{"id":100989,"date":"2019-09-28T18:00:58","date_gmt":"2019-09-28T18:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.xbox.com\/en-us\/?p=125703"},"modified":"2019-09-28T18:00:58","modified_gmt":"2019-09-28T18:00:58","slug":"celebrating-the-minecraft-community-at-minecon-live","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2019\/09\/28\/celebrating-the-minecraft-community-at-minecon-live\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating the Minecraft Community at MINECON Live"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Last month, more than 112 million people played Minecraft<\/em> <\/strong>around the world. The size and passion of the Minecraft community continues to amaze us, and more importantly, inspires us to give players new and interesting ways to play the game that brings us all together. Each year at MINECON Live, we look forward to giving the community a peek into what\u2019s new, what\u2019s happening behind the scenes, and what\u2019s to come in the months ahead.<\/p>\n

Updates on Minecraft Earth<\/em><\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Some of what we shared today is about Minecraft Earth<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 a free-to-play mobile game that blends state-of-the-art technology with a new version of Minecraft<\/em> built on the Bedrock engine. It\u2019s a game that first got its inspiration from the Minecraft HoloLens demo at E3 in 2015 and has grown into one of the world\u2019s first true augmented reality experiences on mobile.<\/p>\n

Minecraft Earth <\/em>has been in closed beta in five cities over the summer, and community feedback from the closed beta has helped us iterate on the game, getting us closer to being ready to release to a wider audience \u2013 which starts very soon. Similar to Minecraft<\/em>, we want to make Minecraft Earth<\/em> better over time, so we\u2019re going to start releasing the game in Early Access in October and adding more countries each week until we\u2019re worldwide by the end of the year.<\/p>\n

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Pre-registration for the Early Access version of Minecraft Earth<\/em> is live for Android users around the world \u2013 you can sign up right here<\/a> \u2013 and everyone should stay tuned to Minecraft.net\/Earth<\/a> for further updates.<\/p>\n

The Early Access version of the game will bring new features that players in the closed beta have yet to play, including new mob variants, crafting and smelting, and our take on social multiplayer experiences called Adventures. Adventures are small slices of Minecraft worlds that you play in augmented reality in life size. For example, your sidewalk becomes a mine and there could be diamonds under your feet, or your local park may have Minecraft trees where skeletons lurk and you can fight them, dig down into the ground and discover an abandoned mine with treasures. But don\u2019t go at it alone \u2013 some of those Adventures can include hostile mobs!<\/p>\n

Adventures and so many other parts of Minecraft Earth<\/em> rely on two critical Microsoft technologies. Azure PlayFab\u2019s dedicated servers allow Minecraft Earth\u2019s<\/em> multiplayer gameplay to scale worldwide and is the power behind hosting both Buildplates and Adventures on behalf of players.<\/p>\n

Azure Spatial Anchors (ASA) is an Azure Mixed Reality developer service that enables sharing and persistence of AR content. When you set off to your local park and find an abandoned mine with treasures, Minecraft Earth<\/em> is using the ASA service to help guide different players to the same Adventure placement. Without any need for QR scanning, ASA helps the Adventure get magically placed and aligned correctly for all players at that location.<\/p>\n

As we begin to roll the game out globally, we\u2019re prioritizing player safety to make Minecraft Earth<\/em> an enjoyable and welcoming experience for everyone. Players, parents and guardians will be able to use Xbox Live Account Management to adjust safety and privacy settings and a reporting system will allow players to report concerns like unsafe locations in-game and on our website. We\u2019ll also have a moderation team available to manage and respond to reports. It\u2019s important to us that all players feel safe and can contribute to a positive and inclusive Minecraft Earth<\/em> community.<\/p>\n

Additional MINECON Live News<\/u><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Beyond Minecraft Earth<\/em>, there\u2019s so much more that we talked about today during MINECON Live. Here are just some of those amazing things:<\/p>\n