Minecraft: New marketplace for community creators By Steffan Powell Newsbeat reporter

10 April 2017

Minecraft wants to make access to community content and fan content easier for players.

Many users have already created intricate worlds for exploration, adventures to enjoy, or modified the game to offer new experiences.

They will now be able to sell the content via the game in the new Minecraft Marketplace.

Producer John Thornton told Newsbeat that the platform is designed to help entrepreneurs start businesses.

Until now people who create adventure maps, character skin packs or experiences to play in the game have not been allowed to sell them directly to other players.

Official Minecraft content cannot be sold in this way. However, some people still make a living playing the game.

James Delaney, is founder of a group of Minecraft creators called Blockworks and he's managed to create a business despite the restrictions.

The Marketplace is welcome news for him.

Newsbeat: "Hopefully it's a start of regular, stable income."

"In the past, we relied on commissions to come into our businesses, and you never know when that will be."

He's in charge of 62 creators working in 20 different countries.

Their main source of income is from the creation of Minecraft-based content to market and educate.

James "got quite into" creating Minecraft maps with his friends online, and realized a few years later that it was possible to make a living from it.

He states, "Attaining that we know there are people who will be interested in our content now is a good thing."

"If it's successful, we know we can keep working on a more regular and stable basis.

"Also it's content we can choose to produce, rather than be asked to make, so we've got creative control over it in that regard."
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The marketplace will be live in the latter part of the year and will be available on the Windows 10 or Pocket versions.

This means that most of the estimated 120,000,000 Minecraft players around the world will have access, but console users won't.

John Thornton stated, "Our vision was to try to connect creators with players."

"On Pocket edition it can sometimes be tricky to get contents onto devices. So creators have difficulty sharing content they want with the world.

"By connecting creators to marketplace it will make it much simpler for players to discover what they want, buy it, then have it on them."

Players will still have access to them, and people will still be able create community experiences.

Producers hope that people will pay more for content that is easier to locate.

John states that "if you want to share content, you have to put the content somewhere on the internet and tell others where it is."

"You can use existing social networks to accomplish this, but it's much more effective if you bring that into the game."

"Players can find the right interaction with the game they love when they are playing it."

He hopes that the game will enable James to start a successful business.

The Minecraft team will launch the new service starting with nine creators from around the globe.

The central Minecraft team will monitor all adventure maps, skin packages and experiences to ensure that they are appropriate for the game's intended audience.

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