Minecraft Earth finally started its early access roll-out . The game is now available for download for users in New Zealand and Iceland only, with more countries available soon.
New Zealand and Iceland are relatively small countries and large companies often roll out new software first to only a small percentage of the market to test out stability of their systems. So this appears to be a test before launching early access in larger markets like the US, UK and Australia. Some people were previously invited to a small, closed beta from July onward. However, the early access launch will allow anyone to download and play the game once it launches in their country.
Minecraft Earth is here! Starting today, we will begin to roll out early access from country to country, starting with: 🇳🇿 New Zealand 🇮🇸 Iceland Not a citizen of either land? Stay tuned as we announce the next countries soon!
↣ https://t.co/8qME5ZSuAE ↢ pic.twitter.com/t01ro9wwlm
— Minecraft Earth (@minecraftearth) October 17, 2019
The hotly-anticipated mobile AR game allows you to explore and build a virtual Minecraft world in your real-life surroundings. While the game shares some similar elements to other popular AR mobile games like Pokemon Go or Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, it also offers some unique gameplay elements setting it apart. For example, the building mechanics will let you construct and draft small versions of a structure indoors, before heading outside to place it down in the AR world.
The game will also offer “adventures,” which are little events placed around the map. Anyone can participate in them and their gameplay varies, including combat-based events, puzzles, and mining challenges. The adventures mode was announced last month at Minecon – it’s worth taking a look at some of the demo footage to get a better idea of how it works.
Be sure to keep an eye out for future updates on Minecraft Earth early access availability – the next countries will be announced soon.
