체험판 계정 로그인
체험판 계정을 생성하면 10회 로그인 가능했는데, 오늘부터 새로 생성된 계정으로 로그인하면 잔여 횟수가 0으로 나옴
로그아웃 후 로그인하면 계정의 로그인 횟수를 모두 사용해서 로그인이 않된다고 나오고 로그인 않됨
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Official comment
Hey there,
I wanted to provide some clarification to my above reply. As of this last Friday, July 24, 2026, Commercial Trials are no longer available. Going forward, commercial organizations can either: use the Demo Experience (Try Minecraft Education for free – Minecraft Education) or purchase full Commercial Licenses
If you choose to purchase licenses and later determine that Minecraft Education is not the right fit for your needs, you may be eligible for a refund in accordance with Microsoft's subscription cancellation and refund policies. For more information, please see: Cancel your Microsoft business subscription in the Microsoft 365 admin center | Microsoft Learn.
We'd also love to learn more about your intended use case for the Commercial Trial. Understanding how you planned to use the product helps us evaluate future offerings and identify potential alternatives that may better meet your needs.
We look forward to hearing more about your scenario and appreciate your feedback. -
Hey there!
Sorry to hear you are running into some issues with the trial account logins ending. Is this through your school or personal accounts you are experiencing this on? Here is some more info on how the trials and demos work - https://edusupport.minecraft.net/hc/en-us/articles/360047116432-Try-Minecraft-Education-for-free
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We’re experiencing the same issue in my organization.
I run a one-person organization.
When I issue a guest license and sign in, the number of remaining trial attempts drops to 0 even though it’s my first time signing in.
Once I sign out, the trial attempts are gone, so I can’t sign in again.
Is this a change in the system?
Or is it a bug?The number of attempts has dropped from 10 to 0 without warning, causing confusion in the field.
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I'm an education in Japan.
Not only me but also other educators in Japan experience the same situaion.
10 free logins is now unacceptable, but limited in only 1 login.
Is this situation planned? Or just a bug?
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Hey there!
Sorry to hear you are all running into some issues with this.
Are you all Commercial licenses or Academic licenses?
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Mine is a commercial license.
But this situation occurs when I try to make free guest account without MEE license.
Even without MEE license, we could get 10 free logins, right?
Attached is the image in Japanese.
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My organization has a commercial license.
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Dear Microsoft Support Team,
I hope you are doing well.
We are contacting you to urgently confirm the current behavior of the trial usage limit for Minecraft Education in our commercial license environment.
We have confirmed that our Microsoft tenant/license environment is commercial, not academic.
Under this commercial license environment, we are seeing an issue where accounts without an assigned Minecraft Education license appear to be unable to continue using Minecraft Education after only one login.
Our understanding is that unlicensed accounts should be able to use Minecraft Education multiple times as part of the free trial. However, the behavior we have observed is as follows:
When a newly created account without an assigned Minecraft Education license logs in to Minecraft Education, the remaining trial count is displayed as 0
The account can still play during that initial login session
After logging out and logging in again, a message indicating that the trial usage limit has been reached is displayed, and the account can no longer play
The same behavior occurs for both newly created and existing unlicensed accounts
Accounts with an assigned Minecraft Education license can use Minecraft Education without any issue
This issue may directly affect our ability to conduct trial lessons in classrooms. If teachers perform device checks in advance, or if students need to log in again during a lesson due to an app crash or device restart, they may no longer be able to continue the trial lesson.
Therefore, we would appreciate it if you could provide an initial response by the end of today if possible, or by tomorrow morning at the latest.
In particular, could you please confirm the following points as soon as possible?
Is the behavior described above the current specification for Minecraft Education in a commercial license environment?
If this is not intended behavior and is a bug, could you please let us know the expected timeline for a fix?
If this is the intended specification, could you please share an official source, such as documentation or an announcement, that explains the trial usage count and conditions for commercial license environments?
Does the trial usage limit or behavior differ depending on whether the tenant/license environment is commercial or academic?
If this is a temporary issue or a known incident, could you also share the affected scope and any available workaround?
If a detailed investigation will take time, it would be very helpful if you could first let us know whether this is considered intended behavior or a bug, whether this behavior is specific to commercial license environments, and whether this is already recognized as a known issue.
Thank you for your support. We appreciate your prompt response.
