Minecraft changed the game. Mojang's video game sold millions and millions of copies, without being a major developer darling or having the support of a massive marketing campaign. It made gigantic profits without being premium priced or incorporating ludicrous microtransactions.

Mojang simply sold its game while it was still in alpha against a more than fair price. And when it finally finished Minecraft, it took the price up a notch. Genius.

That was back in 2009. At this point Minecraft is in some sort of finalized stage, but still regularly updated. An enormous chunk of the success of Minecraft is obviously the quality and creativeness of the game. But let's put that aside for the moment and move back to selling unfinished products.

Lot's of opportunities

In most markets selling unfinished products could be considered a crime. For good reason, no one likes to pay for half a couch. We could however argue that Minecraft isn't really a product, but more of a service. A service that slowly improves over time.

Still, whether a service or product, following Minecraft's example is an excellent opportunity for small and medium sized video game companies. It's always nice to be able to sell your game for a low price. That stands to reason, gamers love paying close to nothing. Developers and publishers, however, do not like small profits and raising the price for a product that's already out for quite some time won't be accepted.

Selling a game that's still in development gives a video game company good reason to charge a low price, and when it's actually finished asking for a high price is only logical. No one complains, everybody wins.

Getting paid while getting help

Another good reason to sell a product that's still in development is that you're opening up the development to a large audience. This means that gamers start playing your game en masse and start handing out free feedback en masse. When a game is finished this process also starts taking place, but then you already had your big marketing moment.

So, in other words. The incredibly important launch moment, where all media start praising or hacking away at you has already passed. All improvements you start adding won't have the effect as having these improvements already in place before launch. Feedback before finishing the games is thus invaluable.

Opening up development by selling an unfinished game puts the feedback moment before launch. But aside from that, you also start connecting with an audience on a much higher level then just a regular player-developer-relation. If people start giving feedback and see this being incorporated they feel a much stronger connection with the game, than when it's just people being fan of something a developer created. A very strong and loyal audience is invaluable for social media marketing.

What gets lost in the transition?

Of course there is an inevitable flip side to the Minecraft strategy. With the rise of Steam Early Access, where developers have the opportunity of releasing an early version of their game quite easily, it starts becoming apparent that there a few things that get lost in the transition.

If a video game company releases an unfinished game it automatically opens itself up for feedback. Very positive of course, but the line between developer and gamer turns ambiguous. This starts becoming negative when a company sacrifices its vision for the sake of the audience. The developer starts losing its role as an ‘auteur’.

Anticipation for the launch weakens

A second flip side is that the anticipation for the actual launch weakens. When a game is ‘out there’, people have the chance to play it. This pretty much is detrimental to the element of surprise always paired with the launch of a game. Videos of the gameplay start surfacing on YouTube, opinions appear on Twitter and articles are written about the quality of the game.

This was positive for Minecraft. If a game is open ended like Minecraft and constantly evolving then this might not be such a bad thing; hence the success of Minecraft. But other developers have to be careful. Some games have a lifespan and when gamers have finished almost the entire lifespan of a game before launch, then there is not much value in buying the finished product. Sure, you'll get the full package, but you already experienced the core gameplay.