In these extraordinary times, we’re reminded more than ever before of the important role games like Minecraft can play in providing an escape from the day-to-day and fostering social connections between friends and families. When schools and businesses first started closing their doors due to COVID-19, we started thinking about the different ways we could help support the Minecraft community.
Like millions of parents around the world, I am trying to balance working and homeschooling my kids full time. It is a challenge, and every little bit helps, so I am proud that we made Minecraft: Education Edition free to educators to help students stay engaged in remote learning through the end of June. We also launched the Minecraft Education Collection in the main game itself, with content from some of our most popular Marketplace partners, free through the end of June. There have been more than 50 million downloads of free educational content since it launched in the Minecraft Marketplace on March 24.
We also partnered with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on a global PSA campaign to share the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 prevention guidance. Through this partnership, innovation company AKQA also released a free “BlockDown Simulator” map in Minecraft: Java Edition to teach players effective strategies for social distancing.
I’ve been so inspired by the many ways in which the Minecraft community has come together to support each other during this challenging time, through university campus replicas, presidential celebrations, graduation ceremonies and more. In fact, this weekend our own Lydia Winters was honored to give a commencement speech for UC Berkeley students in the “Blockeley University” world they created in Minecraft.
It’s been an incredible year for Minecraft with the global rollout of Minecraft Earth, the release of the game-changing RTX beta for Windows 10 through our partnership with Nvidia, and closing out 2019 as the most viewed game on YouTube. We are humbled that there have now been more than 200 million copies of Minecraft sold to date, and 126 million people are now playing Minecraft every month. We are excited to launch Minecraft Dungeons on May 26 with Xbox Game Pass and multiple platforms, and to bring our free Nether update to Minecraft this Summer.
In celebration of Minecraft’s birthday on May 17, we unveiled an updated logo, visual identity, and refreshed name – Mojang Studios – which unifies our dual studios in Redmond and Stockholm, as well as our team members working in other regions around the world. It’s an important move that brings our teams even closer together across geographies.
Though 2020 has been an incredibly challenging year, we’re proud that Minecraft continues to inspire and connect an ever-growing global community of passionate players and creators. None of this would have been possible without the support of our amazing community. Thank
Minecraft
Microsoft Studios
$19.99
Explore randomly generated worlds and build amazing things from the simplest of homes to the grandest of castles. Play in creative mode with unlimited resources or mine deep into the world in survival mode, crafting weapons and armor to fend off the dangerous mobs.
FEATURES
Skin, texture, and mash-up packs from the community! Find out more at minecraft.net/marketplace.
ADD-ONS! Learn more at minecraft.net/addons, where you can try some examples for free or learn to create your own.
Realms! Play with up to 10 friends cross-platform in worlds that exist anytime, anywhere. Try a free 30-day trial in-app and learn more at http://minecraft.net/realms.
Xbox Live support, including achievements
Cross-platform play for up to eight players across Windows 10 PCs, Android devices, iOS phones and tablets, Xbox One, and virtual reality platforms.
Slash commands to let you tweak how the game plays – you can give items away, summon mobs, change the time of day, and more.
