Mojang announced this week that Minecraft Realms is now available for the PC and Mac worldwide. The news arrives after the company launched the subscription service in the United States back in April. Eventually, Mojang plans to offer the service on other formats in the future, such as the Pocket Edition.
"Realms is the easiest way for you to host a Minecraft world online. You and your friends can work on an awesome creation, adventure into the depths, or play one of our featured mini-games with just a few clicks," the studio announced. "The servers are always available, and can be restored to an earlier point if something goes wrong. Realms is run by Mojang and simple to set up."
Minecraft Realms costs $13 per month, just two dollars less than your standard MMOG. Subscriptions are made available on the Mojang account page, and offered in 1, 3 or 6 month packages. As with other MMOGs, players will get a discount by choosing a longer subscription. The server is also up 24/7, so players can jump into their world at any time as long as they keep their subscription active.
The good thing about Minecraft Realms is that the service doesn't require users to set up LAN networks, configure IPs and tanker with the ports; all that is done on Mojang's end. Only invited players can join a Realms server, which is good news for parents. The host can even add or remove players from their approved list "with a few clicks."
The FAQ reveals that subscribers will be able to export their maps at any time, even for a limited duration after the customer's subscription has expired. Like regular Minecraft maps, Realm worlds have no size restrictions, as the service supports infinite terrain. To use Realms, customers will need to run the most recent release of Minecraft.
To get started with Minecraft Realms, head here.
