Mojang Studios announced its AR mobile game Minecraft Earth will be shutting down on June 30, 2021. The "difficult decision" was made because the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has made Minecraft Earth's tenets of free movement and collaborative play "near impossible," Mojang said in a blog post, and thus it will be re-allocating resources to support other parts of the community.
Minecraft Earth was first announced in May 2019 with features reminiscent of Niantic's AR game Pokemon GO, promising to let players explore real-life locations to gather resources, collect mobs, and then build virtual structures over a live backdrop. After releasing through Early Access in October 2019, the game reached nearly 2.5 million downloads in its first week according to Sensor Tower, and it has continued to update with mechanics such as pistons.
A new patch released for Minecraft Earth today alongside the announcement, which according to Mojang is meant to "make your time in Minecraft Earth as fun as possible." Real-money transactions are being removed; in-game currency costs are being "drastically reduced;" and players will receive special cosmetics, extra boosts, and "all completed, unreleased content."
Among this unreleased content are 9 new mobs that serve as variants of the main cast of animals, similar to the Moobloom that almost become a Minecraft mob in a live vote during Minecraft Live 2020. There will be a five-month long "super season" of content to send off the game before it shuts down in June, deleting all player data and becoming unable to download or play.
Minecraft Earth users will have their in-game currency converted into Minecoins, used to purchase things like skins or texture packs, and anyone who has made a purchase will receive a free copy of Minecraft Bedrock edition. While it is a shame to see Minecraft Earth could not make the same transition to play-at-home features as Pokemon GO, it should be interesting to see what the studio elects to focus its resources on next.
Minecraft Earth is available on Android and iOS devices until June 30, 2021.
Sources: Minecraft, Patch Notes, Sensor Tower