Minecraft is one of, if not the, largest franchise that Xbox controls. It's no surprise that the Minecraft franchise has expanded dramatically in recent years, with projects including Minecraft Earth, Minecraft Story Mode, and Minecraft Dungeons. During the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase, the latest Minecraft spin-off was announced in Minecraft Legends. To the surprise of many, Minecraft Legends is an action-strategy game where players take back the Overworld by building their own armies.

The announcement trailer for Minecraft Legends raised the threat of an organized army of piglins looking to corrupt Minecraft's Overworld. Players will need to form their own armies by making new and surprising allies and then lead them into battle against Minecraft's piglins. These battles will take place across the entirety of the Overworld, full of a diverse range of biomes, plentiful resources, and all manner of life (and undeath).

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One clue regarding the nature of Minecraft Legends is the game's co-developers. Mojang is partnering with Blackbird Interactive to create Minecraft Legends. Blackbird is no stranger to Minecraft, having worked with Mojang on Minecraft Earth prior. Blackbird is also currently working on massive strategy games like Homeworld 3 and Crossfire: Legion, which makes its involvement in Minecraft Legends quite promising.

While Minecraft Legends assuredly won't be as in-depth as Homeworld 3, that should give an idea of the direction Mojang and Blackbird are moving toward. Imagine combat elements of Minecraft Dungeons being mixed with real-time strategy game elements, with the player roaming as a field general. Brief gameplay snippets in the trailer show the player commanding their soldiers to move to specific locations or to attack certain structures.

Combat won't be the sole focus of Minecraft Legends, however. Mojang also made sure to show some gameplay featuring both construction and destruction gameplay mechanics. The player won't be building anything by hand, it seems. Players can go back to Minecraft for that. Instead, small colorful sprites are shown first tearing down a building block by block, and then building a fort's walls after. Additional gameplay details are certain to be shared in the months to come.

As with every first-party Xbox game currently in development, Minecraft Legends is confirmed to be a day one release for Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass. Expect more information on Minecraft Legends down the line.

Minecraft Legends releases in 2023 on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

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