Best regards, Dear Microsoft Support Team,
I hope you are doing well.
We are contacting you to urgently confirm the current behavior of the trial usage limit for Minecraft Education in our commercial license environment.
We have confirmed that our Microsoft tenant/license environment is commercial, not academic.
Under this commercial license environment, we are seeing an issue where accounts without an assigned Minecraft Education license appear to be unable to continue using Minecraft Education after only one login.
Our understanding is that unlicensed accounts should be able to use Minecraft Education multiple times as part of the free trial. However, the behavior we have observed is as follows:
When a newly created account without an assigned Minecraft Education license logs in to Minecraft Education, the remaining trial count is displayed as 0
The account can still play during that initial login session
After logging out and logging in again, a message indicating that the trial usage limit has been reached is displayed, and the account can no longer play
The same behavior occurs for both newly created and existing unlicensed accounts
Accounts with an assigned Minecraft Education license can use Minecraft Education without any issue
This issue may directly affect our ability to conduct trial lessons in classrooms. If teachers perform device checks in advance, or if students need to log in again during a lesson due to an app crash or device restart, they may no longer be able to continue the trial lesson.
Therefore, we would appreciate it if you could provide an initial response by the end of today if possible, or by tomorrow morning at the latest.
In particular, could you please confirm the following points as soon as possible?
Is the behavior described above the current specification for Minecraft Education in a commercial license environment?
If this is not intended behavior and is a bug, could you please let us know the expected timeline for a fix?
If this is the intended specification, could you please share an official source, such as documentation or an announcement, that explains the trial usage count and conditions for commercial license environments?
Does the trial usage limit or behavior differ depending on whether the tenant/license environment is commercial or academic?
If this is a temporary issue or a known incident, could you also share the affected scope and any available workaround?
If a detailed investigation will take time, it would be very helpful if you could first let us know whether this is considered intended behavior or a bug, whether this behavior is specific to commercial license environments, and whether this is already recognized as a known issue.
Thank you for your support. We appreciate your prompt response.
Best regards,0 -
Hey all,
Thank you for the report. We're checking in with our developers and quality team to confirm what could be occurring here. Please allow us some time to look into this on our end, and we'll report back as soon as we hear more.
Thank you0 -
Thank you for your patience.
After confirming with our team, we can share that Commercial Trial accounts will be discontinued going forward. However, the Demo Experience will remain available to all users.
We understand this change may be disappointing, and we apologize for any inconvenience it may cause.
Note: Academic Microsoft 365 Tenants are unaffected and will still be able to use the Trial experience.1 -
It’s really terrible to suddenly discontinue commercial trial accounts without any notice.
Following repeated price hikes, this latest change means we can no longer even offer free trial classes for children who are interested.
They should explain the reason for discontinuing the trial accounts.
Couldn’t they at least limit it to, say, five sessions?The Education edition already costs $38 a year.
The Java and BE editions are only $20.The Education plan costs $380 over 10 years, while the Java and BE editions cost just $20 even over 10 years.
Even though we’re paying such a high price, updates are slower than for the BE edition.Isn’t it absurd to collect money from children who are trying to learn, while offering the service at a bargain price to adults who are just playing around as a hobby?
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First, massive price hikes, and now, a turn for the worse.
Japan's decline seems inevitable... I wish they would reconsider.
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Hi Kaleb.
Thank you for the clarification.However, we are still unclear about the following points:
- You wrote that "Commercial Trial accounts will be discontinued going forward." However, Commercial Trial accounts are already no longer usable as before. Does this mean the change has already been implemented, or is the current behavior temporary while the change is being rolled out?
- Currently, Commercial Trial accounts can still be used once before access is denied. Is this one login the intended new behavior, or will Commercial Trial accounts become completely unavailable?
- Could you please clearly define what you mean by Commercial Trial and Demo Experience?
- Until now, our understanding was that Commercial Trial allowed approximately 10 logins.
- Does "Demo Experience" refer to the current one-login experience, or is it something different?
We would appreciate it if you could clearly define these terms, as they are currently causing confusion.
0 - You wrote that "Commercial Trial accounts will be discontinued going forward." However, Commercial Trial accounts are already no longer usable as before. Does this mean the change has already been implemented, or is the current behavior temporary while the change is being rolled out?
