Coronavirus: Free educational Minecraft games announced for children amid school closures

The games are free to download until July

Louis Chilton
Tuesday 24 March 2020 13:58 EDT
Comments
Minecraft with RTX - Official GeForce Ray Tracing Reveal Trailer

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Microsoft has made some of its educational Minecraft games freely available online as schools close worldwide amid the coronavirus pandemic.

A post on the Minecraft website states: “It’s easy to get scared at a time like this, which is why focusing on something can help you stay calm.”

“Educators around the world are doing everything they can to provide digital lessons for the half a billion students who are out of school due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This is not an easy task and we want to do our part to help keep young minds sharp and stimulated.”

The announcement reveals that a host of lessons from the Minecraft: Education Edition - a specialised version of the hit block-building game that was designed for classroom use – will be available to download for free from the Minecraft Marketplace until 30 June, 2020.

Head of Xbox Phil Spencer has also written about the importance of gaming during the coronavirus pandemic.

“We understand the important role gaming is playing right now to connect people and provide joy in these isolating and stressful times, and our teams are working diligently to ensure we can be there for our players”, he said.

“With hundreds of millions of kids at home due to coronavirus-related school closures more kids are going online to spend time with their friends, explore online worlds and learn through play.”

You can keep up-to-date with the latest coronavirus news here.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in