Minecraft will not be going free-to-play in the foreseeable future.
The extremely successful hit Minecraft, even in an industry where many titles employ free-to-play and battle pass oriented monetization, has no plans to itself go free-to-play. IGN recently interviewed employees at Mojang, the studio behind Minecraft, who commented on the matter. Executive Producer of Minecraft Vanilla Ingela Garneij commented first, stating:
“Yeah, it doesn’t really work with the way we built it … I mean we built the game for a different purpose. So monetization doesn’t work in that way for us. It’s a purchase of the game and then that’s it. For us it’s important that our game is available for as many people as possible. And so I think that’s a very core value that it should be accessible for everyone. It’s the best deal in the world.”
As Garneij states, Minecraft isn’t a game that she feels needs to conform to the industry standard of monetization just because that’s the direction the industry went. Instead leaving Minecraft as a single purchase full package experience. IGN goes further to contrast Minecraft’s decision by even mentioning Halo Infinite, another Microsoft property, which has a free-to-play multiplayer as well as a battle pass system.
When asked about the pressure of finding innovative ways of monetization for survival, Garneij further states:
“No, no. What’s important for us is that many people can enjoy it still and that’s going on strong still.”
The game director for Minecraft Vanilla Agnes Larsson also commented, stating:
”I mean for me, it’s part of the important values of Minecraft. I think it’s become such an important thing of what Minecraft is and the perfect culture and values, and I think we all here can agree on that. It’s a thing for the game and it’s one part of what makes the game strong. It has strong values.”
Minecraft has remained a staple of the gaming industry for many years and will likely continue to be. Gamers hoping for Minecraft’s continued existence as a complete purchase game can rest assured that Mojang has no plans to change that in favor of a free-to-play model anytime soon.
