'Minecraft' offers free educational content

Minecraft

One big challenge posed by the COVID-19 pandemic is helping children with their schoolwork as over half a billion students are out of school. Minecraft is offering some of its "favorite lessons" from the Education Edition for free. There is a new Education category over at the game's Marketplace, allowing kids to explore the International Space Station or even the inside of the human eye. Minecraft also included 10 worlds from its Marketplace creator community. The free content will be available until June 30. Anyone with Minecraft for Bedrock platforms can find these worlds by launching the game and visiting the in-game store.

Source: Microsoft

Sony PlayStation 4 now supports 'Minecraft' cross-platform play

Cross-platform play support for Minecraft is coming to the Sony PlayStation 4 today, December 10. If you have the game's Bedrock Edition, then you get a unified version of Minecraft across all platforms. This update means you can play the popular sandbox game with players using an Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, Android, or iOS. The update will begin rolling out on the PS4 starting at 11 am ET. Minecraft developer Mojang confirms that purchases and progress made from other platforms will be carried over to the PS4. Bedrock will come as a free update to Minecraft players.

'Minecraft' design overhaul has been axed

Mojang/Microsoft

Minecraft won't stick with its look forever, but it looks like it's going to take some time before it gets an overhaul. Mojang just announced that it won't release the Super Duper Graphics Pack visual redesign. After two years of delays, the developer decided that it was "too technically demanding" to implement. And the company wasn't "happy" with the upgrade's performance across platforms. Instead of providing inconsistent quality across platforms, Mojang decided to just shut down the project.

The promise was to enable 4K on the Xbox One X as well as introduce more sophisticated visuals effects for areas like the atmosphere, highlights, and water. It doesn't mean that Minecraft won't get a redesign, though. Mojang is still "looking into other ways" to give Minecraft a new look. And that it has news on optimizing the constructive games on different platforms "very soon."

Source: Engadget

‘Minecraft’ celebrates 10th-year anniversary with AR game ‘Minecraft Earth’

Minecraft is celebrating its 10th year in existence. To commemorate that, its creators launched its first augmented reality mobile game, Minecraft Earth. This free-to-play game is available on both iOS and Android. With the use of Microsoft technology like Azure Spatial Anchors tracking and PlayFab integration, this brings the Minecraft game to life—at least in an AR space.

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