Minecraft account migration

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General

Minecraft's developer, Mojang, was bought by Microsoft in 2014. Prior to this acquisition, the computer based version of Minecraft edition was known as "Minecraft Java Edition". Players who wanted to play Minecraft Java Edition were required to purchase a copy under an account through Mojang "Mojang Account".

Mojang announced on October 21, 2020 that Minecraft Java Edition players will need to migrate their Mojang account to a Microsoft account. Those who migrated their Mojang accounts to Microsoft accounts would maintain access to their username, cosmetics, player worlds, and earn an exclusive cosmetic cape.

Mojang's staff wrote wrote the following about the account migration:

"Now just to be clear, migrating from Mojang to Microsoft accounts is mandatory. If you don’t make the move, in several months you won’t be able to log in anymore – which means you won’t be able to play either."

Account migration started in waves sometime in early 2021. Initially, account migration was voluntary, and users with Mojang accounts could play Minecraft Java Edition without needing to migrate their accounts. On February 2, 2022, Mojang announced that on March 10, 2022 the voluntary migration period would end and that Mojang account users would be unable to play Minecraft Java Edition without migrating their account. On May 8, 2023, Mojang announced that Mojang account owners would have until September 19, 2023 to migrate to a Microsoft account or permanently lose the capacity to migrate their account. Following this September 19, 2023 deadline, Mojang gave Mojang account owners who missed the deadline a three month grace period through December 18, 2023 to migrate their account. Mojang account owners who exercised their option under this three-month grace period would not have access to the cosmetics associated with their Mojang account or the certainty that they would enjoy the username associated with their Mojang account under their Microsoft account. After December 18, 2023, Mojang account owners who had purchased Minecraft Java Edition from Mojang would need to purchase Minecraft under a Microsoft account in order to play the game. On an official Minecraft page titled "I Missed My Chance to Migrate. What Happens to My Account?" on the official Minecraft Help Center, Mojang explains:

"To continue playing Minecraft, you will have to buy Minecraft: Java & Bedrock Edition using a Microsoft account."

Relevant changes to the game

Version 1.19.3 (July 12, 2022), first seen in Snapshot 21w38a (September 23, 2022)

With this update, Mojang/Microsoft introduced non-optional data collection.

Data are collected every time a user joins or leaves a single- or multi-player game.

This can not be disabled, only switched between required data or all data being send.

The "required" data contain:

Data-Point
user_id
client_id
game_version
minecraft_session_id
operating_system
platform
client_modded
event_timestamp_utc
opt_in
world_session_id
server_modded
server_type

and if leaving a game:

Data-Point
seconds_since_load
ticks_since_load

This is in direct contradiction to the language used in the account-migration announcement:

"Don't worry – everything about your game and how you play will remain the same, including your in-game username, progress, creations and skins. The only change is how you'll log in. Plus, we'll give you a special cape just for migrating!"