Mojang's Latest Spin-off: Everything you need to know about Minecraft Blast, the upcoming mobile puzzle collaboration with King that’s entering early testing.

Minecraft is already one of the biggest and most successful video games ever released, and the main game is available on practically every device — including your smartphone.

One of the other true behemoths of the mobile gaming space is Candy Crush, and both of these brands are now a part of the Xbox family. Today, the teams behind these games announced a brand-new joint project to bring them together.

Minecraft Blast is official, but this may be the first you're hearing about it. Mojang Studios and King are keeping things quiet for now as they develop the newest mobile Xbox game, so here's what you need to know.

It's no Minecraft Earth, but I see why this is being made

At first glance, Minecraft Blast may not seem terribly exciting. This isn't Genshin Impact or some other wildly ambitious mobile game that will inevitably expand to other platforms; it'll be a match puzzle game, similar to the dozens (if not hundreds) of other match puzzle games that have been releasing on Android and iOS platforms for years.

Few people actively talk about these games, but match puzzle games continue to be some of the most-played and most-downloaded games on any platform. Millions of people who have never thought of themselves as "gamers" love these games as casual, addictive time killers, and Minecraft is a powerful and accessible brand that — in theory — is the perfect fit for a quality match puzzle game.

This isn't the first time Minecraft has gone beyond its open-world, survival sandbox roots; Mojang actually has a complicated history with attempts to spin off Minecraft into different gaming genres. A prime example is Minecraft Earth, the studio's first attempt to explore a pure, mobile-first Minecraft experience.

Minecraft Earth relied on Augmented Reality in an effort to capitalize on the explosive success of Pokémon Go, but ultimately failed and was shut down less than two years after its launch. Years later, Mojang is ready to take another crack at a mobile Minecraft game, this time assisted by one of the most successful mobile game developers of all time.

King is the studio and publisher behind the Candy Crush Saga, and it's the third part of the Activision family that officially joined Xbox in 2023. We don't talk much about King at Windows Central, because it's not a loud brand — Candy Crush is the champion of ultra-casual mobile gaming, and it quietly rakes in absurd amounts of cash. Now, King is Mojang Studio's sibling, so why not tag-team a new mobile game?

The product of that partnership isn't widely available yet and likely won't be anytime soon. Minecraft Blast is apparently in the early development stage, with this announcement flying under the radar because the finished product will likely look quite different than the early screenshots you can see above.

If you're asking why Mojang and King bothered announcing at all, it's because Minecraft Blast is kicking off highly limited, early playtests with select players within specific markets. Right now, that's only people living in Malaysia, on the iOS platform, who are okay with English as the game's language.

In time, we'll hopefully see more of Minecraft Blast as its playtests expand to more players, platforms, and regions ahead of its eventual release. You can check out the official Minecraft Blast page at Minecraft.net.

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