Microsoft introduced Minecraft Earth, built using technology from Azure to PlayFab.

Judge as of 2019-05-17. True: Microsoft or Mojang officially introduced (announced or revealed) Minecraft Earth on or before 2019-05-17, and official or credible sources state that it was built using Microsoft technologies including Azure (e.g. Azure Spatial Anchors or Azure cloud services) and PlayFab. Mostly true: the game was introduced as stated, but only one of Azure or PlayFab is documented as part of the technology stack, or the technology is described a little differently. Mixed: the game was introduced, but neither Azure nor PlayFab is clearly documented as underlying technology. Mostly false: the game had been introduced but was built mainly on non-Microsoft technology. False: Minecraft Earth was not introduced by that date.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 Look out, Pokémon Go: Microsoft unveils new Minecraft Earth augmented reality game GeekWire · 17 May 2019

   “Microsoft today unveiled a new augmented reality Minecraft game for smartphones that aims to advance the genre long associated with Pokémon Go with increased interactivity and multiplayer action.”

2. E2 Look out, Pokémon Go: Microsoft unveils new Minecraft Earth augmented reality game GeekWire · 17 May 2019

   “PlayFab, the Seattle gaming startup that Microsoft acquired last year, provides some of the backend servers for different objects and experiences and handles customer management and connecting players.”

3. E3 Minecraft Earth hands-on preview: The next big AR craze Is coming Digital Trends · 17 May 2019

   “Every instance of Minecraft Earth, including the Adventures, is spun up on Minecraft’s Azure infrastructure just like any other version of Minecraft. Azure also handles the point cloud database that’s used for anchoring objects in augmented reality.”

4. E4 Minecraft Earth needed "two-and-a-half miracles" to get tech working PCGamesN · 27 September 2019

   “The tech underpinning Minecraft Earth relies on a new innovation of Microsoft's - the Azure Spatial Anchors - which will allow players' creations to be rendered holographically over locations in the real world, persistently.”

GeekWire reported on 2019-05-17 that Microsoft unveiled Minecraft Earth that day (E1). The same report says PlayFab provides backend servers and handles player connections for the game (E2). A same-day Digital Trends preview says the game runs on Minecraft's Azure infrastructure and that Azure handles the point cloud database used for AR anchoring (E3), and PCGamesN later tied the game to Azure Spatial Anchors (E4).