Minecraft Earth will be no more as of June 30 this year, Mojang Studios has announced today. The developer cites stay-at-home measures amid the current COVID-19 pandemic as a primary cause for the decision.
From June 30, all development on the game will cease and it will no longer be available to download.
A blog post over on the game’s official website today reads in part:
“Minecraft Earth was designed around free movement and collaborative play – two things that have become near impossible in the current global situation. As a result, we have made the difficult decision to re-allocate our resources to other areas that provide value to the Minecraft community and to end support for Minecraft Earth in June 2021.”
One final update is set to launch today, which makes the following changes:
- Removing real-money transactions
- Drastically reducing ruby costs
- Including all completed, unreleased content currently in our pipeline
- Reducing time requirements for crafting and smelting
- Replacing unused crafting & smelting boosts with radius boosts of the same level
- Granting a set of Character Creator items to players who sign in between January 5 and June 30
For those who have invested money into Minecraft Earth’s in-game economy will be granted Minecoins to use on the Minecraft Marketplace to purchase skin and texture packs, maps, and even minigames. And if you don’t own Minecraft, don’t worry — you’ll receive a free copy of the game’s Bedrock Edition as well.
Minecraft Earth is an AR game for mobile devices that was first announced last year in May. The game makes use of Microsoft’s Azure technology, which also now powers its xCloud streaming service and, soon, Sony’s PS Now service too.
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