Microsoft is bringing minigames to Minecraft on consoles, and the first one is coming in June and is called “Battle”! It’s free competitive multiplayer content that comes with three maps. Battle minigame functionality and initial set of maps is totally free, and they’ll be supporting it with additional map packs for $3 or local equivalent.
Coming up with improvised rules and new ways to play with friends is already a popular activity among Minecraft: Console Edition players, and long may it continue! But with their new minigames, they’ll be helping you quickly and easily jump into competitions with tailor-made rulesets, so you can have fun straight away without having to fuss around with manual count-downs, laboriously prep loot chests or keep score.
The first minigame will allow you to set up a competitive multiplayer fight for survival, where speed, strategy, and sometimes pure luck will make you the winner. Players in Battle matches use randomly-generated resources found in chests placed in specially-designed PvP maps and combat one another in a free-for-all death match until the final victor is determined. The fun isn’t over after you are defeated though, as fallen players can spectate the match by flying freely around each arena as a bat.
Battle matches can be played with up to four players in split-screen and up to eight players online via Xbox Live. You can also find other community members to join your game via an in-game matchmaking system.
Asher is a games journalist, former News Writer (Gaming) at Windows Central. They contributed 1110 articles to ICXM between 2015–2017, focused on opinion pieces, game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news: wrote over 1,100 ICXM pieces on Xbox news, hardware reviews, and platform commentary before joining Future plc’s Windows Central in 2017.