Microsoft teases new Minecraft marketplace, currency

Microsoft's Minecraft is getting a new Marketplace and its own currency.

With the launch of the new Marketplace, businesses will — for the first time ever — be able to sell their original content to players within the game. Arriving this spring, Minecraft Marketplace will be packed with "amazing adventure maps, texture packs, minigames" and other goodies available for purchase, all accessible across devices via Xbox Live.

"Unlock new avatar skins, change your world or explore incredible new maps from a community with unlimited imagination," Microsoft said in a statement.

The software giant is already working with several businesses to populate Marketplace, but said anyone with a registered business can apply.

"The idea is to give Minecraft creators another way to make a living from the game, allowing them to support themselves in the creation of ever-greater projects, while giving Pocket and Windows 10 players access to a growing catalogue of fun stuff — curated and supplied by us, safely and simply," Microsoft wrote. "And, of course, you can still manually download free community creations you've found out there on the internet, too."

Microsoft new in-game currency, meanwhile, is Minecraft Coins, which you purchase inside the game store with real money and use to buy content in the Marketplace.

Microsoft plans to launch a public beta to test the new Minecraft Coins on Android in mid-April. "You won't see any creator content in the beta, but we'll add that when we launch later in Spring," the company wrote.

This article originally appeared on PCMag.com.