The annual Microsoft Build conference is underway, and many are tuned in to see what type of innovative projects are revealed. During the Vision Keynote, Microsoft closed out its roundup of new updates for its various platforms with a tease for an augmented reality experience based on Minecraft.
We had a chance to play Minecraft Earth. Here’s everything you need to know about Microsoft’s upcoming Minecraft AR game.
There weren’t many big reveals during the Vision Keynote, and there are sure to be a few other interesting bits revealed throughout the week, but the first major session closed out with something that should be huge for the immersive technology industry. The very brief teaser showed a man leaving from a bench right after grabbing the wrong phone by mistake, with a young woman recognizing the error and jumping up to seek out the owner of the device that was left behind. Before chasing him down, though, she looks at the phone as it appears to be running an augmented reality Minecraft application. Through it, she sees a blocky pig moving around in some grass and mud. The pig also seems to respond to her presence as well, though this seems more like a scripted commercial instead of a real example of what the app can do.
Right before the correct owner returns, the app teases a full reveal on May 17 and directs viewers to the Minecraft website. The limited clip doesn’t give us insight into what this augmented reality experience based on Minecraft will be, but it’s a solid brand to have immersive technology attached to. If you would like to see the full video, you can check it out below.
While not an ideal example of the potential of AR, Pokémon Go served as an introduction to augmented reality to a massive community of players. Minecraft has evolved into a major force in gaming, one where gamers are setting world records, and it could be another widespread springboard for AR.
Pokémon Go’s initial AR experience was very rudimentary, but the brief Minecraft teases something that is at least as advanced as Pokémon Go AR Plus, which gave the creatures actual static presence in our augmented worlds as opposed to just showing a floating object transposed over our surroundings. The pig and tiles in the Minecraft teaser were static objects that should scale in size correctly as you move closer to, further from, and around them. We’ll see what the full project involves when it’s officially revealed later this month.
