Minecraft Legends will be releasing on April 18 later this year, Mojang announced at the Developer_Direct event earlier today, along with details on what the game"s PvP gameplay is about.
Originally announced in June last year, Minecraft Legends is being developed by Mojang Studios and Blackbird Interactive, the latter has experience developing popular strategy titles like Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak and the upcoming Homeworld 3 – notable, as Minecraft Legends is an action strategy spin-off set in the familiar blocky Minecraft universe.
There is an online co-op story-driven campaign where you have to reclaim the overworld from a Piglin invasion with help from new and familiar mobs, as well as 4v4 PvP battles in procedurally generated worlds.
Piglins will be attacking both teams indiscriminately in PvP as well – but they are a necessary nuisance as they drop items that help you upgrade. However, to win the game, players will have to work together to strategize how to attack the Piglins and destroy the enemy team"s base, as well as find resources and hidden treasure chests.
There"s an element of base-building as well, but not quite in the same way as players may be used to in Minecraft, as it is more about setting up traps, walls, gates, and towers, rather than aesthetics. “Every game is a new scene, and there’s different environmental challenges,” Blackbird Interactive Producer Lee Pederson explains. “So when building your base, you can take advantage of being on a mountaintop for example, or build a tower behind one to hide it. You’re going to have to really tune your strategy based on what the world is generating for you.”
As for attacking the other team"s base, you will be commanding an army of mobs. “Creepers are always going to explode, but now you have the ability to actually use a Creeper […] and pinpoint it to go in a certain direction,” Minecraft Legends Executive Producer Dennis Ries explains. Skeletons, Zombies, and other familiar mobs are on your side as well, along with several new mobs.
Minecraft Legends will be available day one as part of Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass, for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows, and Cloud Gaming, on April 18, 2023. It will also be available for Windows via Steam, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch, and will support cross platform play.