Minecraft Enters Beta on December 20

Marcus Persson, aka Notch, who is the developer of indie hit video game Minecraft, has announced that his title will be going into beta stage on December 20 and will now retail for 14.95 Euro to reflect the new content which the game will feature.

Notch has stated on his personal blog that, “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.”

The developer also says that when the beta stage launches, Minecraft will also get a limited narrative structure, focusing on creating a clear late game goal for gamers and on aiding them learn the ropes of the Minecraft world when they first jump in.

When the indie game hits beta on December 20, Notch also plans to put more time into each new beta update, with more testing and better stability for the game.

After the game goes into beta, future updates could also be available for a price, with gamers having until December 20 to pick up the game and get updated for free.

Before the beta starts, Minecraft will get another smaller update which adds server side inventories.

Minecraft allows the player to enter a blocky 8 bit looking world and affect it any way he likes, creating tools and structures as he aims to get a shelter and defenses up before he encounters enemies.

The addition of the narrative structure could be seen as a bad move by some of the fans of Minecraft, who have cherished the freedom offered by the game so far.

Minecraft made news earlier this year when its growing popularity led to PayPal closing down the developer's account because of the amount of money he was receiving.

The game currently has about 1 million players.