if you’ve been patiently camped down a well dug hole, waiting for word on when Minecraft: Story Mode for Linux will be released, it’s time to wake up.
The ‘good’ news is that Minecraft: Story Mode for Linux is, according to one of the developers who work on it, “ready” for release.
The ‘bad’ news is that it seems it probably won’t be released anytime soon…
Minecraft: Story Mode on Linux — a waiting game
Minecraft: Story Mode is the episodic edition of Minecraft, the phenomenally popular sandbox video game. The point-and-click adventure adds some plot and direction to a game best known for requiring players to use their own initiative.
The spin-off is developed and published by Telltale Games with the blessing and direction of Mojang, of course.
So far the title has been released on Windows, macOS, PS3, PS4, Wii U, Nintendo Switch, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Android, and iOS. Heck, even Apple TV got it.
But Linux? Nope. Nada. Zilch.
“Fine”, you might think. “They don’t plan to support Linux.”
Only, as a scoop from our buddies over at Gaming on Linux today reveals, the Linux version was not only developed, but considered ‘ready for release’.
That’s the word of David Brady, a former Telltale developer who worked on the Linux version of Minecraft: Story Mode. In a chat with Gaming on Linux’s Liam Dawe he says that “it was my opinion that Minecraft was ready for release”.
“He seemed very certain of this too when we had a chat,” Dawe comments. “That was the main bit I’m able to share, but he was very clear on it.”
So what happened? Well, nothing as you are no doubt well aware!
Minecraft: Story Mode is yet to be released on Linux and, from the abject lack of information about its current status from anyone still involved with it, that probably isn’t going to change soon.
Why? Well, Dawe did some digging but failed to unearth so much as a rock. Telltale simply aren’t telling what’s happened to it.
There could be, as Dawe notes, reasons why the game fell down the priority ladder when Brady left, chief one being they had no-one to maintain and support the Linux edition going forward.
Whatever the reason, with the game ‘ready’ to go, it seems a shame to have the work left there unloved.