38 7 - 20August 2019
The be st-selling PC game of all time is launchin g its block-building
fun on the real world D id C k l h t t t
Minecraft Earth
What is it?
Minecraft Earth is the latest iter atio
one of the globe’s most successful
gaming franchises, and this time it i
bursting out of its in-gameworld.
By branching intoreal life using
augmentedreality (AR), the block-
building game isoverlaying virtual
creations on thestreets and
spaces aroundyou, paving the
way for a whole new mobile
experience thatcould be
gaming’s next big thing.
How different will it be?
Like the original Minecraft, whichw
released in 2011, Minecraft Earth allows
players to gatherresources, engage in
crafting and buildstructures that others
can enjoy andexplore. The big difference
is that it will create a living, breathing
parallel land in which the objectsyou
construct are placed in specificreal-
world locations in life-size AR.When
other players wanderby, they’ll be able
to see thosestructures through their
phones or tablets and interact with them.
Creation and discovery iskey.
So is it a blockbuster
in the making?
Time willtell but developer Microsoft is
hoping so. Not only is it building ona
strong user base of 91 million active
opportunityto express their creative side
on afar grander scale than before.
Microsoft has also seen the impact of
Niantic’s AR game,Pokémon Go, which
peakedat 147 million monthly users in
May 2018 and has been downloaded
more than a billion times.The appetite
for usingreal-world settings and mobile
devices’ GPS appearsstrong.How does itwork?
The game looks setto appeal on
numerous levels but adventuring isat its
heart. Players will be thrown into a virtual
world based on a precise geographical
location such as theirreal-life
neighbourhood, a beach, a park or a city,
viewing the action through their phones
or tablets and doing all
they can in that area,
whether mining
resources, battling
against hostile mobs
(the game’s creatures)
or getting creative.
What’s intriguing is
that everyone enjoying
the game will see the
exact same thing
through their phones
if they are in the same
location. Microsoft
believes this will help
make the game the
killer appfor AR.How does thegame know
where players are?
First of all, Microsoft is breaking the
world down into the smallest of blocks
by using open-sourced OpenStreetMap
datato crea te procedurally generated
adventures. It’ll determine how suited the
location isfor gameplay, thereby figuringFAQEverything you need to know about the mostinteresting new technology trends and eventsrld. David Crookes reveals what to expectn ofgaming franchises, and this time it is
wasMinecraft players, but thecompany
believes gamers will enjoy theMinecraft Earth places full-sizeversionsof structuresyou create
in thereal world
If you build a big ship in Minecraft Earth,
other players will seeyour ship,too