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[eerr]

Its caused by logging out while dead, if I remember correctly.

Server-side inventory is live! no more item-destroying glitches.

[Beeskee]

Notch seems to be behaving reasonably, all things considered. Offering it at a discount was his way of generating more interest in Minecraft, and yes it is a bit of a manipulative tactic, folks will think "Half off OMG!" and buy it, whereas if it was just $15 forever they might be more likely to put off getting it. But that is no worse than what every retail store in the US does, in fact most of the time they increase a price and then offer a fingerquotes "discount".

Minecraft got very popular, very fast. I would imagine the project and the attention it's getting is burning him out somewhat. He has a chance to be set for life on it though. Would you jump off the gravy train? And he's still updating it, it's not like he took the money, said "See ya suckers!" and bounced.

[Andir]

Anyone else having a problem where dieing causes you to become immortal [...]

I wish you would have stopped there... it makes it sound so much better.

[dragnar]

...I fail to see why everyone is suddenly up in arms over a price change that Notch has said was going to happen FROM THE START. I mean... It's been a giant advertisement on the front page this whole time that those who buy during alpha get a massive discount.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

...I fail to see why everyone is suddenly up in arms over a price change that Notch has said was going to happen FROM THE START. I mean... It's been a giant advertisement on the front page this whole time that those who buy during alpha get a massive discount.

I think the outrage is more over the "Alphas get free updates, Betas may or may not." thing that everyone is warring about.

[mendonca]

Notch seems to be behaving reasonably, all things considered. Offering it at a discount was his way of generating more interest in Minecraft, and yes it is a bit of a manipulative tactic, folks will think "Half off OMG!" and buy it, whereas if it was just $15 forever they might be more likely to put off getting it. But that is no worse than what every retail store in the US does, in fact most of the time they increase a price and then offer a fingerquotes "discount".

Minecraft got very popular, very fast. I would imagine the project and the attention it's getting is burning him out somewhat. He has a chance to be set for life on it though. Would you jump off the gravy train? And he's still updating it, it's not like he took the money, said "See ya suckers!" and bounced.

I agree with this sentiment.

Minecraft has gone completely off the charts, now he is running a business which to some extent will depend on the minecraft brand for a good while yet, he has pretty much an obligation to price the game 'responsibly' - including changing the pricing structure. As far as I can tell, that is what he is doing.

Don't forget he's 'looking after' four or five employees now, he can't flippantly 'give the game away' without essentially putting these guys livelihood in some kind of risk (whether that is in one year or six years or more, commercial success of any further games from Mojang is in no way guaranteed).

Good luck to him, and to be frank, he could have milked this baby for a hell of a lot more than he has.

[freeformschooler]

Good luck to him, and to be frank, he could have milked this baby for a hell of a lot more than he has.

You're not kidding. Heck, he could have set the game itself up to 30USD for open beta. I have seen that happen a lot with relatively newer developers that think they've got an innovative project. Maybe he could have set it even higher. But no, it'll be a twenty dollar open beta. Considering they have a super prominent brand, I would not be surprised if the influx of money continues to flow at a similar weight.

All this talk of money is making me giddy for dorf economy.

[Apple Master]

Surely it's just an incentive to buy it before the 20th december?
 I don't really care since anyone who has it now is still eligible for the free updates ("A promise is a promise")

[BigD145]

Good luck to him, and to be frank, he could have milked this baby for a hell of a lot more than he has.

You're not kidding. Heck, he could have set the game itself up to 30USD for open beta. I have seen that happen a lot with relatively newer developers that think they've got an innovative project. Maybe he could have set it even higher. But no, it'll be a twenty dollar open beta. Considering they have a super prominent brand, I would not be surprised if the influx of money continues to flow at a similar weight.

infdev, and even alpha, was $13 US and that's about all it was worth. I never would have bought if it had been $20+.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

infdev, and even alpha, was $13 US and that's about all it was worth. I never would have bought if it had been $20+.

Perhaps not you, but others would have. And besides, it could have been worse.

"The first public alpha of Minecraft will cost: 599$ USD."

[BigD145]

infdev, and even alpha, was $13 US and that's about all it was worth. I never would have bought if it had been $20+.

Perhaps not you, but others would have. And besides, it could have been worse.

"The first public alpha of Minecraft will cost: 599$ USD."

Sales would have been abysmal at $20+.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Sales would have been abysmal at $20+.

I assure you that there are a good number of people who would have paid 20$ for creative mode alone.

[Thexor]

infdev, and even alpha, was $13 US and that's about all it was worth. I never would have bought if it had been $20+.

Perhaps not you, but others would have. And besides, it could have been worse.

"The first public alpha of Minecraft will cost: 599$ USD."

Sales would have been abysmal at $20+.

Depends. After all the free advertising Minecraft received a little while back, I think it could easily have sold well for $25-30. Of course, it wouldn't have sold nearly as many units, but if you can triple the price without scaring off more than 2/3rds of your customers...

[Aqizzar]

Really?  You think seven-ish dollars would have spelled the difference between a couple hundred thousand sales and, what, a few hundred or something?  It's an online purchase with disposable electronic funds, and bear in mind that most of Notch's press and therefor sales came long after he first put it online, with considerably more development.  I think the record-setting sales at $13ish says he could have done well at almost any price point under $30ish.

[ECrownofFire]

I think the sales would go a lot slower at first, but they would pick up after time. The thing about Indie games is that people aren't willing to pay big money for them because they're so unpredictable and risky. The early buyers would have a tougher time justifying buying it if it was more. Five dollars may not seem much to you, but it makes a big difference in your mind when taking a risk like buying an indie game.