Microsoft is celebrating the early access release of Minecraft Earth in several major cities. They hope to bring the Minecraft community together to interact with life-sized statues of interactive mobs. The event is being held in New York, London, and Sydney and will companion with the early access version of the game. Simply use the AR capabilities to interact both digitally and physically with the Minecraft mobs.
The mobs appeared out of nowhere this week, with Twitter users taking photos of the statues in anticipation of the event. To participate, simply be at the right place at the right time. The mobs will appear from November 23-24 to November 30-December 1 at Hudson Yards in New York City, the Queens Walk in London, and Campbell’s Cove in Sydney.
Jolly Llama and friends are ready to go for Mobs In The Park at The Queen's Walk in London. #MinecraftEarth pic.twitter.com/09thbpekVD
— Jeff Rivait (@JeffRVT) November 16, 2019
The pop-ups will be live from 10 am-7 pm local time in each of the three locations. Anyone who visits the spots during these days will be able to see life-sized versions of the Minecraft animals. There is a buttercup covered Moobloom, a Muddy Pig, and a festive Jolly Llama statue, each complete with a scannable QR code.
If you scan the code, you will be able to play a new adventure built by the Minecraft Earth development team. Completing the adventure comes with its in-game rewards and some interesting interactions. If you are near any of the event locations, then it might be worth checking in on the statues.
Any player that completes the adventure will receive an exclusive Jolly Llama in-game before it is available worldwide in December. Although this mostly gives you bragging rights, it kinda cool to be able to use the Jolly Llama before anyone else really shows your Minecraft christmas spirit.
“The custom-built experience demonstrates the magic of bringing Minecraft into the real world through the power of Microsoft Azure Spatial Anchors and Azure PlayFab technologies, all coming together to create one of the world’s first true augmented reality experiences,” said Minecraft Earth’s creative director Saxs Persson.
This is the first of what seems to be proxy-community day events. Microsoft may be testing for even bigger and more exciting interactions that can bring the game’s community closer together.
To get into the Early Access group, simply download it from the main Minecraft website. It is available all across the United States for both iOs and Android devices. So grab your pickaxe, pack your inventory, and prepare for a chance to build your wildest dreams in your back yard using the power of Augmented Reality and the creative tools of Minecraft.
