Notch Explains Why Minecraft Is Not on Steam

Independent video game developer Marcus Persson, who is known to his fans as Notch, has offered his opinion on the current discussion of the Steam Terms of Service and told the community why he does not intend to get Minecraft on the Valve digital distribution service.

Writing on his personal blog Markus Persson has said, “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.”

He added, “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. It would effectively split the Minecraft community into two parts, where only some of the players can access all of the weird content we want to add to the game.”

Notch says that he understands why those working on Steam are interested in maintaining tight control over the platform and says that his desires and the Steam Terms of Service are simply incompatible.

The developer adds that he has been talking to Valve about Steam and about how it could evolve but that at the moment Minecraft does not fit into the limits of the service.

He praised the platform for how it handles digital distribution and for the extra services it offers.

Electronic Arts has recently criticized the Terms of Service for Steam saying that they make it hard for the publisher to get its titles on the platform, which is hurting gamers.

Crysis 2 and Dragon Age II are no longer offered via Steam because they allowed players to get extra content directly from the game, without using the checkout system that the digital distribution service offers and which gets Valve a cut of all transactions.

Electronic Arts has recently launched Origin, its own digital distribution platform.