Indie success Minecraft will be exiting alpha and entering into beta on December 20, game creator "Notch" has said on his blog. As a result, the price of Minecraft will shoot to 14.95 Euros and Mojang Specifications will begin polishing and refining existing code in earnest, while continuing to drop in new content.
Notch says that one of the first things he and his team will do is add in "proper modding support with a stable API." Mojang will then start hammering out a "non-intrusive narrative" to drive the game in its earliest stages and provide all with a late game goal to reach. Testing and stability will also be focuses.
As advertised, all alpha owners will receive this beta update for free in addition to all other subsequent version releases of the game. Those who choose to purchase the game in beta will receive all of its updates free of charge, too, but they might not get expansions. Legal types and a board have convinced Mojang to alter the license following the beta update. Here's what Notch had to say on his blog about it:
"We will also change the license to remove the line that promises all future versions of the game for free. Please note that this change only affects people who buy the game after December 20, so if you got the game for during alpha, you will still get all future updates for free, despite this change. A promise is a promise.
Buying the game during beta will include all updates up until release, of course, and bug patches will be free."
It's not December 20 quite yet, so that means there's still time to grab the game in alpha and avoid having to possibly pay for the game twice. And as Notch mentions in his post, soon you'll be able to gift an alpha version of the game to a friend just in time for Christmas. What a gift, eh?
UPDATE: Point of clarification from Notch about what you'll get if you buy beta come December 20. "buying during beta = get everything up to and including release version for free. Expansions might cost."