Back in January, Microsoft completed the acquisition of MinecraftEdu from TeacherGaming and said it would be creating a new version of the sandbox build ‘em up, dubbed Minecraft: Education Edition, for use in classrooms.
Now the company has released more concrete information on when educators can expect to get their hands on Education Edition.
In a recent blog post, Microsoft announced it will be hosting a beta program involving over 100 schools from 30 countries in May, before beginning a more expansive early access program in June.
The early access edition will be offered out to educators for free, and will be available in 11 languages across 41 countries. During the summer, Microsoft also plans to work with educators to build lesson plans, share learning activity ideas, and create re-usable projects.
“If you are new to Minecraft, or if you aren’t sure where to start in bringing Minecraft into your classroom and incorporating into your curriculum, the early access program is going to be a great way to familiarize yourself with Minecraft: Education Edition,” said Microsoft.
Minecraft: Education Edition user licenses will be made available to purchase once the early access period is over. The first version of Education Edition will run on Windows 10 and Mac OS X El Capitan.
As it stands, Microsoft is keen to keep Education Edition priced at $5 per user per year, and will publish volume pricing information for school-wide deployments soon.