Blame Pandemic, Mojang Forced To Turn Off Minecraft Earth Gym

JAKARTA - Early last year, Microsoft launched the game Minecraft Earth, which is similar to Pokemon Go. However, after only a few months of being played, the Augmented Reality (AR) based game had to be turned off.

Mojang Studio and Microsoft as the game developers decided to stop operating Minecraft Earth as of June 2021. Although it is not clear the reason behind this closure, Mojang Studios blames the COVID-19 pandemic that is sweeping the world.

"Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we made a difficult decision to end support for Minecraft Earth by June 2021," Mojang wrote in his statement as quoted by Wccftech, Wednesday, December 6.

Minecraft Earth will be closing down in June 2021. Please read our full message below for details. We appreciate all the support from the community! 🌍 https://t.co/RqMPIwOSkC pic.twitter.com/Ph2x8isf1g

- Minecraft Earth (@minecraftearth) January 5, 2021

"Minecraft Earth was designed with free movement and collaborative play, two things that are nearly impossible in today's global situation," he continued.

Due to this decision, Minecraft Earth gamers can still play the AR game until June 30, 2021. After that, players cannot access or download Minecraft Earth games from the Play Store and App Store.

Later, all player data apart from the character creator and Minecoin features owned by players will be deleted on July 1, 2021. For players who still have the remaining premium ruby-currency in Minecraft Earth, they will be replaced with Minecoin or tokens that can be used again to buy skins and accessories on the Minecraft Marketplace.

“We are very grateful for the extraordinary talent in the Minecraft community. It's not an easy decision, and we're doing everything we can to make sure you get the most out of Minecraft Earth before it's discontinued, "concluded Mojang Studio.