I never thought adding a paywall was necessary. I was more thinking along the lines of a game being made easier to mod and its developers embracing the idea of modding like you kind of mentioned. This could be done by releasing tools to make it easier like Cities: Skylines 2’s recently released editor and Hatred adding Workshop support. I don’t know if official mod support Java would entail something like a built in mod manager, updates to improve modding capabilities, or some kind of universal package for mod files.
This doesn’t need to be done through a service that the developer has any control over. SimCity 2000 had a Build Architect Tool players could use in the mid 90s and sites like ModDB and the Nexus exist.
I’m not sure what the latter is called, but I’m quite sure there’d be a massive uproar if MS/MJ did that for java edition. I know I’d never play the game again, that’s for sure.
There will always be the option of raw dogging files into the game directory or developing external tools like people did with Mass Effect.
I feel like Minecraft surges in popularity pretty regularly. As long as people continue streaming it and posting videos of it I think that’ll remain the same. I don’t know if someone who is looking for a taste of what they saw online will know the limitations of Bedrock. They might just pick it up because it’s available on whatever platform they use.
I suppose killing Java might put a stop to the content that is being created with Minecraft and that might cause it lose its relevance but I don’t know if a majority of content creators are using Java or Bedrock.
Yeah what I was asking about is official support in Java; that’s probably what OP is referencing. I looked it up and the answer is no.
It’s a bit like saying Skyrim didn’t have mod support in 2011 when it released until 2017 when Creation Club content was added. Of course there were mods in 2011 but not officially supported ones.
Edit: To be clear this comment was referencing what OP’s post was likely trying to convey. Of course Minecraft has been moddable on Java for years but as the Minecraft help page says it isn’t officially supported. I know about data packs and their support/limitations.
I know. I’ve seen a lot of videos on the differences between Java and Bedrock, how Bedrock came to be, modding on Java like Feed The Beast, and multiplayer servers like 2BT2 (for those that don’t know FitMC has some good vidoes on 2B2T; it’s a neat rabbit hole to go down if you want to kill sometime).
What I am saying is I am surprised that Microsoft is still updating Java when there’s so much money to be made nickle and diming players in Bedrock edition. Like paying for skins for example. It would definitely piss off a lot of the player base but I don’t know if it would cause them to lose money in the long run. I imagine a lot of casual players are content using Bedrock and unaware of why Java is important.
One thing I’ve gotten into doing is instead of starting a new game I just run off in some random direction for an hour. It’s neat to stumble across things you built years ago