Minecraft Earth: Microsoft drops blocks on stage at Apple’s WWDC event

Jun 5, 2019

Microsoft demos new iOS specific Minecraft Earth features at WWDC.

Minecraft Earth

Microsoft demoed its latest creation in Minecraft; Minecraft Earth at Apple’s 2019 Worldwide Developers Conference(WWDC). The augmented reality (AR) game was announced last month and will be released on iOS and Android. Saxs Persson and Lydia Winters, Minecraft Creative Director and Mojang Brand Director were on stage for the hologram demonstrations.

The directors showed off the game on a tabletop before moving it out to cover the whole stage. Then showed off some cool things like immersing themselves in the game. A fully interactive world they called it.

What is Minecraft

Minecraft is a randomly generated world filled with secrets, wonders and peril where players place blocks and go on adventures. Players can build whatever they can imagine with limitless resources in the creative mode. Or explore the world and mine its resources to feed, house and defend themselves in the survival mode.

Minecraft Earth and AR

Minecraft Earth

Minecraft Earth brings augmented reality to Minecraft letting users experience the mobile game in our world. It gives you the same immersive feel as Pokémon Go. Allowing players to interact with builds in real life. Taking advantage of new iOS-only features, it was demoed that players can even step into builds.

Microsoft says you can build in tabletop mode with 3D holograms and then bring those creations to life with full-size augmented reality. Thanks to some new iOS-only features, you can even step into your builds yourself. 

Two new technologies introduced to make the AR game immersive is People Occlusion and Motion capture. People Occlusion will let players show up in their build. Players will be able to walk through their builds as if they existed in real life. More so other players will be able to see players mess around inside their own build. Motion Capture, on the other hand allows players to trigger pre-set animations for their in-game character. Mirroring the actions of the player.

Tom Warren of The Verge got to hear about and experience the game and shares this in depth. It will be coming out officially on iOS this summer, but you can signup to try it now.