Mojang’s augmented reality sandbox title Minecraft Earth is coming to an end this June. Given how difficult moving freely and collaborating with others has been post-COVID 19, the development team has decided to re-allocate its resources to other areas. It will release another update that will allow players to have fun “while staying safe indoors.”

All content and service support for the title will end on June 30th. Past this point, Minecraft Earth won’t be available to download or play. July 1st will see the developer deleting all player data except for Character Creator and Minecoin entitlements. More details on the process can be seen on this FAQ.

Today’s update will include all content that’s been unreleased till now along dramatic reductions in ruby costs and removing real-money transactions. Unused crafting and smelting boosts have also been replaced with radius boosts at the same level. Players who sign in from January 5th to June 30th will also receive a set of Character Creator items.

Those with unspent rubies will receive Minecoins to spend on the Minecraft Marketplace for all kinds of items. If one has purchased anything in Minecraft Earth, they’ll receive a copy of Minecraft (Bedrock version) for free. Stay tuned for more details in the coming months.

Mojang’s Minecraft Earth launched on November 12th in the United States and has seen a fairly strong response thus far. According to Sensor Tower Store Intelligence data, the AR game has had 1.4 million downloads in the last week. This is on both the Apple App Store and Google Play. Total global downloads for the game are currently nearing 2.5 million.

Though it’s nowhere near the likes of Niantic’s Pokemon GO, Minecraft Earth is still in early access and being rolled out slowly. Currently, the United States makes up 1.2 million of all downloads in the last week with Britain following at 71,000. The Apple App Store makes up over 1 million installs, followed by Google Play at 376,000 downloads.

In terms of revenue, the title has generated $93,000 thus far with the United States again accounting for the lion’s share at $86,000. Likewise, the App Store had the most at $62,000 with Google Play making up $31,000. It’s still early days though so stay tuned for more details on the future of Minecraft Earth.

Minecraft isn’t just happy enough to be the biggest game on Earth, it wants to actually be Earth itself. The new AR game, Minecraft Earth, promises just that as you’ll be able to take your phone or other compatible mobile devices out in real life and build stuff in a Minecraft type of deal. And now you’ll get to try that out for yourself.

The announcement came via the video below. The beta right now is open in certain regions, and you can get into the early access. Alongside that if you live in certain cities (New York, London or Sydney), you’ll see an event called Mobs in the Park and get access to an exclusive Jolly Llama mob in-game.

The beta is available now in the UK, Australia, Canada, Iceland, Mexico and now the US. The Mobs in the Park events will run in the above listed cities for three weekends.

https://youtu.be/tzCBCoC2bjs

Minecraft is probably the biggest game in the world (though that crown may be on Fortnite‘s head, there’s debate there). It’s gotten multiple updates and will probably run in some form or another until time ends. Like all popular brands, there’s also spinoffs coming and one of the more interesting ones is Minecraft Earth, and we’ll get an early access peek at that next month.

The game is an AR based mobile app that will help transform the whole world around you into Minecraft. While the features are somewhat limited compared to the main game, as you’d expect, it’s as close to Minecraft in real life that you’ll get without going out and just building something yourself. The game will have an early access period next month, which you can see the announcement trailer for below.

Minecraft Earth will launch sometime this year for iOS and Android mobile devices. The early access period will begin sometime next month, though as of now no official date has been announced.

https://youtu.be/tzCBCoC2bjs

Minecraft is branching out a lot from its roots. With the AR based spinoff Minecraft Earth coming to mobile devices, and a new hack and slash coming in the form of the Minecraft Dungeons. But nothing beats good old classic Minecraft and now it’s getting a much wanted feature in the form of an in-game character creator.

While you’ve always been able to change to various skins that’s been released, in the upcoming update you can now customize individual aspects of your ‘Steve’ with various body sizes, limb replacements and tweaking of body features. You’ll have a choice of hundreds of different choices. You can see a partial list below or go here to read in full about the update.

Minecraft is available now across all major platforms. The beta for the next update, 1.13.0.15, is in beta on some platforms now and will also roll out to Minecraft Earth. It will eventually go live on all Bedrock Edition platforms, though no date is set as of now.

Introducing the Minecraft Character Creator

• Personalise your avatar in a number of ways, including body size and shape, limb replacement and tweaking of eyes, mouth, hairstyles and colours, facial hair and skin tones
• More than 100 items will be available for free. There will also be a range of custom accessories, created by the Minecraft team, available for purchase
• The Character Creator is currently available to beta testers, but will also roll out to Minecraft Earth, as well as all other Bedrock platforms like iOS and Nintendo Switch, once the beta has concluded
• Traditional custom skins can still be imported as before, on Windows 10 and mobile, using the following steps: Profile > Edit Character > Classic Skins tab > Owned > Import > Choose New Skin 

While it can feel like Minecraft isn’t talked about so much nowadays, don’t let that fool you, it’s still one of the biggest things that’s been created under the sun. And now it’s looking to invade the real world with Minecraft Earth, the AR mobile title that will bring the game’s building fever into reality. Now you have a chance to sign up for a beta of the game to find out what it’ll be like.

Today they released a new trailer announcing the closed beta sign ups. The game will work in a similar fashion to Pokemon GO. It will impose the Minecraft world on the real world through your phone, allowing you to build creations and place them wherever in this big planet of ours.

The sign up is for both Android and iOS devices, and you can get a special Earth themed skin for Minecraft Earth and Minecraft Bedrock when you enlist. You can check out how to do it here. There’s no official date for the game just yet, but it’s still said to be coming out this year.

While Virtual Reality is what many game companies are jumping into one way or another (even Nintendo is getting in on that action), Microsoft has decided to focus on Augmented Reality. Not long ago we talked about their teases for a AR version of the behemoth game franchise, Minecraft. Well, now, the game has been announced, being called Minecraft Earth. It’s more than just a simple AR spin-off however- it’s promising the entire Minecraft experience.

The game will use a map interface as players walk around the real world to put a Minecraft theme on everything. While it’s similar to other AR titles in that regard, such as Pokémon GO, it’s much more elaborate. It will feature “Tappables,” which are tasks you do to unlock blocks to build things either on your own or with other players. One example given at the demo event (as transcribed by Game Informer) was walking down the road and seeing a mining opportunity on the pavement, which you will do to get your materials. You will use that material and your phone’s touch screen to build structures in Minecraft fashion, even letting you place them in the real world around you to leave for other players. The developers also say this isn’t just a spin-off, it’s the whole Minecraft experience in a different way.

“We didn’t build a new Minecraft to fit AR. We didn’t reduce it. We didn’t take it away. We didn’t remove features. It is the game you know, the features that you’re used to – the mobs, the landscapes, the redstone – all those things are here for you to use.” 

Minecraft Earth will launch some time this year for both iOS and Android devices. Take a look at the official reveal trailer below.