In Minecraft Earth, you’ll be able to experience augmented reality adventures using your smartphone’s camera on a compatible Android and iOS device. For Android, your phone needs to be powerful enough to run ARCore, complete with Android version 7 or above, for iPhones, you’ll need iOS version 10 or higher. In this guide, we’ll show you how to check that your phone is compatible with Minecraft Earth.
Products used in this guide
Most affordable modern iPhone: iPhone XR (From $749 at Apple)
Best value Android flagship: OnePlus 7 Pro (From $670 at OnePlus)
Most affordable AR Android phone: Pixel 3A ($400 from Amazon)
How to check your version of iOS on iPhone or iPad
iOS devices like iPhones and iPads differ slightly in their settings menus, but the general execution is the same. Ensure your iPad or iPhone is rocking all the latest updates, and you can then easily find whether or not it’s compatible using this quick guide.
Update your iPhone to the latest available OS version.
Open the Settings app.
Select General.
Select About.
Check your Version is 10 or higher.
How to check your version of Android
The menus vary wildly across Android devices since it allows developers a large degree of freedom for customizing the software. Generally though, the Android version is almost always found in the “About” section. Here’s how to find it.
Update your Android phone to the latest available OS version.
2019 is the 10th anniversary of Minecraft, one of the biggest games in the world. As part of its ongoing celebration, publisher Microsoft revealed today that lifetime sales of Minecraft have surpassed 176 million copies across consoles, PC, and mobile. It also said that developer Mojang is working on a new game in the beloved franchise. No, it’s not Minecraft 2. But it has the potential to be bigger than that.
Minecraft Earth is a free-to-play augmented reality game for iOS and Android that transports the familiar block-building gameplay into the real world. You’ll gather resources, fight against mobs (Minecraft’s deadly monsters), and interact with other people’s creations. Mojang will launch a closed beta this summer, and you can sign up for it here.
In a blog post, Microsoft said Minecraft Earth is using the company’s Azure Spatial Anchors AR tracking technology and integrates with its backend platform PlayFab.
If the worldwide success of Niantic’s Pokémon Go is anything to go by, Minecraft Earth should have no trouble finding a dedicated audience — just think of the millions of children who grew up with the original game. Minecraft is also known for having absurdly creative players who build the most intricate sculptures, and giving them the tools to put their creations into AR is an exciting prospect.
It’ll be a busy summer for Mojang. In addition to running the Minecraft Earth beta, the developer will be preparing to host its annual Minecon livestream (which use to be a physical conference) on September 28.
That’s usually the time where Mojang reveals big new updates about Minecraft, and assuming Minecraft Earth isn’t out yet, perhaps we’ll hear more about the new mobile game as well.
Above: Hard to believe that the game came out in 2009.Image Credit: Mojang
A strong but complicated legacy
Before Fortnite took the crown, Minecraft was gaming’s biggest pop culture phenomenon, leading to the creation of spinoffs, a boatload of toys, and other miscellaneous merchandise. More than 91 million people still play the game every month. A lot of streaming and YouTube personalities built their careers off creating videos that chronicle their Minecraft adventures.
The game’s ubiquity is one big reason for its success. While Minecraft originally launched on PC, it’s now available on practically every modern platform, including virtual reality headsets like Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR. The Minecraft Marketplace, where players can sell their fancy builds, also provides fresh content on a consistent basis.
Most of this expansion came after Microsoft bought the game and Mojang from original creator Markus “Notch” Persson for $2.5 billion in 2014. As GamesBeat PC Gaming editor Jeff Grubb wrote in March, the reclusive developer has turned into a “bizarre internet creep” who regularly espouses conspiracy theories on social media.
But with the recent removal of Notch’s name from Minecraft’s splash screen (he’s still in the credits), Microsoft has been slowly trying to distance itself away from him. And that’s for the best, especially as the company prepares to launch another potentially lucrative version of the game.
The Minecraft Marketplace had another huge month thanks to its Spring Sale. Players zipped into the store for 7,409,421 downloads. That’s approximately double March’s 3,705,978 downloads.
For the Spring Sale, Microsoft invited fans to get up to 75% off the various items in the Marketplace. It ran from April 19 through April 21, and seems like another big success for building the Minecraft Marketplace brand.
Top 10 most downloaded
10. Dreamlife
1. City Living
1. City Living by Noxcrew
Get the full lifestyle experience with luxury apartments, office buildings, and even vehicles you can drive. Pick your perfect home or take in the sights. Customize your world with brand new models, blocks, and textures. Comes with 30 free skins.
2. Pet Shop by PixelHeads
Welcome to Pet Shop! Choose between 17 lovely pets. Explore a town and earn coins by collecting poop or by catching stray animals. Play fetch with dogs, trim a poodle, or take a snake for a walk!
3. Dragons by InPVP
Take one of six dragons to the skies and become a legendary dragon rider! Surprise your enemies with custom attacks. Shoot fireballs and drop TNT. Explore three huge castles and the beautiful custom landscape.
