--- title: "New “Minecraft” Game Will Let You Build Stuff in the Real World" description: "\"Minecraft Earth,\" announced today, will allow users to collect items, blocks, and creatures while roaming around in the real world with friends." date: "2019-05-17" modified: "2019-05-17" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/microsoft-minecraft-earth" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "AR" - "augmented reality" - "microsoft" - "Minecraft" - "the digest" - "video games" --- # New “Minecraft” Game Will Let You Build Stuff in the Real World !["Minecraft Earth," announced today, will allow users to collect items, blocks, and creatures while roaming around in the real world with friends.]() *\Image: Microsoft\* ## Minecraft Earth "Minecraft," one of the most popular video games in the world, is making a major augmented reality push later this year, courtesy of Microsoft. https://youtu.be/dYKxBKj29dI "Minecraft Earth," [announced today](), will allow users to collect items, blocks, and creatures while roaming around in the real world with other real-world friends — think of it as a "Minecraft"-themed "Pokémon Go" experience, but with more fishing, building and resource management. ## Blocks Everywhere While the extremely popular smartphone game "Pokémon Go" relied on augmented reality only minimally, the new "Minecraft" title will double down on the technology. A new feature called Azure Spatial Anchors will allow users to plop down objects in augmented reality — and persist indefinitely. Other users will also be able to interact with those same objects. The goal is to eventually have players build their own "Minecraft" worlds for others to experience in augmented reality through their phones. "'Minecraft Earth' proposes to completely break the dogma that has lived with us in computing since the beginning: this idea of a single person that holds a single device to create a single experience," Alex Kipman, Microsoft's HoloLens and Kinect creator, [told *The Verge*](). "With 'Minecraft Earth' that's no longer the case. The content is in the real world." A "Minecraft Earth" beta will open up to early adopters this summer, but Microsoft has yet to announce a launch date. **READ MORE:** [Minecraft Earth for iOS and Android goes a step beyond Pokémon Go]() \[*The Verge*\] **More on Minecraft:** *Build Your Own Minecraft-Like Rollercoaster in VR* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()