Microsoft has an insane number of developers and IP under its Xbox Game Studios umbrella, especially following the $7.5 billion acquisition of ZeniMax Media and subsequent $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The scope of offerings onXbox consoles and the Game Pass servicewas made clear during last week’s Microsoft and Bethesda Games Showcase, though one particularly interesting announcement was another spin-off for one of its most popular brands:Minecraft Legends.
The tech conglomerate acquiredMinecraftdeveloper Mojang for $2.5 billion in 2014, and that deal has paid dividends consideringMinecraftis now the best-selling game of all timewith content generating a collective trillion views on YouTube as of December 2021. It makes sense why the brand is continuing to diversify, andMinecraft Legendsis just the latest branch from sandbox building to an action-strategy game developed by Blackbird Interactive - which assisted onMinecraft Earth. Mojang has a mixed history of weaving its spin-offs into the originalMinecraft, butLegends' conceit could open more crossover potential.
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How Minecraft Legends Compares to Other Spin-Offs
EachMinecraftspin-off has its own audience, fromMinecraft: Education Editionthat acts as supplemental learning material for schools to thenow-shuttered AR mobile gameMinecraft Earththat brought the series' mechanics into the real world. The most recent Mojang venture was more a “video game” in the traditional sense;Minecraft Dungeonsbeing a dungeon-crawler akin toDiablothat continually receives content through a seasonal “Adventure Pass” model.
Minecraft Legendsis set to be a more narrative-driven experience with a softer art style reminiscent ofTelltale’s point-and-click adventure gameMinecraft: Story Mode. It promises to tell a story in which players unite Overworld mobs (including traditional enemies such as Creepers) to fend of a more hostile, invading force from the series' hellish Nether dimension. The game is essentially a retelling of one legend told by villagers fromMinecraftproper, according toLegends' announcement blog post, and players will be just as active in fighting the spread of Nether corruption on foot as they are building structures and gathering armies.
Mojang’s blog post praises Blackbird Interactive’s “wealth of game design experience” in strategy titles likeCrossfire: Legionand the upcomingHomeworld 3, and says this collaboration is meant to help with getting the project together alongsideMinecraftandMinecraft Dungeons. It’s clear Blackbird had some creative freedom in developing a unique iteration of the brand, with trailers showing off unique portal structures as well as new mobs like mossy stone golems orPiglingenerals wielding maces.
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Minecraft Legends' Additions May Hold More Weight
Details about how much this action-strategy game will add toMinecraft’s lore is still unclear;Minecraft Legendsisn’t going to release until an unspecified time in 2023. However, if the point about its story being an in-universe legend holds true, whatever new Overworld and Nether entities are revealed could seamlessly tie into the main sandbox title.
While Mojang has a history of crossing material from spin-offs intoMinecraftproper, it has done so in very limited ways. The best example comes fromMinecraftLive 2020’s “Mob Vote,“a now-yearly tradition in which those watching the event can decide what mob will be introduced in the game’s next major update. The choices in 2020 were the Iceologer fromMinecraft Dungeons, as well as the Moobloom or Glow Squid that originated inMinecraft Earth. The Glow Squid won, and 2021’s Mob Vote comprised of entirely original ideas despite there being plenty of interesting spin-off material to pull from - such asDungeons' Redstone Monstrosity.
GivenDungeonsandEarthare relatively disconnected from the main game, it makes sense why their new additions would only slowly be crossed over. The story ofMinecraft Legendsseems more closely linked toMinecraft’s traditional Overworld and Nether dimensions, though. With Mojang continually dropping newbiomes, items, and mobs in packages like The Wild Update, any additions made toLegendscould cross over as a way of showing the “real” inspirations for its storybook tale.
Minecraft Legendsis set to release in 2023 for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
