Minecraft Earth Will Shutdown in June

About

Minecraft Earth was an augmented reality sandbox game developed by Mojang Studios and published by Xbox Game studios. A spin-off of the video game Minecraft, it was first announced in May 2019, and was available on Android and iOS. The game was free-to-play, and was first released in early access on 17 October 2019. The game received it's final update in January 2021 and officially shut down on  June 30, 2021.

Throughout 2019, Microsoft experimented with building a real-world, augmented reality Minecraft game designed in the same vein as Pokémon GO. Called Minecraft Earth, they finally opened it up to everyone in November of 2019.

In just a few months, it’ll shut down and all player data will be deleted.

So what happened? Writes the Minecraft Earth team:

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.

In other words: This game just isn’t going to work in a pandemic. Pokémon GO might be doing just fine thanks to a strong foundation of super-dedicated players and a steady stream of curious newcomers, but it’d be pretty damned hard to go from zero to 60 with a real-world game when everyone is supposed to be staying at home.

Minecraft Earth is live, so get tapping.

What happens next:

The team is releasing one final patch that removes all in-app purchases and makes all in-game mechanics easier/faster to make the most of any remaining play time.

On June 30th, the game shuts down. Even if you’ve got it installed already, it’ll stop working.

On July 1st, they’re deleting all player data.

Anyone who has spent any money in Minecraft Earth is getting a free copy of Minecraft Bedrock version, and players who have unused paid Minecraft Earth rubies will get an unspecified amount of Minecoins that’ll work in Minecraft-proper’s marketplace.

It’s a disappointing end to what was really a pretty cool concept — but if they’re announcing its shutdown barely a year after launch, the data probably suggest there’s not much else they can do.