Minecraft Won't Go Free-to-Play: 'It's the Best Deal in the World'

In an property erstwhile galore unrecorded work games of its benignant person pivoted to a free-to-play concern model, Minecraft stubbornly remains a premium experience. During a caller interrogation with IGN, developer Mojang said it's determined to instrumentality with the established "buy and ain the game" approach, adjacent now, 16 years aft it came out. In short: don't expect Minecraft to spell free-to-play immoderate clip soon.

“Yeah, it doesn't truly enactment with the mode we built it," explained Ingela Garneij, enforcement shaper of Minecraft Vanilla.

“I mean we built the crippled for a antithetic purpose. So monetization doesn't enactment successful that mode for us. It's a acquisition of the crippled and past that's it. For america it's important that our crippled is disposable for arsenic galore radical arsenic possible. And truthful I deliberation that's a precise halfway worth that it should beryllium accessible for everyone. It's the champion woody successful the world.”

As the manufacture has evolved implicit the years, galore games person made the leap to free-to-download but infested with conflict walk and cosmetic battalion waters, with mixed results. Examples see Overwatch 2’s determination to spell free-to-play, Destiny 2, oregon Minecraft’s Microsoft stablemate Halo Infinite (at slightest erstwhile it comes to its multiplayer).

The unit is of people connected video crippled publishers and developers to find caller ways to monetize to survive, but this is seemingly a unit not felt by Garneij and her Mojang teammates: “No, no. What's important for america is that galore radical tin bask it inactive and that's going connected beardown still.”

It’s a sentiment expanded upon by Minecraft Vanilla’s crippled director, Agnes Larsson: ”I mean for me, it’s portion of the important values of Minecraft. I deliberation it's go specified an important happening of what Minecraft is and the cleanable civilization and values, and I deliberation we each present tin hold connected that. It's a happening for the crippled and it's 1 portion of what makes the crippled strong. It has beardown values.”

Minecraft volition proceed to germinate without asking its players to walk wealth for caller features, then. This is exemplified by the upcoming Vibrant Visuals graphics overhaul, which arrives escaped of complaint successful the coming months. And with nary plans for a Minecraft 2 connected the horizon, there’ll beryllium nary request to acquisition the best-selling crippled of each clip again immoderate clip soon. Unless you privation to play it connected different 1 of the seemingly endless magnitude of devices it finds itself connected these days, of course.

Simon Cardy is simply a Senior Editorial Producer who tin chiefly beryllium recovered skulking astir unfastened satellite games, indulging successful Korean cinema, oregon despairing astatine the authorities of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him connected Bluesky astatine @cardy.bsky.social.