Mojang’s MineCon Live 2019 showcase was jam-packed with Minecraft-related announcements, including incoming new biomes and the worldwide early access launch of Minecraft Earth. Ten years after its launch, Minecraft is still very popular, recently reaching more than 100 million active monthly players.

As popular as it is, Minecraft has spawned several spinoff games, and there’s even a Minecraft movie in development. The Pokémon GO-like Minecraft Earth will bring Minecraft building into the real world with augmented reality resource gathering and construction, and the Diablo-style Minecraft Dungeons changes up the traditional Minecraft formula completely, focusing on dungeon crawling and loot collecting. It hasn’t been all good news for Minecraft developments, though: the 4K, Minecraft Super Duper Graphics Pack was cancelled two years after its announcement, and the shutdown of Telltale games made the narrative-focused Minecraft: Story Mode games permanently unavailable.

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Still, it appears the Minecraft brand is going strong. Mojang made several big announcements about both the main game and its spinoffs during MineCon 2019. Chief among these was the announcement of The Nether Update, which will introduce three new biomes and two new mobs to the Nether. The Soulsand Valley biome is particularly striking, swapping the Nether’s signature red and orange color palette for dark brown walls and blue flames. Mojang also announced that a community poll held prior to MineCon decided that the Mountains biome will be getting a similar redesign in the future. The recently beta-tested Minecraft bee update will be coming to Java and Bedrock platforms soon, along with the new, sticky honey block. In addition to these additions, Mojang announced equippable capes will be coming to Minecraft this fall, and the Minecraft character creator tool will be coming to both Minecraft and Minecraft Earth.

Speaking of the mobile AR title, Minecraft Earth will soon graduate from its closed beta days and enter early access. Players around the world will be able to play the early access version of the game beginning in October. In other spinoff news, Mojang revealed the opening cinematic for Minecraft Dungeons, and the company announced Minecraft: Builders & Biomes, the series’ first official board game. Builders & Biomes, developed by board game producer Ravensburger, tasks players with collecting, building, mining and defeating enemies in order to earn the most experience points and secure victory.

While all of this could be exciting news for Minecraft fans, the imminent release of Minecraft Earth has the most potential to make an impact on the gaming community as a whole. Few things have as close to the universal appeal of Pokémon as Minecraft‘s simple, collect-and-build mechanics. If any mobile game could become a major phenomenon like Pokémon GO, it’s Minecraft Earth.

Source: Mojang

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Camden Jones
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