Microsoft Announces Minecraft Earth

Minecraft has been around for a decade and to celebrate its worldly success over the years, Microsoft has announced Minecraft Earth.  This version of Minecraft will be available on iOS and Android phones by using Augmented Reality (AR). What does that mean?

Minecraft Earth will work almost how Pokemon-Go functions. Using a similar over-world map feature, you would be able to tap random blocks that would appear on the “Open Street Maps”. Not only that but Minecraft Earth has the option to use the camera lens to look into the real world and pull more blocks, items, or NPCs. For instance, pointing the phone to the floor would appear certain ore like diamonds or iron cubes. Punching a tree outside your house might give you the wood blocks you needed or some apples.

Although, Minecraft wasn’t always about scavenging for items. Creation and imagination was the other half of the game and can also be found in Minecraft Earth. Build Plates are where all the blocks and items that were picked up through the player’s adventures could be used to create other things – like houses, castles, etc. Then after it has been built the way you wanted you are able to enhance the size or shrink it down. You can even invite friends to look at your creations or send them blocks through a trading system.

The best thing about Minecraft Earth that there will be no in-game purchases. Given detail from Windows Central, Executive Producer Jesse Miriam explained,

“…there will be no loot boxes, no pay to win, and no time-gating type of monetization mechanics, so hopefully, they’ll be relatively light (or even cosmetic-only).”

Minecraft Earth is set to release for a closed Beta in selected cities (mainly US) during the Summer of this year. After that, the official release should be sometime in 2020.