‘Minecraft Earth’ Will Shut Down On June 30th

A little over a year after bringing Minecraft Earth in the US, Microsoft announced this week it will shut down the game later this year. Engadget reports: Minecraft Earth players have until June 30th, 2021, to play the augmented reality title before Microsoft shuts down its servers and it’s no longer available to download from app marketplaces. Developer Mojang Studios blamed…

Microsoft-Owned Minecraft Will Stop Using Amazon’s Cloud

Microsoft will stop relying on Amazon to help it run the popular Minecraft video game. CNBC reports: The shift represents an obvious way for Microsoft to cut back on payments to one of its toughest competitors and promote its own product. Amazon Web Services rules the market for public cloud infrastructure for running software from afar through vast data centers, and…

Minecraft Play Spikes, Tops 126M Builders a Month Amid COVID-19

Minecraft has already become an international phenomenon, but it keeps getting bigger. Microsoft said its 11-year-old world-building game crossed 200 million copies sold, with more than 126 million people playing each month. From a report: Much of the game’s recent success has come during the coronavirus pandemic. Microsoft said that in April, it tallied a 25% increase in the number of…

‘Minecraft’ Partners With United Nations For COVID-19 PSA Campaign

The sandbox video game Minecraft has teamed with the United Nations for a PSA campaign that aims to spread helpful information and health tips amid the coronavirus pandemic. From the Hollywood Reporter: In an official blog post on Tuesday, a spokesperson from the game’s Swedish developer wrote, “At Mojang, we find that distributing factual information is incredibly important, as that information…

Ambitious Project Seeks to Re-Create Every Structure on Earth in Minecraft

An anonymous reader quotes Rock, Paper, Shotgun:
For as long as there’s been Minecraft, there’s been people who want to re-create the world in Minecraft. For one modder, though, it’s not enough to have a to-scale replica of our pale blue dot recreated in Mojang’s block-builder. A new project named Build The Earth is looking for talented builders with too much time…