Why no Steam, Notch?

I really admire how much Notch seems to understand opposing viewpoints that most people would simply make inflammatory posts about. His diplomacy here, as well as with Bethesda, has been stellar: Not "Steam is a DRM-ridden mess that I wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole, bwa ha ha!", but instead, "I understand why they'd want to control their platform." Not "Bethesda are an Orwellian corporate giant trying to crush the little guy, bwa ha ha!", but instead, "This is probably just lawyers being lawyers." Never a bridge burned. What respect and maturity! Hats off to you, Notch. I'm proud to be a part of the same community of developers as you.

Valve: Xbox 360 is too closed for Steam [1]<p>Notch: Steam is too closed for Minecraft [2]<p>Minecraft is coming to Xbox 360 [3]<p>Head Asplode!<p>[1] <a href="http://www.vg247.com/2011/08/25/valve-ms-needs-to-be-comfortable-in-opening-up-xbox-live/" rel="nofollow">http://www.vg247.com/2011/08/25/valve-ms-needs-to-be-comfort...</a><p>[2] <a href="http://notch.tumblr.com/post/9550850116/why-no-steam-notch" rel="nofollow">http://notch.tumblr.com/post/9550850116/why-no-steam-notch</a><p>[3] <a href="http://www.ifc.com/news/2011/06/e3-2011-minecraft-kinect-xbox-360.php" rel="nofollow">http://www.ifc.com/news/2011/06/e3-2011-minecraft-kinect-xbo...</a>

<i>This</i> is how the battle for openness is won. Not by endless online argument, but by building stuff. Stuff that, by virtue of its openness and flexibility, is too awesome to be needlessly and arbitrarily constrained.<p>Beats the shit out of dogma.<p>Good on ya, Notch.

Honest question from an iPhone developer...<p>I know many people on HN are rooting for walled gardens to fail (App Store) and for openness to triumph. Do these same people willingly use Steam and think it's great? Isn't Steam's delivery platform for games and the App Store's delivery platform for iOS apps pretty much the same concept? If someone is against the App Store on principle, shouldn't they also be against Steam and not use it?

Sounds like good reasons, to me. They're a company with on-the-edge games and they can't afford to be held back.<p>I'm actually quite surprised that Valve has -any- say in what they do on their own website, or what they implement in the game. I could understand having to implement certain features (like not crashing with the Steam overlay) but to prevent features, marketing, non-game sales, or anything else that doesn't directly affect Valve?<p>Inconceivable.

I can understand Notch's position here, because really, the only thing Steam can provide Majong with is... eyeballs and distribution? Some sort of community? I don't know, but I don't think Minecraft needs any help with those.

Then why are they bringing Minecraft to the XBOX 360 which is a much more locked down platform than steam?

Is there some crevice here that can be made into a startup? A digital distribution platform for indie game devs who want more freedom with what they are selling?

I personally added Minecraft in my steam's library so I can launch it from steam and people can see when I'm playing Minecraft. The only shortcoming is, if you are not on your main computer you have to download the game from minecraft.net and not steam. Is it really a huge hassle?

I really hope Notch comes up with something more interesting than capes for the Minecraft market. I could see something like a robust world generator being extremely interesting, but premium hats and capes has to be one of the stupidest concepts in the history of gaming.<p>I don't like DLC's either, but I guess I just don't like any games enough to care. What I'm trying to say is that I'd like minecraft to stay in it's current innocent state. Perhaps if it grows like World of Warcraft did it will make sense, but it's a tough sell for me now. The simplicity is what makes it so charming.

But he is not saying the truth. The truth is: his game have enough success to not be in steam.