Is Minecraft on Steam yet? No, it’s not. But you already knew that. So you’re probably here to see whether putting Minecraft into your Steam library is a possibility or not.
Or maybe you’re here to know the mysterious reason behind its limited distribution channels. Or to find out exactly how and from where you can download it.
Is Minecraft on Steam?
As you know, Minecraft is not available for download via Steam. So PC players need to grab it from the Microsoft Store. This means their playtime doesn’t get logged into Steam and their friends can’t view what they are playing either.
So why isn’t Minecraft on Steam? Well, it’s not like it was present on Steam and was taken off it at some point in time.
The creator of the game never released it through Valve’s platform in the first place. Neither did Microsoft after it purchased Mojang and the game IP for $2.5 billion in 2014.
Markus Persson — popularly known as Notch — is the creator of the game and he never brought it to Steam because of the way the store limits in-game transactions.
Being on the digital distribution platform wouldn’t have allowed Minecraft to include a separate marketplace on minecraft.net.
This, Persson thought, “would effectively split the Minecraft community into two parts, where only some of the players can access all of the weird content we want to add to the game.”
On a side note, Minecraft Dungeons which is a totally different type of game from the sandbox video game we’re discussing, is on Steam. And Minecraft Legends will be coming to the online store in 2023.
How to buy Minecraft and how much does it cost?
Firstly, you can grab Minecraft for free if you have enough points, or if you have an active Ultimate, PC or Console Game Pass subscription.
The game is included in the library. So all you need to do is download it onto your machine and start building your barn or castle in it.
If you don’t have this subscription, you will need to pay for it. The past practice of selling Java and Bedrock Editions separately has now vanished and they have both been turned into one package.
The game is now sold as Minecraft: Java & Bedrock Edition for PC. In short, you get both versions of the game for a single price.
What is that price, you ask? It’s $29.99. You can grab the game by heading over to minecraft.net, which will ask you to create a Mojang account before directing you to the Microsoft Store from where the game is actually available for download.
Another method is to purchase a Minecraft download code via third-party retailers and enter it into the storefront to get your own game copy.
How to add Minecraft to your Steam account?
It’s now time to incorporate Minecraft into your Steam launcher to experience most of the services that it offers. This is a pretty simple process, easier even than building a simple house in the game.
- Once Minecraft is installed on your PC, you can launch Steam and click on the ‘ADD A GAME’ option in the bottom-left corner.
- Next, select ‘Add a Non-Steam Game’ and scroll to the Minecraft executable file (might be called MinecraftInstaller on your PC) to add it to your Steam library.
Not only can Steam customers take advantage of its in-game interface, but they can also display to their friends that they are playing the game.
What are the system requirements for Minecraft on PC?
Over the years, Minecraft has grown into a pretty demanding game. So if you don’t have the right kind of hardware, you won’t be able to run it properly.
The devs recommend that the PC game is best experienced on a machine with either the Intel i7-6500U or the AMD A8-6600K CPU. Along with this, you will also need an NVIDIA GeForce 940M or an AMD Radeon HD 8570D GPU.
This kind of setup combined with 8GB worth of RAM will allow the game to run at its highest potential.
As for the minimum requirements, they include the Intel Celeron J4105 or the AMD FX-4100 CPU. You can combine that with Intel HD Graphics 4000 or the AMD Radeon R5 GPU and 4GB of RAM to check off listed hardware needed to play Minecraft.
Keep in mind that Windows 10 or higher is necessary if you wish to play the Bedrock Edition of the game. It does not run on MacOS. The Java version works with Windows 7 or later and Mac 10.14.5 Mojave or higher.
Wrapping up
As you know now, games like Minecraft that are not available on Steam can be easily added to your library. Although this doesn’t enable all the Steam features, it does let you experience many of the much-loved attributes of the platform.
Another benefit of playing Minecraft on Steam is that the Big Picture mode allows you to play it using a gamepad as well.
