“Minecraft Earth was designed around free movement and collaborative play – two things that have become almost impossible in the current global situation,” wrote the team on a blog. Other AR games, like Pokémon Go, faced similar obstacles related to COVID during the pandemic.Still, developers will support Minecraft Earth until June 2021 and are releasing yet another update before the end that will allow players to enjoy the game before the shutdown.
As part of the update, Minecraft Earth will remove real money transactions, dramatically reduce ruby costs, add all content – complete and unreleased, reduce manufacturing and casting time requirements, replace unused manufacturing and casting impulses for radius increases and will grant a set of Character Creator items to anyone who logs in between January 5 and June 30.
Then, on June 30, Mojang will discontinue all content and service support for Minecraft Earth. It also means that people will no longer be able to download or play Minecraft Earth. On July 1, Mojang will delete all Minecraft Earth player data not related to Character CreatorAs another bonus, anyone who paid for the game’s currency will receive Minecoins that can be used on Minecraft Marketplace, and anyone who has made a purchase on Minecraft Earth will receive a free copy of Minecraft Bedrock Edition.
IGN has a brief overview of Minecraft Earth here if you are interested in checking out the AR game before sunset forever on June 30th.