In case you missed it, Minecraft built specifically for ChromeOS is a really big deal

Not long ago, news surfaced that Mojang was readying a version of Minecraft built specifically for Chromebooks and, for many of you out there, that was enough. Whether it is for you personally or for your kiddos, the real, no-workaround arrival of Minecraft for Chromebooks is a big enough deal that it really needs no further pomp and circumstance around it. Put simply, this move by both Mojang/Microsoft is one that could stand as a tentpole moment for the Chromebook ecosystem. Let me explain.

A chicken and egg problem

We’ve discussed this before, and with each iteration of Google I/O I feel like it becomes a discussion point: platforms need users to encourage developers to write software for them, but users don’t show up if there isn’t the software needed to do what users want. It’s the chicken and egg problem, and it is an issue that is wildly difficult to overcome.

I remember seeing this play out in the most painful way as my first smartphone love – the Palm Pre – struggled against a growing iPhone and Android opposition. At the end of the day, there are only so many hours developers have to build things, and they are going to spend that time and effort in places that earn them a paycheck. Android and iOS had more users and more reach, so they slowly killed off other operating systems like Windows Phone and WebOS early on in the smartphone OS wars.

As a huge fan of my Palm Pre and what WebOS was capable of, I rode the ship all the way down and begrudgingly picked up an Android phone only when I was forced to. It was a hard lesson to learn, but the chicken/egg problem is real and impactful with hardware platforms and the software that runs on them.

The power of the web at the right time

ChromeOS has lived in that sort of tension for years, but due to the more-recent power of the web, the abilities of Chromebooks have been able to provide enough usefulness to keep the platform afloat. With a focus on things like Google Docs, Drive, Gmail, and other web-based tools, Chromebooks have been able to provide a decent amount of productivity despite their limited app selection.

With the addition of Android apps back in 2016, Linux apps in 2018, and the upcoming Steam gaming container, the options for locally-run applications is changing quickly just as the abilities for PWAs continue to grow and increase. Hitting these strides at the right times is the difference in ChromeOS sticking around while things like Palm’s WebOS and Microsoft’s Windows Phone couldn’t stay afloat. Had the web not become as dynamic as it did in the 2010’s, I don’t know that ChromeOS would have made it, either.

And now that there is enough of a user base for ChromeOS, we’re beginning to see some very influential applications arriving on Chromebooks for the first time ever. Last year we saw the arrival of LumaFusion on Chromebooks, bringing the first pro-sumer ChromeOS video editor to the fold and now we have Minecraft finally arriving in totality for Chromebook users, signaling a pretty monumental shift in what perceived opportunities are present for Chromebooks as a development target.

As an example, imagine Fortnite doing the same

With Minecraft being the #1 selling game of all time – amassing a staggering 238+ million copies sold and nearly 140 million monthly active players (stats from 2021) – there’s no denying the ridiculously broad reach of this game across all sorts of platforms. However, it isn’t always in the limelight the way something like Fortnite tends to be.

Make no mistake, however: Minecraft is a force to be reckoned with, and this move to truly make it available on ChromeOS is a big deal. For many of you – myself included – the importance of this move is made a bit easier if I imagine a scenario where a company like Epic Games decided to touch up Fortnite (the Android version) to work seamlessly on Chromebooks. I know Fortnite isn’t currently in the Play Store, but just go with me in this imaginative thought process for a second.

In this modified reality, Fortnite would be tweaked a bit to run great on Chromebooks with decent processors and would give users the ability to use keyboard/mouse, a controller, or touch inputs and would match them accordingly just the way it does right now for Android phones. With Fortnite being one game across all platforms (there is no Fortnite Mobile, for instance – it is the same game across the board), this sort of move would allow Chromebook users to jump into Fortnite in whatever way they chose and would be a massive draw for younger users and a huge signal to other developers that ChromeOS is worth the time to target.

Now, substitute Minecraft for Fortnite in this little thought experiment, and you see the vast importance of this move. Minecraft on ChromeOS is now the same game you get on other platforms with the same access to newer additions like Realms and the latest Trails & Tails update. Its arrival is massive and is a huge signal to other developers that Chromebooks are an untapped, accessible market for growth and are worth the time to clean up apps for.

It only takes a few of these bigger dominoes to fall before others reassess and do likewise. And I think Minecraft coming to ChromeOS might just be that tipping point. It remains to be seen how well it sells on ChromeOS, but I know I purchased it right away for my son this weekend once I told him it was availble. Being able to run it well on his aging Lenovo Chrombook Duet is preferable to him compared with playing on his phone, and I imagine that will be the case for a ton of users.

And if this trend continues, it will be very interesting to see who goes next. Who will be the next larger developer to realize the untapped potential of the Chromebook user base? With only a bit of polish and a bit of publication, there are quite a few apps that could show up on Chromebooks and make an absolute killing in doing so. From games to productivity, the opportunities are wide open, and with Minecraft making the move, I’m hopeful others will soon follow. It’s about time.