Minecraft Earth now available in the US on iOS and Android

Watch out, Pokemon GO; there’s a new fanbase taking over the AR gaming world. Minecraft Earth, an augmented reality (AR) mobile game based around the popular crafting title, launched this week for iOS and Android devices in the United States.

The game is currently in Early Access, but the free-to-play title has already hit the top spot in the Apple App Store’s “Free Games” section. Gameplay is similar to Pokemon Go in that as players walk around in real life, the game will display new treasures, creatures, and environments with which they can interact. Players can collect blocks, animals, or trigger combat to gather materials to build awe-inspiring structures.

The unique gimmick of Minecraft Earth is the inclusion of “build plates,” which are small sections of buildable materials. Using the phone’s camera, players can snap build plates onto a flat surface in the real world in order to fine-tune their creation. After building a model of their creative construction, players can then take the build plate outdoors and the game will render an AR life-like version of the structure on the phone’s display. The best part is that all of this can be done in real-time with friends.

Minecraft Earth is currently only available in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, South Korea, the Philippines, Sweden, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and Iceland. Microsoft and Mojang should release the title in other regions throughout the rest of this year and on into 2020.

Are you interested in Minecraft Earth? Have you already started building an AR kingdom? Let us know in the comments below.