‘Minecraft’ is now available on Chromebooks

In an attempt to expand its dominance across all possible platforms, Microsoft announced that Minecraft will be available on Chromebooks starting today. The popular game developed by Mojang will be released as early access on the ChromeOS operating system. In this way, users will have the possibility to explore the world, play with their friends and access all the features found on other platforms.

According to the developers, Minecraft: Bedrock Edition will include cross-playability, access to the Minecraft Marketplace, and the ability to play Realms. It is important to mention that this new version will be different from Minecraft: Educationthe edition for schools that allows learning by playing and that debuted three years ago on ChromeOS.

Minecraft: Bedrock Edition will only be available to a limited number of teams during its previous phase. Mojang said they chose to reduce access because they need to test the game’s performance on laptops before opening it up to the public. Before buying it, you will need to verify that your Chromebook meets the following minimum requirements.

if you already bought Minecraft for Android, you will have to pay again

early access of Minecraft: Bedrock Edition is independent of Minecraft for Android. If you already bought the mobile version and want to play on your Chromebook you will have to pay 13 dollars for an upgrade. In case you do not have any, the cost of both versions is 20 dollars in package.

Because it is a early access we might find some bugs. Mojang said that they will continue to work on development from today until the release of the final version to make sure that Minecraft it runs fine on your chromebook. In case of finding a bug, players can report it directly through Discord or the support website.

Microsoft did not confirm the release date for the final version of Minecraft for Chromebooks. If you access from your computer and it does not allow you to buy it, then you do not meet the minimum hardware requirements and you will have to wait a little longer. If you’re dying to play it, there are a few workarounds for doing so.

How to play Minecraft free on your Chromebook

Before today’s announcement, play Minecraft on Chromebook it was only possible through version Educationeither via linux commands to install java version. The former requires an Office 365 educational license, while for the latter you can use a launcher.

If your Chromebook doesn’t allow you early access to Minecraft: Bedrock Edition and you don’t want to wait any longer, you can try the Java edition. To do this you must access the section Developers inside the menu Setting and install linux environment (The first option). This step is relatively easy and you can choose the recommended storage options.

After installing Linux on your Chromebook, you will need to enter the following commands in the pop-up window. Remember to do it in order and pressing Enter after each one.

- echo "deb  stretch main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/stretch_chrome_os_made_simple.list

- sudo apt update

- sudo apt-get install openjdk-8-jre

For execute Minecraft you will have to do it through Salwyrr, a launcher that you download from the web (choose the Universal version). After downloading it, copy the installer to the linux folder and rename the file to Salwyrr.jar. Lastly, just run the following command in the Linux window and wait a few minutes for it to load.

java -jar Salwyrr.jar

Salwyrr is one of the best customers of Minecraft thanks to its optimization. On the other hand, if you don’t want to get your hands dirty with Linux commands and prefer to access the game the normal way, just wait a few weeks (or months) for it to be available for your Chromebook.