Minecraft is one of the most popular games on the planet, and it’s available on a lot of different devices, too. Chromebooks, though, have never had official support for Chromebooks, with many turning to hacky methods to run the game instead. But it seems that, soon, that will change, as an official “trial” is now underway for testing Minecraft on Chromebooks.
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Over the years, Minecraft on Chromebooks has never been officially available, despite the user demand. Since Chromebooks are widely used among school-age kids in the United States, there’s certainly an audience for Minecraft on the platform, and frankly, it’s quite odd that Microsoft has never given in. Even the Android version of Minecraft blocks installation on ChromeOS. The reasoning is, of course, not too hard to decipher, as Microsoft has made many efforts to push against Chromebooks with its own affordable Windows machines.
But now, Minecraft looks to be officially coming to Chromebooks. The reveal came mostly silently, as a support page (via ChromeUnboxed) details the “Minecraft Trial for Chromebooks.”
This limited-time trial allows players to play Minecraft directly on Chromebooks, but only for 90 minutes. After that time elapses, the player’s world is deleted, and they’re required to start from scratch on a new world. Those worlds also can’t be transferred over to the “full game.” Mojang says that this version is being used to capture data for bug fixes and troubleshooting.
Minecraft Trial is a free trial version of Minecraft that provides a time-limited, survival-only experience for players. The Minecraft Trial for Chromebook is a version of the trial app that aims to capture platform-specific data for bug fixes and technical troubleshooting.
The Minecraft Trial for Chromebooks is also region-limited, with only 17 countries supported, and with both the United States and United Kingdom ineligible for access.
- India
- Australia
- Brazil
- UAE
- Germany
- Denmark
- Spain
- France
- Indonesia
- Korea
- Kuwait
- Mexico
- Malaysia
- Qatar
- Saudi Arabia
- Thailand
- Turkey
How will Minecraft work on ChromeOS? The support page doesn’t specifically outline it, but it does appear to be the Android version of Minecraft headed for Chromebooks. “Minecraft Trial” is available on the Play Store. That app has been available for a few years at this point, but it’s just recently opened up to ChromeOS devices with this new trial Mojang is testing, as seen below on our Dylan Roussel’s machine.
It’s unclear when a full version of Minecraft will arrive on Chromebooks, but it’s great to see that after all these years, the game is finally coming.
Dylan Roussel contributed to this article.
More on Chromebooks:
- ChromeOS is getting Microsoft 365 and OneDrive integration ‘later this year’
- Acer’s newest Chromebooks are built to be classroom-ready
- How to easily find all keyboard shortcuts on your Chromebook
Author: Ben Schoon
Source: 9TO5Google