4. Luxury Life by PixelHeads
Luxury Life is a world where you role-play life as a billionaire. Cruise the streets in a sports car or any of the 10 other vehicles, explore luxurious mansions and decorate with furniture!
5. Springtime by CubeCraft
Spring is here! Dress up as a cute Easter bunny or choose from a variety of pastel colored outfits – even onesies!
6. Dinosaur Island by PixelHeads
Overrun by prehistoric beasts after the scientists lost control of their genetic experiments, explore and discover the hidden mysteries of this intriguing island.
7. City Life by PixelHeads
Cruise through the big city in City Life! Chase down a bandit in your police car, save the day as a firefighter, or take your dog for a walk.
8. Steven Universe Mash-Up by Minecraft
Steven enters the Minecraft universe in this Diamond-worthy Mash-up! Contains Steven Universe themed skins, textures, original music from the show, and all your favorite locations, from Beach City to Homeworld.
9. City Mash-Up by Everbloom Studios
With over 1,000 hand-detailed rooms, there are stories, secrets, and mini-games around every corner. Build with the city’s full texture pack in your own worlds or take on any role you can imagine!
10. Dreamlife by Shapescape
Welcome to your Dreamlife! Get a tan at the beach, go shopping at the city mall with your friends, relax at the pool, or tear up the neighborhood in your own monster truck. Dress up fancy, sporty, or casual with our 12 included free skins.
Top 10 highest grossing
2. Pet Shop
1. City Living
1. City Living by Noxcrew
Get the full lifestyle experience with luxury apartments, office buildings, and even vehicles you can drive. Pick your perfect home or take in the sights. Customize your world with brand new models, blocks, and textures. Comes with 30 free skins.
2. Pet Shop by PixelHeads
Welcome to Pet Shop! Choose between 17 lovely pets. Explore a town and earn coins by collecting poop or by catching stray animals. Play fetch with dogs, trim a poodle, or take a snake for a walk!
3. Dragons by InPVP
Take one of six dragons to the skies and become a legendary dragon rider! Surprise your enemies with custom attacks. Shoot fireballs and drop TNT. Explore three huge castles and the beautiful custom landscape.
4. Luxury Life by PixelHeads
Luxury Life is a world where you role-play life as a billionaire. Cruise the streets in a sports car or any of the 10 other vehicles, explore luxurious mansions, and decorate with furniture!
5. City Mash-Up by Everbloom Studios
With over 1,000 hand-detailed rooms, there are stories, secrets, and minigames around every corner. Build with the city’s full texture pack in your own worlds or take on any role you can imagine!
6. Steven Universe Mash-Up by Minecraft
Steven enters the Minecraft universe in this Diamond-worthy Mash-up! Contains Steven Universe themed skins, textures, original music from the show, and all your favorite locations, from Beach City to Homeworld.
7. Dinosaur Island by PixelHeads
Overrun by prehistoric beasts after the scientists lost control of their genetic experiments, explore and discover the hidden mysteries of this intriguing island.
8. The Nightmare Before Christmas by Minecraft
A nightmare? Before Christmas? Enjoy this themed pack by Minecraft.
9. City Life by PixelHeads
Cruise through the big city in City Life! Chase down a bandit in your police car, save the day as a firefighter or take your dog for a walk.
10. Advanced Farming by Gamemode One
Farm your heart out with new machines, vehicles, animals, pets, vendors, characters, and lands to explore. This peaceful and relaxing roleplay countryside experience also includes custom sounds and music!
Minecraft is getting a free “Deep Sea Mash-up Pack” starting today.
You have to play the game between now and June 3 to automatically earn it.
It’s only available on “Bedrock” platforms so PlayStation 4 players don’t qualify.
Minecraft has become a cultural sensation over the years and now reaches over 90 million gamers every month. Mojang has released a number of updates which have added tremendous depth to the experience. That includes a lot of free content like skin packs.
Today, the team announced that the “Deep Sea Mash-up Pack” is free until June 3. This mostly features a new map to explore and skins. The studio said the following in its announcement.
Right in time for summer, we’re giving away a fabulous map to help you explore the depths of the oceans – for free! If you’ve had your eye on Cyclone Designs’ Deep Sea Mash-Up but haven’t taken the plunge yet, there’s no better time to dive into Minecraft and explore than this weekend. Just log in with your Microsoft account and play Minecraft any time from May 31…June 3…and earn the Deep Sea Mash-up Pack for free! That’s all you have to do, we’ll handle the rest. You can earn one map per person, and your free map will be accessible approximately a week after in your account in the Minecraft Marketplace.
It seems that this promotion only applies to Minecraft on Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Windows 10, iOS, Android, and Gear VR. Since Sony still hasn’t adopted the “Bedrock” edition of the game, PlayStation 4 players are out of luck.
You can purchase Minecraft through each of these platforms’ stores, but if you’re on Xbox One, it’s available with Xbox Game Pass. You just have to subscribe for $10 a month and you’ll be given immediate access to the game as well as over a hundred titles.
