Home The Minecraft Marketplace Pass is now a thing but are we ready for another subscription service?

The Minecraft Marketplace Pass is now a thing but are we ready for another subscription service?

TL:DR

  • Minecraft introduces a monthly subscription service offering access to a rotating catalog of DLC, skins, and more for $3.99/month.
  • With around 150 items available at any time, the pass targets dedicated Minecraft players, though its appeal may be limited for those with only a casual interest in downloading new content.

Oh good. Another monthly subscription. This time for Minecraft and its catalog of DLC. Fed up with rarely spending any money in the Minecraft Marketplace for skins? Great news, now you can hand over a monthly fee to Mojang and Microsoft so you can access all the things you mainly never wanted for “free”.

As the world surely closes in on critical mass for subscription services even though humans everywhere continue to sign up and forget to cancel, never really noticing the drip, drip, drip of monthly cash from their accounts, the options keep coming.

Sidenote, I scanned my account the other month to tot up outgoings on subscriptions and the amount was scary. YouTube Premium, Game Pass, Spotify Family, and so on, are all sucking money from my account at different times of the month so I never really notice. Do I, or indeed we now need to pay more to download DLC from the Minecraft Marketplace?

Well, Mojang seems to think we do and the pass is going to cost you $3.99 a month and for this, you will receive access to a rotating catalog of DLC and other Minecraft items and goodies. Long gone is the time when we would just eagerly await a new beta drop of the game from Notch back in the day before corporate Minecraft.

A total of around 150 items will be available at any one time as they come and go and the Pass is available for all Bedrock versions of the game.

If you are mad-keen on downloading the latest and greatest Minecraft worlds like this great Hogwarts one then this could work out well for you, but there seems little point if you only have a passing interest and download the occasional new asset to play around with. A limited free trial is available before you jump in properly. If you do try it, don’t forget to cancel before the billing period starts if you have no intention of staying around.

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The ReadWrite Editorial policy involves closely monitoring the tech industry for major developments, new product launches, AI breakthroughs, video game releases and other newsworthy events. Editors assign relevant stories to staff writers or freelance contributors with expertise in each particular topic area. Before publication, articles go through a rigorous round of editing for accuracy, clarity, and to ensure adherence to ReadWrite's style guidelines.

Paul McNally
Gaming Editor

Paul McNally has been around consoles and computers since his parents bought him a Mattel Intellivision in 1980. He has been a prominent games journalist since the 1990s, spending over a decade as editor of popular print-based video games and computer magazines, including a market-leading PlayStation title published by IDG Media. Having spent time as Head of Communications at a professional sports club and working for high-profile charities such as the National Literacy Trust, he returned as Managing Editor in charge of large US-based technology websites in 2020. Paul has written high-end gaming content for GamePro, Official Australian PlayStation Magazine,…

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