now while the prices are lower?

It's a guarantee eventually MP will be working just like singleplayer... so if you don't like playing it then just shelve it until the time comes.

I don't understand what the issue is.

 

[JesusToast]

I think we have them disabled on our server... that combined with the fact that we can't die (well... its very difficult).

Go basejumping without any armour. You'll die quick enough.

 

[Bad^Hat]

Guys, he actually confirmed on his Twitter t'other day that beta players would be receiving the full game too for free.
To paraphrase: If you paid for the game, no matter when you bought it, you will receive the full version.

Right, he says that in the original post. "Buying the game during beta will include all updates up until release, of course, and bug patches will be free." Doesn't say anything about content released after the 'full' version.

Edit: Although I can see how "up until release" could be construed as meaning it doesn't include the full game. Yeah, nevermind.

 

[EversorAssassin]

Ahh if you guys can confirm monsters in mp then I'll buy this before any of y'all can blink.

I can confirm. I host a server on occasion, and monsters seem to have no problem blowing up my house.

 

[CR0M]

I gave the guy my money at the weekend, so far i'm enjoying singleplayer survival a lot. Can't wait to get a server running with a coupla friends.

 

[Bad^Hat]

Further clarification.

http://twitter.com/notch/status/13682437074718720