Skip to main content

Minecraft ‘Realms’ paid online gameplay coming to Pocket Edition iOS app

Minecraft developers Mojang today announced a new online gameplay feature coming soon to the Minecraft: Pocket Edition mobile apps called “Minecraft Realms.”

Realms aims to make it easy to play online with friends, sort of like desktop players have been doing for years running their own servers, but without having to do much more than set up a group of approved users:

Minecraft Realms is the easiest way to play Minecraft together with your friends and family. Realms worlds are always online and can only be accessed by an approved group of people. Though it’s nice to have some alone time, there’s something really special about creating and adventuring as a group. Realms makes that really easy to do.

And the feature will be cross-platform, meaning you’ll be able to play online not only with players on iOS, but also with a mix of users from Android, Windows Phone, and Windows 10. To make that possible, the developers are using Xbox Live logins, which you’ll be able to quickly create for free if you don’t already have an account. You won’t need a paid Xbox Live subscription, but the feature will cost players and Mojang notes that is due to the fact it will have “servers running 24/7” to support Realms. It didn’t, however, disclose how much the service will cost. 

There’s no timeline on when the feature will be available to all users either, but for now an alpha test of Realms is available only on Android

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Comments

Author

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Jordan Kahn

Jordan writes about all things Apple as Senior Editor of 9to5Mac, & contributes to 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, & Electrek.co. He also co-authors 9to5Mac’s Logic Pros series.


Manage push notifications

notification icon
We would like to show you notifications for the latest news and updates.
notification icon
You are subscribed to notifications
notification icon
We would like to show you notifications for the latest news and updates.
notification icon
You are subscribed to notifications