Minecraft Now Has a Subscription Service

Microsoft has released a monthly subscription service just for Minecraft called the Marketplace Pass.

Revealed on the Minecraft website, the Marketplace Pass costs $3.99 a month and grants Bedrock players access to a catalog of more than 150 different content packs from the Minecraft Marketplace, which is refreshed every month. Players won’t need to pay for the Marketplace Pass to continue playing Minecraft as normal.

The Marketplace is Minecraft’s hub for creator-made content such as skin packs, adventure worlds, survival spawns, mashups, texture packs, and other downloadable content. Microsoft will hand pick 150 or more of the best of these to include in the Marketplace Pass, and also give players a new set of Character Creator items each month.

“Some are story-driven, others combat focused, a few will make you a speedy parkour pro or an unbeatable puzzle master, while others magically make your blocky world look different,” Microsoft said. “Every single one of them is created by our brilliant community of creators and there to add new playstyles and variety to your Minecraft sessions.”

It’s worth noting that once a world, texture pack, skin pack, or mash-up leaves the catalog, players need to buy the item from the Marketplace to continue using it while playing. Packs will not be deleted from your local storage until you delete them, Microsoft clarified. Monthly character creator items you’ve redeemed are yours to keep. A Realms Plus subscription includes Marketplace Pass.

Helpfully, if you buy Marketplace Pass, you can access all the packs from any device with a compatible version of Minecraft: Bedrock Edition with Minecraft Marketplace if you’re signed into your Minecraft account. It’s not supported on Amazon Kindle Fire or Minecraft Java Edition, however.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.