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Minecraft, the world’s most popular game, is officially launching on Chromebooks after a brief hiatus from the Google Play Store. Players previously had the ability to install it on ChromeOS for a few months before it was pulled by Microsoft in 2020 due to device specifications and the fact that most Chromebooks simply didn’t meet them. Shortly afterward, an Education Edition version of the game replaced it, but required an Office 365 Education license – something non-students just didn’t have and couldn’t get.
However, in a blog post today, Mojang announced that an early access version of Minecraft: Bedrock Edition will soon be released for Chromebooks! For anyone wondering, yes, this is the full version of the game that’s available on other devices and consoles! That means it will have cross-play, access to the marketplace, and even the ability to play on Realms.
Requirements
To qualify for the early access, users must be running ChromeOS version 111, have at least 4GB of RAM, 1GB of storage, and an Intel Celeron N4500, Intel i3-7130U, Mediatek MT8183, or Qualcomm SC7180 processor.
As for pricing, the “Chromebook + Android bundle”, which includes one copy of the game for a phone and one for a laptop, will cost $19.99 USD. You can also purchase just the Android version for $6 and then upgrade (or not) to the Chromebook version for $13 USD. Mojang has also provided a set of frequently asked questions detailing how this version will work with content from other devices with your account signed in.
Creating a new world
Basically, it won’t. You should note that your worlds or previous game purchases will not transfer over to your Chromebook – at all. You must also login with your Microsoft account in order to play. As of this moment, there’s no official release date for Bedrock for Chromebooks, but once it is available, you’ll be able to snag it from the Google Play Store and get excited about it again after it was unceremoniously yanked from under your feet a few years back. Chromebooks have come a long way and many standard units can now better handle more that gets thrown at them, including procedural generation of Minecraft worlds!
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