Games

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.