Mojang Announces Plans to Shut Down AR Service ‘Minecraft Earth’

Nearly two years after it launched, developer Mojang announced plans to shut down augmented reality service Minecraft Earth.

In the official announcement, the Minecraft Earth team revealed that the game may not survive with the ongoing global health crisis.

“Minecraft Earth was designed around free movement and collaborative play — two things that have become near impossible in the current global situation,” Mojang announced. “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.”

Minecraft Earth is an AR spinoff that, rather like Pokémon Go, brings the beasts and blocks of Minecraft into the real world by way of your mobile device. It was announced in May 2019 and a month later made an impressive appearance at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, which showcased its scalability and co-op gameplay elements.

Minecraft Earth will be closing down in June 2021. Please read our full message below for details. We appreciate all the support from the community!

🌍 https://t.co/RqMPIwOSkC pic.twitter.com/Ph2x8isf1g

— Minecraft Earth (@minecraftearth) January 5, 2021

In an official blog post, Microsoft has stated that the company decided to end  support for the AR game and re-allocate the resources for other tasks. According to the announcement, the game needed free movement and collaborative play of the users which is impossible in these testing times.

This last update brings the app to Version 0.33.0 and effectively boosts the entire game so that players can progress through it and level up at a much faster rate before Minecraft Earth goes offline later this year.

Crafting and smelting times have been reduced, drop rates have been increased, and build plate store costs have also been reduced. A large number of new mobs and variants have also been added to the game.

“We want to take a moment to thank all of the players and creators that are bringing new adventures, mobs, and free in-game items for the community to enjoy while we finalize our timeline for sunsetting the game. Your feedback and creations brought this game to an entirely different level, from the regular build challenges you absolutely smashed to the incredible builds you shared on social media,” Mojang said. “We’re eternally grateful for the amazing talent in the Minecraft community. This was not an easy decision, and we’re doing everything we can to make sure you get the most out of Minecraft Earth before it sunsets.”