In this first-ever look at Minecraft Earth, discover how the reality-bending, world-blending abilities of AR bring blocks to life! Armed with just your phone and your creativity, you now have the power to Minecraft your world. Learn how at
https://minecraft.net/earth Microsoft wants you to see Minecraft everywhere you look: a virtual tree on your lawn, a life-sized castle sticking through your house and an elaborate cave system hidden beneath your local park. This is Minecraft Earth, a free-to-play version of one of the most popular games ever made, rebuilt around augmented reality for the iPhone and Android. Similar to Pokémon Go, which popularized AR gaming in a massive way, it relies on your smartphone as a window into a virtual world. But unlike that game, Minecraft Earth is completely committed to the notion of augmented reality. You're not just running into a random Pikachu on the sidewalk, you're building elaborate Minecraft creations that everyone else can see. The title says it all: It's a planet-wide Minecraft takeover. "There are these moments in digital entertainment and technology, where you have not just one, but a number of enabling technologies coming online at the same time," Torfi Olafsson, Minecraft Earth's game director, said in an interview with media. "It's this confluence that happens where, when you put them together, products appear that could never have appeared before."
Specifically, he's referring to the supercomputers we're all carrying around in our hands, which have powerful cameras and horsepower for advanced visual computing. But there are also plenty of other advancements that made Minecraft Earth possible: Olafsson points to Microsoft's massive Azure datacenter presence around the world, huge investments in augmented reality, better GPS capabilities and faster mobile networks (especially upcoming 5G speeds). It also helps, of course, that Minecraft is one of the most widely recognized games around. (In 2017, it was searched more often on YouTube than cats and all music combined, according to Minecraft executive producer Jesse Merriam.) But Minecraft Earth isn't just about building miniature environments: You can also step into life-sized versions of your creations. For our next demo, my media friends and I dropped into a small castle-like room where skeletons were gearing up to attack us. I cleared out a few ahead of me with a crossbow, but for some reason, I was still taking damage. I had to physically turn around to see another baddie whaling on me -- but before I could retaliate, one of my colleagues took care of it. Adventures like this will pop up all over the world and will offer rewards like treasure and rare blocks to brave adventurers.
Minecraft Earth is still ultimately the same game we've been playing
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evtFay52Dx0