Minecraft is poised to get a number of updates come spring, but possibly the most significant of which is the newly unveiled Minecraft Marketplace, a standalone storefront specifically for purchasing add-ons from third-parties. With the marketplace, people can buy or sell creations within the game for actual, real-life currency.
Things You Can Purchase On 'Minecraft' Marketplace
Among the stuff to be offered by the Minecraft Marketplace are maps, texture packs, skins, mini-games, and a number of others, all of which will be curated by the Minecraft team.
The marketplace will launch initially with a number of select sellers only, handpicked by Minecraft's team. The upshot, however, is to eventually let all users sell their wares, provided they have a registered business.
Minecraft is encouraging anyone who's interested to register, although there's still no word as to how exactly the confirmation process will take place.
Anyhow, the Minecraft Marketplace is fairly a simple affair: users will buy stuff with Minecraft Coins, which will be offered within the game in exchange for real currency.
When a purchase is made, registered users will get 70 percent of the pie, and Minecraft takes what remains, which is aligned with typical mobile game stores. Needless to say that a seller stands to make dough, if slightly smaller than when they choose to sell independently.
"The idea is to give Minecraft creators another way to make a living from the game, allowing them to support themselves in the creation of ever-greater projects, while giving Pocket and Windows 10 players access to a growing catalogue of fun stuff — curated and supplied by us, safely and simply," Minecraft wrote in a blog post.
Purchases Will Be Synced Across Devices
The team behind the marketplace is currently looking for ways to sync purchases across devices — so when one makes a purchase on, say, a Windows 10 machine, the item will also show up when the user switches to Minecraft: Pocket Edition, or the other way around. Such a process involves an Xbox Live account, which is a wise move from Microsoft, if it intends to lure Minecraft fans to its online services.
The Minecraft Marketplace public beta begins in mid-April on Android devices but only to test the in-game currency, so full-fledged buying will have to wait until the service launches officially this spring. Such a change is colossal for how economics in Minecraft works, but it remains to be seen if the schtick catches on. If the staunchly loyal and enthusiastic Minecraft community is anything to go buy, however, then Minecraft may have just launched a winner here.
Others details — the potential for the marketplace to become a promotional platform, how to take part in the beta, and others — are still yet to be announced by the team working on the Marketplace, but they'll hold a Reddit AMA session on Thursday, April 20, for those of you who might have burning questions about the forthcoming service.
Thoughts about Minecraft Marketplace? Do you think this is a good idea? Feel free to sound off in the comments section below!
