Petr Škuta Microsoft is jumping on the augmented reality bandwagon with its own Minecraft Earth title. The cube-building phenomenon will thus join the side of the long-successful Pokemon Go from Niantic. But will Redmond catch up to the competition?
Microsoft intends to bring the entire world of Minecraft from computer screens to the outside. At least that's what the promotional materials say, which perhaps ignores the fact that you'll still be staring at the screen. Just mobile and in augmented reality.
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Head of game development Torfi Olafsson takes the world of Minecraft more as an inspiration, rather than a dogmatic model. Earth will thus contain the basic elements and mechanics from the standard version of the game, but the controls and procedures will be completely adapted to the possibilities of augmented reality.
Olafsson enthuses that they have essentially covered the entire Earth with the world of Minecraft. Thus, many real-world locations will harbor opportunities for gameplay. For example, you chop wood in the park, catch fish at the pond, and so on. Tapables will be randomly generated in designated locations. The principle will be very similar to Pokéstops in Pokémon GO, which are often significant real-world objects.
Minecraft Earth in the summer only for some and without a clear source of income
Microsoft intends to use data from OpenStreetMap for generation. Thanks to this, even special quests called simply adventures will work. In the more dangerous ones, you will come across monsters that will try to exchange your weapons or even your life.
Adventures are primarily multiplayer to enhance the social aspect of the game. But friends and strangers can join forces and complete the adventure together to achieve the desired rewards.
Minecraft Earth will begin closed beta this summer. So far, it is not at all clear who will get into the game and how. In addition, Microsoft itself is still not even clear about what monetization model it will choose. They certainly won't want to tie game mechanics too much to microtransactions, especially not from the start.
Some of the journalists invited to the press conference are excited about the game for now, even those who have not yet had the honor of Minecraft. Earth will be available on both iOS and Android. However, the entire demo during the press conference was provided by iPhone XS.
