Love playing Minecraft? Want to get paid to do it? Well, starting later this spring, that’s exactly what’s going to happen.
Minecraft’s 1.1 Discovery Update, which will be available on Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition and Minecraft: Pocket Edition, will bring a new marketplace program that will allow some of the game’s best creators to sell their wares for cash.
According to Microsoft and Mojang, the idea behind the program is to allow some of the game's younger players to "safely and easily access curated content from community creators for the first time. Marketplace transactions take place right within the app, offering additional security and ease for those who seek community-created content without risk of installing viruses or malware."
To start the program off on the right foot, Mojang has partnered with nine of the game’s most talented modders including Sphax, Blockworks and Blockception, each of which will offer new maps or texture packs for the game for a set number of coins – the marketplace’s new currency.
When asked how much maps, skins and texture packs would go for, John Thornton, Executive Producer, Minecraft Realms said that it typically wouldn’t be more than a few dollars ($3.99 to $4.99), though creators will have the final say.
Hone your ‘Craft to pay the bills
Once the program launches, potential new creators will need to go through a vetting process before uploading creations to the website – a process that Thornton believes will help the team prevent spam cluttering up the store.
For those gamers who might play on different platforms purchases will carry over between versions thanks to the new Bedrock Engine that will not only help make the experience look and feel the same wherever you play Minecraft, but also allow cross-platform play in between the different versions.
So how much can you expect to make off your Minecraft creations? In a briefing with TechRadar, we were told that after the app store and Microsoft took their cuts, creators could expect to see around 50% of the profit from each sale, with no caps on how much each creator could take home at the end of the day.
