Mojang Studios’s augmented reality sandbox mobile game, Minecraft Earth, will have its content and services discontinued in June 2021.

The game released in early access in October of last year. While it certainly seems promising, its launch date was untimely. As a game that made use of movement and travel in real life, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic became a huge deterrent that hampered the title’s growth.

Besides the announcement of the game’s service termination, Mojang also released a new (and final) update to the game. According to Minecraft.net, some of the changes to Minecraft Earth include:

• Drastically reducing ruby costs
• Including all completed, unreleased content currently in the game’s pipeline
• Reducing time requirements for crafting and smelting
• Replacing unused crafting & smelting boosts with radius boosts of the same level
• Granting a set of Character Creator items to players who sign in between January 5 and June 30

On 30th June, the game officially shuts down. As a result, all players will not be able to download or play Minecraft Earth past that date. All player data will be deleted on July 1st.

In addition, the game has removed all real-money transactions. For players who have made in-app purchases, Mojang is offering free copies of Minecraft Bedrock version. Players with unused paid Minecraft Earth rubies will receive an unspecified amount of Minecoins. Spend Minecoins in the Minecraft Marketplace to buy various skins, texture packs, mini games and other items.

While it is a shame that Minecraft Earth is ending soon, we hope that players enjoy the game until its eventual discontinuation.

Minecraft Earth

Developer: Mojang

Release Date TBC

Android, iOS

Discover a new dimension of Minecraft as you create, explore, and survive in the real world. Join a community of builders and explorers spanning the planet, collect resources for your builds, craft in augmented reality and then place them at life-size. You can even team up with others for mini-adventures!