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Hey 悠一郎 桑野,
To clarify:
1. Apologies for the confusion on that wording, Commercial Trials are no longer being offered as of this last Friday (July 24th).
2. I'm confirming this functionality with our team. I believe it will eventually be completely removed, but I want to ensure I get you the most accurate information. I'll update as soon as I hear back.
3. The Demo Experience is a separate type of trial that allows you to try Minecraft Education for free and without an account. Each demo lesson has limited functionality: for example, worlds and progress cannot be saved, and it is not possible to join or host a multiplayer game. Playing a demo lesson allows you the opportunity to experience a real lesson in Minecraft Education. There is no limit on the number of times you play each demo lesson. You can learn more here: https://edusupport.minecraft.net/hc/en-us/articles/360047116432-Try-Minecraft-Education-for-free#:~:text=About%20the%20demo%20lessons
I understand the confusion and frustration, and we're happy to help clarify any questions you may have.0 -
Hey 悠一郎 桑野,
For your second question, we have verified that this is actually a bug and will be removed in the near future. Commercial Trials will eventually be completely unavailable.
I understand this might not be ideal for your situation, but I hope this helps clear up any confusion.0 -
Hey Kyle Aki,
Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. I understand why this change is frustrating, particularly for organizations that have relied on trial accounts to introduce new learners to Minecraft Education. I also understand the concern around the discontinuation of commercial trial access, especially for programs that used those accounts to offer introductory experiences before asking participants to commit to a purchase.
To provide some context, the Commercial Program (formerly Clubs & Camps) pricing has only been adjusted once, last June, since its introduction. When the program launched, licenses were available at $12 USD per user per year ($1 USD per user per month). Since then, Minecraft Education has continued to expand with features such as ChromeOS support, Dedicated Server functionality, new educational tools, ongoing content development, and a continually growing library of lessons and resources. As part of supporting those investments, the program price was updated to $36 USD per user per year ($3 USD per user per month). Our goal has been to balance ongoing platform development and support while remaining competitive with other educational software offerings.
Regarding trial accounts, their primary purpose has always been to allow organizations to evaluate Minecraft Education before making a broader purchasing decision. The trial experience was designed to help educators and program operators explore the platform, assess its educational value, and determine whether it was the right fit for their needs. We also offer the Demo Lesson experience as a way to preview the product without requiring a license. While we recognize that some organizations used trial accounts to provide introductory classes, that was not the original intent of the trial program, and the recent changes were made to better align the experience with its intended purpose.As an alternative, organizations can make an initial purchase of Minecraft Education Commercial licenses and evaluate the platform within their own environment. If you determine that Minecraft Education is not the right fit for your program, subscriptions are generally eligible for cancellation during Microsoft's refund period (30 days in most cases). Our support team is also happy to assist with cancellation and refund requests where applicable.You also raised concerns about update timing, which is feedback we hear regularly. While Minecraft Education generally follows Minecraft Bedrock development, our release schedule is intentionally more measured. Because many schools and educational organizations depend on a stable and predictable environment, we spend additional time validating new features, ensuring compatibility with classroom tools and educational content, and minimizing disruption for IT administrators managing large numbers of devices. As a result, major releases are often scheduled around school breaks, such as summer and winter holidays, when updates are less likely to impact active learning.We recognize that this approach can sometimes mean Minecraft Education receives gameplay features later than Bedrock Edition. Balancing access to new content with the stability, reliability, and support requirements of classroom environments is an ongoing consideration, and feedback such as yours helps inform those discussions.
Thank you again for sharing your perspective. While we may not always be able to make changes that address every use case, we genuinely value feedback from organizations and educators who use Minecraft Education in different ways. I've made sure your concerns regarding trial access, pricing, and updates are heard and shared with the appropriate teams.0 -
Dear Kaleb,
I apologize for posting this in another person's thread.
I would like to share some concerns held by many Japanese users.
While there is talk of ongoing content updates, the Japanese localization has been completely neglected.
For instance, the Japanese translation for HOC22 (the "Escape from the Mansion" activity) is clearly machine-generated, rendering it virtually unplayable for an extended period.
Even when translation suggestions are submitted via GitHub, they are simply ignored.
This pattern is evident in many areas, creating the impression that perks and benefits are reserved solely for users in English-speaking regions.
