Minecraft Earth officially shuts down, just two years after WWDC keynote

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Apple Highlights From Wwdc2019 Lydia Winters Saxs Persson
Apple Highlights From Wwdc2019 Lydia Winters Saxs Persson (Image credit: Apple)

What you need to know

  • Minecraft Earth was announced in 2019 and featured on stage at WWDC 2019.
  • Just two years later the game has officially shut down.
  • The title was plagued by issues and never really got off the ground.

Just two years after Microsoft announced a new AR Minecraft, Minecraft Earth, the game has officially shut down as announced earlier this year.

Taking to Twitter Minecraft Earth confirmed:

Today we say farewell to Minecraft Earth. We are so incredibly thankful for this wonderful community and all the memories we have built together.

Minecraft Earth announced that it would be closing down back in January, and our friends at Windows Central perfectly captured its demise:

It's not shocking to witness Minecraft Earth's demise, as the game started off rough with a strangely subdued soft launch and a myriad of foundational issues like aggressive microtransactions, gatekeeping timers, and more. With mobile gaming behemoths like Pokemon Go providing players with a never-ending stream of new content and a constantly evolving play model to adapt to current events, Minecraft Earth's glaring flaws became all the more egregious.

Mojang did try to fix many of these issues but it was too little too late.

Craig Federighi marveled at the prospect of AR Minecraft at WWDC's keynote in 2019.

Minecraft is the best-selling game of all time, and a great platform for creativity. So to see how ARKit is enabling Minecraft to go to the next level. I'm happy to welcome to the stage Lydia Winters and Saxs Persson from Mojang:

Now, the best way for users to enjoy Minecraft on iOS is through the iOS App Store, or through Microsoft's new Xbox Cloud Gaming service, which has recently rolled out to all users on Apple devices through Safari.

Stephen Warwick
Stephen Warwick
News Editor

Stephen Warwick has written about Apple for five years at iMore and previously elsewhere. He covers all of iMore's latest breaking news regarding all of Apple's products and services, both hardware and software. Stephen has interviewed industry experts in a range of fields including finance, litigation, security, and more. He also specializes in curating and reviewing audio hardware and has experience beyond journalism in sound engineering, production, and design. Before becoming a writer Stephen studied Ancient History at University and also worked at Apple for more than two years. Stephen is also a host on the iMore show, a weekly podcast recorded live that discusses the latest in breaking Apple news, as well as featuring fun trivia about all things Apple. Follow him on Twitter @stephenwarwick9