Minecraft recently celebrated its 10-year anniversary in May, and few can argue the game has been anything but massive success in that time. Recently surpassing 176 million copies sold worldwide, the game is a smash hit, and members from various teams at Mojang discussed what the future holds for the game at an E3 Coliseum panel earlier today. The group spoke about various teams exploring different games within the Minecraft universe and discussed just a few on the horizon.
The first game talked about was the upcoming Minecraft Dungeons, “an action-adventure game inspired by traditional dungeon crawlers,” said Måns Olsen, Game Director for Minecraft Dungeons. The game is currently in development by small team of about 20 people in Stockholm, Sweden. Dungeons came together through a desire to take one aspect of the Minecraft core game, in this case, combat, and make it “fun and fluid and tight.” The game still does not have a solid release date but is expected to launch sometime in Spring 2020 on Xbox One, PC, Xbox Game Pass, Nintendo Switch, and PS4. You can find more information about the game on the Minecraft website.
The second game talked about was Minecraft Earth, an upcoming Minecraft game focused entirely in augmented reality (AR). “Simply put, Minecraft Earth is Minecraft in AR,” says Brad Shuber, Art Director for Minecraft Earth. During development, Shuber notes, a decision was made that the AR game “had to be the real Minecraft,” not a “stripped down” or “fake” version of the original game. To that end, players will be able to do everything they can do in the core game, alongside friends, in AR. The game will be exclusively in AR, with no option to toggle on and off, as it was developed for the awe-inspiring experience of augmented reality. Minecraft Earth plans to begin their closed-beta this summer and will be playable at launch on AR-capable devices, Android and iOS, which will support cross-play on both platforms.
You can check out the full Minecraft E3 Coliseum panel below, and be on the lookout for more news on both Minecraft Dungeons and Minecraft Earth on the Minecraft website.