Under these circumstances, raising prices or eliminating free trial periods will only serve to further fuel user dissatisfaction.
Is the situation regarding usage in Japan not being taken into account?
There are still many children in Japan who are not fluent in English.
I ask that you give this matter serious consideration.
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Thank you for your detailed response.
However, I still feel that my main concerns have not been addressed.
Please excuse the length of this message.
Over the years, we have experienced repeated policy and pricing changes. We would appreciate having an opportunity for dialogue before significant policy changes are implemented. We also hope Microsoft will take feedback from commercial education providers into consideration.
1. I still do not understand the pricing model.
You mentioned that Minecraft Education has continued to expand through ChromeOS support, dedicated servers, educational tools, and a growing library of lessons and resources.
However, both Minecraft Java Edition and Bedrock Edition are one-time purchase products that continue to receive:
- Frequent feature updates
- Dedicated server support
- Marketplace content
- Ongoing content development
- Long-term maintenance
Despite this, Minecraft Education requires a significantly more expensive annual subscription.
From a customer's perspective, I still cannot understand why Minecraft Education is priced so much higher than the other editions.
Simply listing additional features does not explain why the pricing model differs so dramatically.
I fully understand that continued development requires investment. However, I hope Microsoft will also consider whether those investments align with what commercial education providers actually value.
For our organization, the vast majority of the worlds in the lesson library provide little practical value. This is because the Japanese localization is incomplete in almost all of them, and many of the lesson instructions have not been properly localized.
If offering the lesson library as an optional paid add-on would allow Microsoft to reduce the subscription fee, I would welcome that approach.
2. Has Microsoft considered the impact of exchange rates?
You mentioned that the commercial license price changed only once, from $12 to $36.
However, the impact outside the United States has been much greater.
In Japan, the annual cost per student was approximately ¥1,100 three years ago. It then increased to around ¥1,400 two years ago, and with the latest pricing change it has risen to nearly ¥6,000 per student.
Because of both Microsoft's price increases and the depreciation of the Japanese yen, the actual financial burden on Japanese organizations has increased far more dramatically than the dollar price alone suggests.
From our perspective, it feels closer to paying around $50 per student per year than simply $36.
Has Microsoft considered how exchange rates and regional purchasing power affect commercial education providers outside the United States?
3. How are organizations expected to introduce new students?
This is my biggest concern.
Your response suggests that organizations should purchase licenses first and evaluate the product afterward.
Could you explain what purchasing process Microsoft expects organizations to follow?
Our current process is straightforward.
- A child participates in an introductory lesson.
- They experience our own Minecraft Education world.
- They experience multiplayer learning using our curriculum.
- If they enjoy the experience, they decide to purchase a subscription.
Without commercial trial accounts, this workflow is no longer possible.
Does Microsoft expect organizations to purchase a commercial license for every child before they have ever used Minecraft Education?
If so, I believe that is an unrealistic purchasing process.
4. Demo lessons are not a practical alternative.
Although we were encouraged to use the demo lessons instead, they cannot replace the actual introductory experience.
The demo lessons cannot:
- Use our own educational worlds
- Support our multiplayer classes
- Demonstrate our own curriculum
Instead, they only provide Microsoft's sample lessons.
Those lessons do not reflect what individual educational organizations actually teach.
There are also significant localization issues.
Many of the Japanese translations are unclear, and Japanese elementary school students learn kanji gradually.
Many of the in-game explanations contain kanji that first- and second-grade students have not yet learned, making those lessons unsuitable for young learners.
For these reasons, the demo experience is not a practical alternative to commercial trial accounts.
5. Why wasn't a compromise considered?
I do not understand why the only option was to abruptly and completely discontinue commercial trial accounts.
For example, why weren't alternatives such as the following considered?
- Limiting each trial account to five sessions
- Consulting commercial users before discontinuing the program
- Providing advance notice before the change took effect
Any of these approaches would have reduced abuse while still allowing legitimate education providers to introduce new students to Minecraft Education.
Instead, the decision was implemented unilaterally, causing confusion for education providers and disappointment for prospective customers.
Was a compromise like this ever considered?
6. Why are academic institutions treated differently?
There is one point in your response that I find particularly difficult to understand.
Academic licenses still include 25 trial uses, while commercial organizations no longer have any practical way to provide introductory lessons.
