Minecraft Earth is still far from a full-fledged release. The game has a beta program ongoing, which is available only to a precious few users. We got to know more about the game at MINECON 2019. Today, the title is set to release for a much wider audience. Minecraft Earth is officially available in early access in the US, and it's now clear that the game is free-to-play, as announced by the official Minecraft Earth Twitter handle.
Hey ??United States, we found your Minecraft Earth invite, it was behind the couch this whole time! Welcome to early access!
More information at:
↣ https://t.co/8qME5ZSuAE ↢ pic.twitter.com/KffqyP0Pv6— Minecraft Earth (@minecraftearth) November 12, 2019
The US is the tenth country to join in on the early access testing phase of the game following the United Kingdom, Canada, South Korea, the Philippines, Sweden, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and Iceland. Developer Mojang says that more regions should be added soon, but there are no dates specified. It shouldn't be much of a hassle, though. Users have always found a way to bypass regional restrictions and it'll only be a matter of time before Minecraft Earth is cracked. Here's the game trailer, in case you forgot what it looked like.
Minecraft Earth will be similar to Pokémon Go in many ways. The game will let players go out into the real world to find ‘tapables’ (the equivalent of pokéstops, essentially) and collect the resources needed to build things. The game gives you the chance to create and build on any flat surface in tabletop mode with 3D holograms. You can then place your builds at life-size with augmented reality and experience what it’s like to walk through them. It also features many of the standard Minecraft mobs along with a bunch of new ones. The game even lets you team up with other crafters and create masterpieces together.
AR-games based on real-world locations are a dime a dozen, thanks to the widespread availability of AR-ready smartphones. Most of them follow the tried and tested formula set in place by Ingress/Pokemon Go. It'll be interesting to see how Minecraft Earth stands out of the crowd. The name Minecraft will undoubtedly pull in a lot of hardcore fans of the franchise towards the game. But as we've seen with titles such as Mario Kart Tour, keeping the audience that you attracted is a completely different ballgame. You can download Minecraft Earth using this Play Store link.
