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My son and I have been taking turns on the same Minecraft account for awhile now, but I want us to be able to play together, so I created a realm, and I'm trying to create a second account, but I receive the following error message: "You already own one copy of Minecraft on this account."

I think the problem is that although he has his own email address, he is a minor, so they require the parent email address, too.

Anyway, super frustrated. It's never taken me ALL AFTERNOON to buy a video game before!

Erin Howarth
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3 Answers3

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I had the same problem trying to register an account for my son. This is what I did:

To purchase Minecraft for a minor

  • Log into minecraft.net as yourself.
  • Select "Buy Minecraft".
  • You will get a message "You can’t own more than one copy of Minecraft per account, but you can still buy it for someone else" and the option to purchase it as a Gift Card.
  • Choose the "Buy Digital Gift Card" option.
  • Email the gift card to your son's email.

To register your son's Minecraft account

  • Click on the Gift Card link and it will contain instructions that step you through the process of creating a new Mojang account and redeeming the Minecraft gift code.
  • When it comes to entering your son's date of birth: LIE. If you enter the correct date of birth for a minor you will be forced to enter your credit card details again so that a small, but non-refundable, amount can be deducted from you. This applies if your son's entered date of birth makes him 13 or younger.

With regards to playing together

You do NOT need to have a realms subscription to play together: If you have multiple computers on a LAN all you need to do is create a Singleplayer game and then choose the "Open to LAN" option, which will make the game appear in the other LAN computers multiplayer lobby.

If you wish to be more advanced, you can also download and run the dedicated server on a computer:

Laurel
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Chris Becke
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  • Wait, why would Mojang want your credit card? You can buy Minecraft freely by PaySafeCard, so with no credit card involved ever. So why would you need to give them your credit card info, and why would you need pay them more, when the gift code already fully paid the game??? – Antoine Hejlík Oct 19 '16 at 10:48
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    It appears to be the consequence of their purchase by Microsoft, who - being an American company - have to implement a (somewhat misguided) law aimed at protecting children. The use of the credit card is suppose to prove that the minors guardian assents to their creation of the online account. – Chris Becke Oct 19 '16 at 11:55
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    Reference: https://help.mojang.com/customer/portal/articles/1780997-mojang-account-users-under-13 – Chris Becke Oct 19 '16 at 11:57
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    "when it comes to entering [a] date of birth: LIE" - this pretty much applies everywhere. – Wayne Werner Oct 19 '16 at 15:34
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    @WayneWerner In my 21 years of experience, I've never had to lie about my age ;) – Tas Oct 19 '16 at 21:27
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  1. Go to minecraft.net - you'll probably see your email in the upper right
  2. Click it and log out
  3. Click 'log in'
  4. Log in using your son's email address and password
  5. Purchase Minecraft, not Realms

Realms is a server hosting solution - it is not a second copy of Minecraft. In fact, if you're playing in the same home, you can host minecraft on your computer and your son can join in via LAN without needing Realms.

Gigazelle
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You basically have to create a second account, and purchase the game again for that new account. Once you do that, both accounts can exist on the same server at the same time.

Tim S.
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