Academic licenses are already significantly less expensive than commercial licenses.
Given that difference, I find it difficult to understand why trial access remains available for academic customers while being removed entirely for commercial education providers.
I fully understand that academic licenses are intended for a different audience.
However, this creates a significant disparity in how two groups that both teach children using Minecraft Education are treated.
Could you please explain the reasoning behind this decision?
Regardless of the original intention of the commercial trial program, it became an essential part of the customer journey for many legitimate education providers.
Removing it without providing an equivalent alternative has fundamentally changed how new students can access Minecraft Education.
I would like to emphasize that my concern goes beyond the issue of price alone.
The significant price gap between Java Edition, Bedrock Edition, and Minecraft Education, together with the substantial difference in how academic and commercial licenses are treated, creates a strong sense of unfairness.
I am concerned that commercial licenses will continue to increase in price while receiving fewer benefits and less consideration than academic licenses.
I would sincerely appreciate a clearer explanation of the reasoning behind these decisions.
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I'm also a teacher in Japan and having a similar experience to those listed above. I'm also posting so the above users understand they're not alone in their experience.
I don't expect Microsoft to translate every single file, however I did expect the ability to translate the files/maps myself. I asked a year ago about this functionality and how to do it and was basically left on hold. Within that 1 year timeframe I've seen a number of files/maps be released that simply will not work outside of English or have simply never been tested in a foreign language.
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Hey all, thank you for all this great feedback
Kyle Aki W K I've forwarded this information and your concerns to the product team. I'll try my best to comment on your primary concerns above:
1. Pricing model:
Our app, while at first glance appears to be very similar to Minecraft Bedrock, is very different in its systems and what is included. Not only does our app have the high majority of Minecraft Bedrock features, but we also have additional features custom to school and other learning environments added on top of that. And while Minecraft Bedrock has a great deal of content in the Marketplace, that is all at an additional cost. All of our lessons for Minecraft Education are at no additional cost.
2. Has Microsoft considered the impact of exchange rates?
This is great feedback and we're looking into this. I'm not promising any change here, I'm only saying that the team is double checking this.
3. How are organizations expected to introduce new students?
This depends vastly on what type of organization this is. Many organizations will have a set number of licenses that they know they can assign to students on a 1 to 1 basis for the number of students they'll have at a given period. Then, when that group is no longer there and new users come in, they will unassign the licenses from the inactive students and re-assign them to the new students.
4. Demo lessons are not a practical alternative.
We'd love to hear what you would like to be added into the demo experience. Are there particular lessons that you'd find to be better for demo experience? I've forwarded your feedback about localization issues to the team, thank you.
5. Why wasn't a compromise considered?
When a change is needed in the client, we always try to investigate the different options and how feasible they are, along with the advantages/disadvantages for our customers. As for communication, we also try to create articles on the Support Center and other forms of communication to IT Admins/Educators (although our options on the latter are limited). This time, we did fail in this area. We've adjusted processes within the team to ensure that the Minecraft Education support team is always aware of upcoming changes so we can create communications where possible.
6. Why are academic institutions treated differently?
We follow Microsoft's Educational discount pricing policy to grant Academically Verified tenants a lower price. This is for a variety of reasons, but also to ensure that Minecraft Education and other Microsoft products remain accessible to even low-income schools. This isn't from a desire to treat commercial accounts different, but rather a focus on keeping learning accessible regardless of the school a student finds themselves at.
Again, thank you for all of your feedback here and your passion in Minecraft Education. I hope this information helps and trust that the team has heard your concerns.
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Thank you for your response and for sharing our feedback with the product team.
In particular, I appreciate your acknowledgment that the advance communication was insufficient and that you have improved your internal processes going forward. I also appreciate that you are reviewing the impact of exchange rates.
I would like to provide some additional context and ask a few follow-up questions, using the same six points as in your response.
1. Pricing model
I understand that Minecraft Education includes education-specific features that are not available in Bedrock Edition.
I also understand your explanation that while content in the Bedrock Edition Marketplace often requires additional purchases, Minecraft Education provides access to a large library of lessons at no additional cost.
However, I would also ask you to consider how this library is actually used in Japan.
Unfortunately, we rarely use the lessons in the Minecraft Education library in our actual classes.
Schools in the United States and other countries may actively incorporate these library lessons into their classes.
