More information coming May 17th, Minecraft’s 10-year anniversary.
10 years. It’ s been 10 years since the launch of what can only be described as one of the most influential video games in the history of entertainment. Released back in May of 2019, Minecraft’s deceitfully-simple art style and unique craft-based gameplay birthed a new genre in video games, launching a never-ending stream of similar survival crafting experiences.
Now, at the cusp of the legendary franchises 10th anniversary, Microsoft is teasing a brand new Minecraft experience that will—based on the video provided—have users crafting and mining throughout real-world environments.
Released on Microsoft’s official YouTube channel, the video—entitled “What’s Minecraft up to?”— begins with Minecraft creative director Saxs Persson accidentally leaving his personal smartphone on a public bench.
It’s at this point a bystander notices his lost property; she picks up the abandoned device or return it to Saxs, but before she can get his attention, she becomes transfixed by what’s happening on the screen. What she’s seeing appears to be an AR-rendition of the classic Minecraft experience projected over her real-world environment.
During the 54-second video, we see a mud-soaked pig trudging across several dirt blocks, as well as a pair of life-sized villagers skulking around the user before becoming spooked and darting away.
Although we know nothing in regards to actual gameplay, you can clearly make out the classic Minecraft toolbar holding several common items on the phone’s screen throughout the video. This suggests at least some form of crafting and resource management. Whether this is teasing a full-blown Minecraft game or more of a Pokemon Go-style experience remains to be seen.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen Minecraft brought to life in AR, however. During the E3 2015, Microsoft revealed a Minecraft mixed reality experience for their HoloLens MR headset in which users could craft and explore miniature renditions of the Minecraft world within their own homes.
The experience was never released to the public, however, serving more as a tech demo for the headset as opposed to a fully-developed game.
Microsoft will unveil new details regarding the experience during the games 10th anniversary May 17th.