Realms

Minecraft Realms is a work-in-progress feature that, put simply, allows players to create and manage their own private server with minimal work and without the hassle of managing a custom server. Hosted by Multiplay through Mojang,, Realms provides an easy and faster way to create Minecraft servers and allows the owner to manage their Realm from inside the game. Do take note, however, that Realms are not intended for large public servers, but for groups of friends or as a family server.

As Minecraft Realms is to the PC edition, Minecraft: Pocket Edition has a similar service, Pocket Realms, which is supported by Amazon and currently is a free limited version available to the same Alpha Testers as the PC version.

If you want info on how to manage a Realm, head down to the Owner's Guide section and read. If you have been invited to a Realm, scroll down a bit more to the User's Guide section.

Availability
Realms is still in development and is subject to a limited release to certain countries. A subscription can currently only be purchased when living in one of the following countries:
 * Denmark
 * Finland
 * Iceland
 * Norway
 * Sweden

Subscriptions
Unlike most things relating to Minecraft, to get Realms you must subscribe. Depending on which type of subscription you managed to obtain, you will have a different length on your subscription. See the below table for the exact counts.

No matter which type of subscription you obtain, it can be renewed via the link in-game (see Owner's Guide section for more.) If you follow the link, it'll take you to your Mojang account page, where from you can then choose to extend your subscription. Because of this, anyone wishing to buy a Realm must migrate their account to a global Mojang account (visit mojang.com for more info.)

Owner's Guide
'''WARNING: Do not use any resource packs when in the Realms menus! Resource Packs currently do not support the necessary textures!'''

If you purchase a Realms subscription, you will see the Minecraft Realms button appear on your main menu. NOTE: The button only appears if you are playing the newest official released version, which at the moment is.

Once you click on the Realms button, you will see something like picture 1, but without any Realms to choose. Simply follow the "Create Realm" button, give your Realm a name and a description, set the difficulty, etc. and you're ready to roll! Once you see your Realm pop up in the list, you can go ahead and double-click to play it, or you can linger a little longer and explore the "Configure" screen.

The Configure button is only able to be clicked if you have a Realm you have purchased and own selected (so you cannot modify others' Realms.) Once you go into the configuration menu, you will see something like picture 2. Here, you can completely manage your Realm, as well as view your remaining subscription time (explained in the Subscriptions section.) On the very left, you see a black box with Invite and Uninvite buttons. If you click the invite button, you can choose a player name, type it in, and click ok. This will "Whitelist" that player to the Realm and they will be able to access it (see User's Guide section for more.) You can highlight an invited player's name and click the Uninvite button to "un-whitelist" them, thereby blocking their access to your Realm.

Below the whitelist, there's an option to close your realm. WARNING: This will make your Realm unavailable to anyone but you, and currently nobody knows if it's revertable. DO NOT DO THIS UNLESS YOU NO LONGER WISH TO OWN A REALM AND WON'T EVER CHANGE YOUR MIND.

Now for the right side. On top, you see an Edit Settings... button. Click this, and you'll be able to edit the name, description, difficulty and game mode of your Realm. Click the done button, and your changes will automatically be saved.

Next row down consists of two buttons: Backups and Reset Realm. The Backups button does what the title suggests: lets you access backups of your Realm (see picture 3.) The Minecraft Realms service regularly backs up your Realm, allowing you to revert to a previous world state if something goes terribly wrong. Go into the screen, and you can restore your Realm to a previously saved backup, or download the latest backup directly to your computer.

To the right of the Backups button is the Reset Realm button. This will reset your world, allowing you to start over if you want to. You can revert to a previous world if it is still on the backups list, but other than that the change is permanent. You also have the ability to specify a seed, or pick from a list of custom maps one that you wish to play with (see pictures 4 and 5.)

Finally, on the bottom of the right clump is the "Subscription" button. This allows you to view your remaining subscription time for that Realm, as well as follow a link you can use to extend it. See the picture in the Subscriptions section for a visual.

Then, obviously, you have the Back button. You can figure out this one for yourself.





User's Guide
'''WARNING: Do not use any resource packs when in the Realms menus! Resource Packs currently do not support the necessary textures!'''

If you have been invited to a Realm by a Beta Tester, you will also see the Minecraft Realms button on your main menu. Click this and you will be taken to screen rather like picture 1. If you click on the letter up top, you will be taken to a screen somewhat like picture 2. You highlight the Realm and click accept. If you do, then the Realm will appear on your list and you can play it! If you reject, then your name will be taken back off the invited list unless the owner puts it back on.

The Realm is accessed through the Minecraft Realms button on your main menu. You can double-click on the Realm like you would join a server and you will connect. Also, you can choose to leave the Realm by highlighting it and clicking the Leave Realm button. You will then be shown with a warning message shown in picture 3. If you click yes, the Realm will disappear from your list, unless, as it states, the owner invites you again.



Trivia

 * The Mojang blog closing signature was signed // The Minecraft and Minecraft Realms teams instead of the usual // The Minecraft team starting with the blog Minecraft Snapshot 13w09a.

History
Minecraft Realms has been in development since Minecon 2012, when Mojang revealed that they wanted to host their own servers. At the release of Snapshot 13w09b (released in March 2013,) about 100 active players were selected by a computer algorithm to test the first alpha version of Realms. Later on, with the release of Minecraft 1.6.4, new Alpha Testers were chosen. Also, if you went to Minecon 2013, you received a Minecraft Realms prepaid card, which could be redeemed on Mojang's website for one subscription to Minecraft Realms (the subscription is valid for 30 days). Finally, on December 18, 2013, Minecraft Realms Beta was made available to the public of Sweden.