However, my impression is that relatively few organizations in Japan actively and consistently use the Minecraft Education library as part of their classes.
I believe this applies not only to commercial education providers but also to schools in Japan.
In particular, my understanding is that many private education providers in Japan create their own worlds and teaching materials tailored to their own educational programs.
As a result, the continued addition of large numbers of lessons to the library does not necessarily provide the same value to every Commercial user.
Of course, I understand that these resources may be extremely valuable to schools and educational institutions that actively use the library.
I am not asking Microsoft to eliminate the library.
If developing and maintaining the library represents a significant cost, perhaps one option would be to offer content separately for an additional fee, similar to the Marketplace in Bedrock Edition, allowing organizations to pay for the content they actually need.
If doing so would make it possible to reduce the base license price, Commercial education providers like us, which primarily use our own worlds and teaching materials, would greatly welcome such a pricing model.
This is not simply a request to "make it cheaper."
Rather than requiring all users to bear the same costs despite using different content and requiring different features, I am suggesting that Microsoft consider a pricing model that allows educational organizations to choose and pay for what they actually need.
Microsoft should also be in a position to determine how extensively Academic and Commercial users in Japan actually use lessons from the library.
I would greatly appreciate it if you could review the actual usage of the library in the Japanese market and take that data into consideration when evaluating future pricing and service structures.
2. Exchange rates
Thank you for reviewing the impact of exchange rates.
I would like to emphasize once again how significant the impact has been in Japan.
In U.S. dollars, the annual Commercial license price increased from $12 to $36.
That is a threefold increase.
In Japan, however, the price has increased from approximately ¥1,400 to approximately ¥6,000.
That is an increase of more than four times.
Going back three years, the annual price was approximately ¥1,200 per student. It then increased to approximately ¥1,400, and is now approximately ¥6,000.
The combination of Microsoft's price increase and the depreciation of the Japanese yen means that the actual impact on Commercial education providers in Japan has been far greater than the change from "$12 to $36" might suggest.
Minecraft Education has now become very expensive software for education providers in Japan.
I sincerely hope that exchange rates and regional purchasing power will also be taken into consideration when determining Commercial license pricing.
3. Introducing new students
Regarding how organizations are expected to introduce new students, you explained that licenses can be unassigned from students who leave and reassigned to new students.
I understand this system, and we already manage our licenses in this way.
However, this is different from the issue I am asking about.
The question is not how to assign licenses to students who have already enrolled.
The question is: How is a child supposed to experience Minecraft Education before deciding whether to enroll?
For example, if an organization has 100 enrolled students and another 10 children would like to attend an introductory lesson, those 10 children also need accounts in order to use Minecraft Education.
The ability to reassign licenses from former students does not solve this problem unless the organization happens to have enough unused paid licenses available.
Under the current system, Commercial education providers therefore have to purchase paid licenses even for children who may use Minecraft Education only once and may ultimately decide not to enroll.
Is this the operating model Microsoft intends Commercial education providers to follow?
4. Demo lessons
Thank you for asking what we would like to see added to the demo experience.
However, what we need is not a greater variety of demo lessons created by Microsoft.
Commercial education providers need prospective students to be able to participate in the actual introductory experience offered by that provider.
At a minimum, this requires the ability to:
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Use worlds created by the education provider
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Play multiplayer with an instructor
A usage-limited trial that provides these capabilities would be far more practical than adding more Microsoft-created demo lessons.
For example, allowing each account to use the full functionality of Minecraft Education for only five sessions would be sufficient for many introductory lessons.
At the same time, such a limit would prevent users from continuing to use Minecraft Education indefinitely without purchasing a license.
I hope Microsoft will consider not only expanding the demo lessons, but also providing Commercial education providers with a usage-limited trial that allows custom worlds and multiplayer.
5. Communication regarding changes
Thank you for acknowledging that there was a problem with advance communication in this case.
I also appreciate that you have improved your internal processes so that the Minecraft Education support team can be made aware of future changes in advance and communicate them to users whenever possible.
Advance notice is extremely important.
When a change directly affects the operation of actual classes, as this one did, advance notice gives education providers time to consider alternatives, modify lesson plans, and explain the change to parents beforehand.
I would also like Microsoft to understand that education providers are not the only ones affected by sudden changes.