For the second video in our award-deserving 10 Things series, we’re looking back at ten years of Minecraft! Get ready for some gasp-inducing revelations about the origins of our horses, unlikely ways to get milk, and the game we almost made instead of Minecraft!
Aladdin earned an estimated $86 million over the Fri-Sun portion of its projected $105 million debut weekend. That’s no record, but it’s higher than the over/under $90 million pre-release tracking. It’s also a better debut than last year’s Disney’s Solo: A Star Wars Story. That Han Solo prequel earned $84 million Fri-Sun and $103 million over its Fri-Mon debut weekend. The problem was that reshoots and a director swap sent that film’s budget soaring to around $275 million. While $183 million for Aladdin isn’t cheap, it’s cheaper than $275 million and there’s little reason not to presume that Aladdin will perform a lot better overseas than the mostly ignored Star Wars Story.
Presuming Disney isn’t under-estimating the Sunday/Monday numbers, it will have earned a 3.38x four-day weekend multiplier, just below Alice Through the Looking Glass (3.45x in 2016) and above almost every recent “opened on a Friday” Memorial Day weekend release save for Alice 2 and Men In Black 3 ($69 million from a $17.6 million Friday) back in 2012. The film received mixed reviews but strong audience polling results. Warts and all, the film delivers on its promises of a big-scale live-action redo of Aladdin and mostly works as a blustery and colorful live-action musical with a fine cast and strong production values. The script’s a mess, but it works as surface level entertainment no matter your feelings about its source material.
Yes, there is a lot of family-friendly entertainment (Secret Life of Pets 2, Toy Story 4, Men in Black International) and at least one potentially huge musical (Rocketman) on tap over the next few weeks. However, let’s presume that the Mena Massoud/Naomi Scott/Will Smith/Marwan Kenzari/Nasim Perdrad musical romance plays like a normal Memorial Day biggie. For reference, the outliers in both directions are X-Men: The Last Stand ($234 million from a $122 million Fri-Mon debut in 2006) and Men In Black 3 ($179 million from a $69 million debut in 2012). An “average” 2.11x multiplier (Days of Future Past with a $233 million cume from a $110 million debut in 2014) gives Aladdin a $222 million cume.
An upper-level multiplier (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and Alice Through the Looking Glass) gives it a 2.29x multiplier and an over/under $241 million domestic cume while a lower level multiplier of around 1.97x (Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End and X-Men: Apocalypse) still gives it a $207 million domestic finish. Yes, Memorial Day releases tend to be relatively front-loaded in terms of earning much of their money in the first four days (or five days, depending on when it opens) of domestic release. That’s why it’s a big deal for Walt Disney that the much-discussed Guy Ritchie flick over performed this weekend.
With a $121 million overseas debut, that gives the flick a $207 million global opening, not yet counting whatever it will earn in North America and overseas on Monday. That’s a 41/59 domestic/overseas split, and that’s with a “meh” $18.7 million debut weekend in China. Not every big movie can count on hitting pay dirt in China, but Aladdin is doing well enough here and in the rest of the world that it won’t need a bail out from the biggest overseas market in the world, albeit on that usually only gives the studio 25% of a given ticket sale.
Disney may have another live-action biggie that isn’t a superhero movie, and it does somewhat break their curse of doomed Memorial Day weekend releases (Prince of Persia, Tomorrowland, Alice Through the Looking Glass and Solo). While it may not end up earning that much more in North America than Solo: A Star Wars Story ($213.5 million), it’s probably going to do better overseas. Alice 2 earned 75% of its money overseas, Dumbo recently earned 67% of its (mediocre) $347 million global cume overseas. A 40/60 split (like Beauty and the Beast) from a $220 million domestic cume (same legs as Solo) gets it to $580 million.
That’s no Sultan’s ransom, but it’s 3.21x the $183 million production budget. That’s presuming it doesn’t really leg out and/or over perform overseas. Will Smith will help in that department, as he helped get Suicide Squad to $745 million without China in 2016, while both Men in Black 3 in 2012and Hancock in 2008 overcame bad pre-release buzz to earn $624 million global. Being stupidly optimistic, a $259 million domestic total and a 35/65 split (right between The Jungle Book’s 37% domestic portion of its $966 million global cume and Alice in Wonderland’s 33% domestic portion of its $1.025 billion worldwide gross) gets this one to $740 million worldwide.
Yes, Aladdin could crash and burn after opening weekend, or perhaps just not be that big of a deal overseas even with Will Smith as the Genie. But now that the film has opened and is playing to big crowds of mostly satisfied customers, the hard part is over. For what it’s worth, the film is yet more evidence that onscreen inclusivity either helps with big movies that folks were going to see anyway or is not remotely any kind of deterrent. I can’t say yet whether more folks showed up to Aladdin due to the ethnic makeup of its cast, but it sure as hell didn’t scare anyone away.
