Minecraft Coming to Chromebook
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 07/29/20
Microsoft:
Education Edition
is coming to the Chromebook, and the Microsoft division is seeking
beta testers. Up until now, people had to run hacks
if they wanted to play the game on their Chromebook computers.
The
company said Minecraft was now available in the Google
Play Store
as an Android app for Chromebook. There's a catch: Only users
with an Office
365 Education
account can participate at this point. Most educators and students
running Chromebooks are also running the competitor to Office 365: G
Suite for Education.
The beta won't run on Android phones at this time.
Because
the beta will test new features for the program, it will be available
to users not just on Chromebook, but also on Windows, MacOS and iPad.
While
there's no cost involved, there is risk: Users must remove any
current version of Minecraft they're already running and export their
"worlds"; otherwise, those will be lost. Also, players on
the beta edition won't be able to play in the same worlds as other
players not on the test version. Users with the Windows Store version
are advised against running the beta edition, since that could
introduce connection problems and cause the loss of worlds already
created.
Microsoft
said that beta users would be automatically upgraded to the retail
version with the next release of the gaming platform, with the
exception of MacOS users; they will need to install the next retail
release when it's available.
Additional
information and links about the beta program are openly available on
the Minecraft: Education Edition website.
About the Author
Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.