Beyond us are the children who look forward to learning with Minecraft Education and their parents.
For example, if a child has been looking forward to an introductory lesson using Minecraft, but a sudden change means that the planned experience can no longer be provided, that child is suddenly unable to receive a service they were excited about and will understandably be disappointed.
Education providers must also suddenly explain to parents that "a service we were previously able to provide is no longer available."
Furthermore, when the behavior of the service suddenly changes without any advance notice, those of us working on the ground cannot even determine whether we are dealing with an intentional change in functionality or a temporary technical issue.
As a result, we first have to investigate the situation, reproduce and test the behavior across multiple environments, determine whether it is related to settings or accounts, and, when necessary, contact support. This forces education providers to spend time and resources on troubleshooting that would otherwise have been unnecessary.
Only after carrying out that investigation may we discover that what appeared to be a technical problem was actually an intentional change that had not been communicated in advance.
This creates a significant burden for education providers in both time and personnel.
This is not merely a license-management change.
Changes to Minecraft Education policies directly affect the experiences of the children who are actually learning through the education providers that rely on the product.
For this reason, I strongly ask that changes to licenses, trials, pricing, terms of use, and other matters that significantly affect educational services be announced with sufficient advance notice.
Once again, I appreciate that you have improved your internal processes in response to this situation. Going forward, I hope changes can be communicated as early as possible, with consideration not only for education providers but also for the children and parents who are ultimately affected by them.
6. The difference between Academic and Commercial licensing
I understand Microsoft's goal of ensuring that children can access educational technology regardless of their financial circumstances, including those attending low-income schools, and I support that principle.
I am not asking Microsoft to increase the price of Academic licenses or reduce support for schools.
However, I do not believe my question about the difference in trial access has yet been answered.
Academically verified users still receive 25 full-featured trial logins for faculty accounts.
Under the current system, however, Commercial education providers have no trial option that allows a prospective student to experience the full functionality of Minecraft Education even once before enrolling.
Why are 25 trial logins still available to Academic users while trial access has been completely removed for Commercial education providers?
I would also ask you to consider the situation in Japan when discussing "low-income schools."
Public schools in Japan are primarily funded through taxes and other public funding.
Small private education providers, on the other hand, must primarily rely on tuition paid by students to cover instructor costs, systems, administration, curriculum development, advertising, and the other expenses required to operate their programs.
Of course, private education providers charge students tuition. However, not all of that tuition is profit.
For educational services like ours, the profit margin after various operating expenses is approximately 20%.
In monetary terms, this means a profit of approximately $20 per student per month.
The current Commercial license costs $3 per user per month.
This means that, against approximately $20 in monthly profit per student, $3 is spent on the Minecraft Education license alone — approximately 15% of the profit per student.
In addition, private education providers bear their own business risks, including fluctuations in student enrollment, advertising costs, and curriculum development.
Can small private education providers operating under these conditions necessarily be considered to have greater financial resources than "low-income schools"?
At least in Japan, I do not believe it accurately reflects reality to simply assume that Commercial organizations have a greater ability to pay than Academic institutions.
It is also my impression that, in Japan, Minecraft is used for educational purposes more extensively by small private education providers such as programming schools than by schools.
There are certainly examples of Minecraft being used in Japanese schools, but my understanding is that much of this use is limited to certain classes or extracurricular clubs, and that relatively few schools use Minecraft Education continuously.
Of course, I do not have access to accurate nationwide usage data for Japan.
Microsoft, however, should be in a much better position to determine the actual usage of Academic and Commercial licenses in Japan and what types of organizations are using Minecraft Education on an ongoing basis.
I would therefore ask Microsoft to review the actual usage patterns in the Japanese market and take that reality into account when considering future pricing and licensing policies.
Once again, thank you for sharing our feedback with the product team.
I am not asking Microsoft to scale back its support for schools or to eliminate the benefits provided through academic licensing.
What I would like to ask is that Microsoft also take into consideration the realities faced by small, private educational institutions that use *Minecraft Education* for the same fundamental purpose: “children’s education.”
I sincerely hope that you will continue to give serious consideration to these issues.
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Thanks for this feedback. I'll forward this to the team as well. If we're able to make any changes to the above, specifically the commercial trial system, I'll update here. Know that there are many elements at play, but we'll do our best.
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