Mojang announced that tale of Minecraft Earth soon comes to an end. The promising augmented reality experience will go offline for good this summer.
This decision isn’t entirely groundless either. Minecraft Earth originally launched for mobile devices in the fall of 2019. Mere months before Covid. Similar to Pokemon Go, it revolved heavily around augmented reality and actual physical traveling.
That’s pretty much impossible to do these days, thanks to the Coronavirus pandemic. So, it doesn’t come as a huge surprise that Mojang is pulling the plug. Or soon to be more precise. Minecraft Earth will still work until June. Only then will the servers go offline and the game will stop to work. A real shame, for the promising and unique experience.
Unlike virtual reality, augmented reality is already easily available for hundreds of millions of users thanks to smartphones. Building huge objects together with strangers in the real world sounded like so much fun. Add on that the positive effect of making people actually venture outside and explore new locations, and you had a really promising game in your hands.
But 2020 proved too harsh for Minecraft Earth, however. There is a silver lining though in the form of a final update. This update completely removes microtransactions. Furthermore, it drastically reduces time requirements and more. It’s basically a farewell gift that allows users to build and craft almost without any hurdles.
But the good news don’t end there. As a final gift, users who purchased in-game items will also receive a free copy of Minecraft Bedrock Edition. That’s the version for mobile devices.
So, for those who enjoyed Minecraft Earth or want to give it a try before it’s too late, this is a sweet final gift from Mojang. And the home stretch towards its closure in six months. Hopefully, the studio will return to it once the pandemic goes over.
