It is a half-century old Microsoft today. That’s half a century of the Clippy memes, all those Windows updates, and a single Excel spreadsheet you haven’t happened to fix since 2017. To celebrate all of this, they are handing out FREE stuff in the Dressing Room of Minecraft for the Anniversary Character Creator. Because nothing quite says, “50 years of tech dominance” as well as some blocky cosmetics.
Across its tweet, Microsoft presents the eternal struggle of trying to shift one thing in a Word doc, only to have the entire thesis formatting go down into chaos. So relatable. Instead of weeping over Ctrl+Z spamming, though, they’re saying, “Hey, here’s a cool little Minecraft swag for you.” The link takes you to a page where you can snag limited-time skins, capes, and digital confetti to celebrate the anniversary theme.
Why Minecraft? Well, apart from being the all-time best-selling video game-not counting Tetris-it’s literally Microsoft’s digital play yard after buying Mojang for $2.5 billion in 2014. Since then, they’ve put Minecraft on every platform they could think of-except for the fridge, of course-and have used it as a teaching aid, trainer for coding, and now birthday celebrator.
The presents are:
– A retro “Microsoft 50” cape that will instantly transform your avatar into a walking corporate-anniversary billboard.
– Character creator items even include some throwback designs because nostalgia’s in (for example, there’s a pixel art with a Windows 95 theme).
– There’s bound to be some secret Easter eggs, such as a secret Clippy skin whispering “It looks like you’re trying to build a dirt house…”
No word yet on how long those will be up for grabs, but you know with Microsoft and their FOMO tactics (RIP Windows 7), you should hurry up to claim them. And the timing is suspiciously close to the 15th anniversary of Minecraft next year-what a coincidence! Or is Microsoft preparing a crossover event wherein Steve fights Master Chief in a Word doc gladiator arena?
At this moment, players are busy memeing the irony of celebrating 50 years of Microsoft with a game where the most advanced technology is a redstone circuit that barely works. But hey, free stuff is free stuff. Just don’t expect the Anniversary Update to fix that formatting trauma from Word.
To grab those goodies, hit that dressing room in Minecraft using the link on the Microsoft tweet. And if your avatar still looks like a few blocks on a default Steve after this, we can’t help you. Happy (blocky) birthday, Microsoft; here’s to another 50 years of Ctrl + Alt + Del-ing our problems away.
