What you need to know
- Minecraft Earth was announced in 2019 and featured on stage at WWDC 2019.
- Just two years later the game has officially shut down.
- The title was plagued by issues and never really got off the ground.
Just two years after Microsoft announced a new AR Minecraft, Minecraft Earth, the game has officially shut down as announced earlier this year.
Taking to Twitter Minecraft Earth confirmed:
Today we say farewell to Minecraft Earth. We are so incredibly thankful for this wonderful community and all the memories we have built together.
Today we say farewell to Minecraft Earth. We are so incredibly thankful for this wonderful community and all the memories we have built together. pic.twitter.com/TMMSKLlf6aToday we say farewell to Minecraft Earth. We are so incredibly thankful for this wonderful community and all the memories we have built together. pic.twitter.com/TMMSKLlf6a— Minecraft Earth (@minecraftearth) June 30, 2021June 30, 2021
Minecraft Earth announced that it would be closing down back in January, and our friends at Windows Central perfectly captured its demise:
It's not shocking to witness Minecraft Earth's demise, as the game started off rough with a strangely subdued soft launch and a myriad of foundational issues like aggressive microtransactions, gatekeeping timers, and more. With mobile gaming behemoths like Pokemon Go providing players with a never-ending stream of new content and a constantly evolving play model to adapt to current events, Minecraft Earth's glaring flaws became all the more egregious.
Mojang did try to fix many of these issues but it was too little too late.
Craig Federighi marveled at the prospect of AR Minecraft at WWDC's keynote in 2019.
Minecraft is the best-selling game of all time, and a great platform for creativity. So to see how ARKit is enabling Minecraft to go to the next level. I'm happy to welcome to the stage Lydia Winters and Saxs Persson from Mojang:
Now, the best way for users to enjoy Minecraft on iOS is through the iOS App Store, or through Microsoft's new Xbox Cloud Gaming service, which has recently rolled out to all users on Apple devices through Safari.
